It’s that time of year again. We are counting down the worst tracks we’ve reviewed all year. This year is slightly different, though.
For the 11th time now, we’ve reached the end of the year. Once again, we are counting down the worst tracks we’ve reviewed all year. Of course, you might be noticing something slightly different.
Normally, we review the top 10 worst tracks. In other years, we’ve always counted down the top 10 worst tracks we’ve reviewed. This year, that number got cut down by half. Are we giving a free pass to some tracks this year? In other years, we normally have to sit and think about which tracks were bad because run across so many. This year, for the first time ever, we actually do not have enough tracks that scored sufficiently bad to make it into such a list. So, to compensate, we’ve reduced the number by half.
Last year, we talked about how we were concentrating on the late 90’s to early 2000’s. This year, most of our music reviews focused in on around 2001 – 2005. There were a few outliers, but most of the reviews were focused on around that era. Going into this, we were noticing an uptick in overall music quality already. This year, that carried through and the quality kept improving. Even some of the comparatively lackluster tracks are much better for the most part. Many of those tracks avoided getting a score low enough to land on this list. For the record, I don’t consider tracks that score 6.5 and up to be sufficiently bad to be placed here.
While many were at least half decent, not all of them are so. So, here is this years top 5 worst tracks we’ve reviewed all year.
5. M83 – Don’t Save Us From the Flames
(RIAA)
This year, we kick things off with a track that has bad mastering. In this track, vocals get drowned out to the point where most meaning is lost altogether. As a result, we got this garbled mess that managed to snag a spot on this years list.
6/10
4. 3 Doors Down – When I’m Gone
(RIAA)
Taking the 4th position is a track that is ultimately bland and boring. No one element stands out as being particularly bad, but the overall track is quite the snore fest.
6/10
3. Broken Social Scene – Cause = Time
(Commercial)
Coming in at number 3 is this track. I pretty much had forgotten all about this track, really. The reason why it’s so bad? Well, it’s largely forgettable (which probably explains why I don’t remember it. Bad mastering gives makes most elements completely drowned out. Definitely a track to pass on.
5.5/10
2. Audioslave – I Am the Highway
(RIAA)
Coming in at number 2 is yet another bland and boring track. With lyrics lost in garble, this one only barely gets a passable score.
5/10
1. M83 – Run into Flowers
(RIAA)
Let’s face it, this year’s worst track was one that was going to go out big. With vocals overpowered by other elements in the track, synths and white noise being too loud, and an absolute lack of variety, this year’s worst track left no doubt that it’s bad. Really no contest this year.
3/10
Honorable Mentions
Believe it or not, despite the lack of bad tracks this year, we did manage to slide in one honorable mention:
Madonna – Die Another Day (RIAA) This years sole honorable mention goes to a track that wound up, surprisingly, being a theme song for a Bond film. With overuse of the gate effect on the vocals, it’s hard to really get a good flow with this one. With too many drops thrown in, this one managed to sink just barely low enough in quality to make it to this list.
6/10
Well, that’s this years surprisingly short list of bad music. Join us tomorrow when we count down the worst track’s we’ve reviewed all year.
Drew Wilson on Twitter: @icecube85 and Facebook.
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