Music Month: Ranking the songs on Säätövara's Kammotusten Kanootti

Greetings, reader!

Iconic Finnish rock band Säätövara just released their newest album, titled Säätövara ja Kammotusten Kanootti. Having listened to this unbridled, game-changing masterpiece several times, I have now finished my ranking of its songs from good to even better to best. Here's my ranking of the songs on Kammotusten Kanootti!

11. Levykaupan Nainen

This melancholic slow rocker may be the least good out of the bunch, but there's still a lot to enjoy - the Simon & Garfunkel vibes of the intro, Olli Heikkinen's smashing guitar solo and Aaro Viitanen's clever lyrics where the universal feeling of seeing a beautiful lady in the record store but not having the courage to approach them is told about through various intertextual references to names of famous rock bands. It's cute, but it pales in comparison to many of the album's finer offerings.

10. Sheivaan

From the hilarious opening where hunky drummer Veikko Hoffman loudly counts the song in, Sheivaan is one wild ride. It's ranked this low due to its simplicity when compared to songs that work on more levels, but simplicity is by no means a bad thing - in fact, it is what makes this song so awesome in its own category.

It's a song about shaving one's beard, legs, private parts, and hair - one verse/chorus combo for each one, as the music video gleefully demonstrates. My favorite part is probably the break before the fourth chorus, where an actual razor was recorded to create the right adrenalizing atmosphere.

9. Karanteenibailut

The lead single ahead of the album's release is a groovy and catchy piece, written in the spring of 2020. The genius behind the song, guitarist/singer Aaro Viitanen, wanted to hurry up and get the song released while the Covid-19 situation was still relevant, before it would go away - looking back on it now, what a silly concern that was.

Anyways, Karanteenibailut has entertaining lyrics that float the idea of spending quarantine with all of your friends, locked in your apartment and partying through the whole ordeal. The music video was shot in the legendary apartment that 3 of the 4 band members have lived in, and an urban legend says that they really were very drunk while shooting the video, as a means of method acting and creating an authentic party feel to match the lyrics. Shout-out to the band's longtime friend and collaborator Jaakko Kiesiläinen for shooting most of the material for the video and editing it!

8. Keuruun La Mel

Inspired by a love for quality cuisine, this power ballad is a tribute to a fabled kebab restaurant in Keuruu, Finland. Background noises of cheerful dining help create the mood, as this sweet and tear-jerking ode to great food takes the listener on a tasteful and emotional journey. True fans will know that the song is a live staple of the band (it has been played on 25 of the band's 29 biggest concerts), with the running gag where drummer and dream bachelor Veikko Hoffman is always visibly eating something during the first half of the song, as there are no drum parts to play.

By the time the drums kick in, you better turn the volume to the max, as the song reaches its emotional climax. After that, the band calms back down again, for a final verse made much more memorable by Aaro Viitanen's hilariously out-of-place guitar lick, that serves as a reminder that laughter can be found in even the most delicious places.

7. Kuplamuovi

What better choice to kick off the album, than the hit single that has opened more Säätövara concerts than any other? Säätövara ja Kammotusten Kanootti sure opens with a bang, as one cool riff turns into another and yet another, before the mood settles in and the vocals kick in. From there onwards, Kuplamuovi is a delightful, radio-friendly banger of a rock song, with the coup-de-grâce being the drum solo played by drummer and international sex symbol Veikko Hoffman. Chills.

You should also check out this song's music video, which features the band having fun in a bubble-wrapped training space! In addition to Kuplamuovi being my favorite out of the album's three single releases, it also has my favorite music video out of the bunch.

6. Jussilta Kahvia

Säätövara's genre is often described as "Suomirock with a punk/funk twist", which raises a lot of eyebrows - how can a band balance punk elements and funk elements? Well, as it turns out, in a variety of ways. Some Säätövara songs lean more into funk influences and others in a punk direction, while some songs have a groove that draws from both genres.

However, the combination is at its most distinctive in Jussilta Kahvia, as the very funky verses draw a sharp contrast to the very punk-influenced choruses. Oh, and then there's the psychedelic-exotic guitar solo where the band reportedly asked producer Teemu Liekkala to go for a "George of the Jungle vibe", and that longtime mega-fan Ville Hoffman described as "Hendrix-like". So, I suppose there's a little something for everyone in this kick-ass tune.

5. Hei Taas

The album ends with an epic trilogy of interconnected songs, and while the middle part of the trilogy is the least great one, it's still quite something. Hei Taas is a longtime fan favorite from live shows, and it has been the final song of Säätövara's concert sets more times than any other piece. Between the heavy metal -influenced main riff, the Eppu Normaali -influenced verses, the wild choruses, the surprising reggae section after the second chorus, the humppa -influenced final chorus and the wailing guitar harmonies in the outro, I think it's safe to say that this song is chaos to the maximum. The eight tempo changes throughout the song (can you spot them all?) are further proof of this.

What I really like about Hei Taas is its position in the 'trilogy'. The main riff starts so magically after the final chords of Telkkarista, making for a great transition, although it pales in comparison to the even greater transition from Hei Taas into Muut Vanhenee. First-time listeners might be fooled into thinking that this song that often ends Säätövara concerts would be the final song, with its explosive 'stadium ending' outro, but on the album (as well as future concerts, one might speculate), this explosive outro is mere build-up to an even more epic song. But more on that later!

4. Säätövara

The band's title track is quite fitting, with lyrics that escalate from "Oh damn, I forgot my keys" to "Oh shit, I've woken up in Mexico after a drug smuggling operation gone wrong??". Essentially, these lyrics are a testament to the philosophy behind the band's name and their general energy - no matter what you do, things are going to go wrong in life every now and then, so you might as well be prepared for that and do your best to adapt. Let's just hope that things don't go quite as wrong as they do for Säätövara's narrator.

The anthemic choruses are enough to make this song into one of the album's finer offerings, but what really gets me is the instrumental jam section after the second chorus. Crazy drum fills, clever bass licks, amusing guitar melodies and exotic vocal wailing make for a solid base, while the addition of synthesizers, percussion elements from cowbell to kettle, and a freaking kazoo section give this part of the song a vibe of its own.

3. Notre Dame

It's the final chorus for me. Everything leading up to it is pretty neat as well, from the tongue-in-cheek lyrics about the Notre Dame burning to the minimalistic guitar solo by Olli Heikkinen. But really, the long and dramatic final chorus seals the deal. The preceding drum fill that slows the tempo down, the way the chorus just continues on and on with Heikkinen and Viitanen taking turns belting out memorable lyrical lines, and the emotional drum fills and dramatic bass licks by Hoffman and Montonen are just something else.

By the time the monk choir, church bells and sirens enter the mix towards the end, things reach Shakespearean proportions in quite a profound manner. The song may be in the middle of the album's track list, but when Säätövara plays live, Notre Dame is often in the tail end of the set, which makes for a sweaty and powerful performance where the band always gives 110 per cent.

2. Telkkarista

If you think of punk, a genre that has had a big influence on this suomirock band, as a mere music genre in terms of sounds, instrumental performances and compositions, you could argue that Sheivaan is the most punk song on Säätövara ja Kammotusten Kanootti - it's fast, it's raw, and it just sounds punk. But if you think of punk as something more, as a mentality, an attitude of raging against the figurative machine, as it were, then I'd say that Telkkarista is easily the most punk song on the album.

The song that opens the album's epic trilogy of final songs is a testament of fury towards the Trump era, populism and related phenomena, with the band playing with intense passion that fits the socially charged lyrics brilliantly. I also enjoy how long it takes for the song to build up the first chorus (making it a real payoff when the chorus finally hits), not to mention the powerful modulation just as Aaro Viitanen's blistering guitar solo transitions to the final chorus. After said chorus, we're treated to an outro that brilliantly sets the stage for Hei Taas's intro, making sure that the trilogy is on.

1. Muut Vanhenee

The final song of the trilogy, and the entire album at that, is my personal favorite. The way Hei Taas's chaotic outro magically transitions into this song's intro, and the mellow guitar work that follows, lay the foundation for a large-scale song that proves how even the silliest bands are able to occasionally get serious. Olli Heikkinen's emotional lyrics are the band's very finest work, and the way the song gradually builds up from subtle ballad into powerful rock anthem is quite something.

By the time the tempo starts to pick up at the tail end of Aaro Viitanen's scorching guitar solo, I can recommend turning the volume up to the very maximum, as the emotion this part provokes is best described by that one meme where the kid turns the volume up and raises his hand while openly weeping. With this ending that draws inspiration from the most dramatic songs of Green Day's American Idiot album, emotions run high while the volume is loud and the debut album goes out with style.

Thank you for reading! This was the last post of Music Month, so get ready for a return to my usual movie/TV themes, starting with next week's post that will have to do with the new Batman movie The Batman (2022) - I haven't yet decided whether I'll review it in the context of a 'Top 10 Batman movies" post, or if I'll dedicate a whole post to reviewing it with a 'Top 5 greatest things about The Batman (and top 5 things that didn't work)" post. Let me know if one interests you more than the other!

With literature and music now handled, I wonder what the next eventual theme month will be - possibly theater? Or football? Only time will tell...

P.S. my Oscar predictions went much better this time than the last two years! 17 out of 23 correct (and even the ones I didn't get right were mostly ones that I had called as close calls between two nominees, and they happened to go to the other one). Thankfully, Best Sound went to Dune like I promised, so I won't have to watch and review all of the Sharknado! movies. And while I had predicted for Will Smith to win Best Actor, I wasn't all too happy with the win the moment it happened - due to the ceremony's earlier happenings, him winning felt like a real slap in the face.

Sunday Special: My 2021/2022 Oscar Predictions

Greetings, reader!

Well, award season is upon us - so much so, that the 94th Academy Awards are literally tonight. As is tradition, I shall be posting my predictions here, whilst heavily knocking on wood as my blog has a history of jinxing my prediction success. Before I had this blog of mine, I often got great scores on my prediction sheets - I think one year it was 21 out of 24. But ever since I started publishing my predictions for anyone to see, my success rate has plummeted, as witnessed by the subpar 12 out of 24 two years ago and 13 out of 23 last year. Maybe this will finally be my year!

Also, my two cents on the controversy regarding the cutting of certain categories from the ceremony: at this point, the Academy is a f**king joke. Attempting to get more viewers by cutting out the awarding of "less important" categories is idiotic and disrespectful. They actually thought that they could discredit the incredible work done by film editors, set designers, composers et cetera, at the expense of having more flashy entertainment and more focus on the 'sexier' categories, without pissing off every fan of cinema? So, yeah, I've really been enjoying all the backlash that the Academy has been getting for this derogatory bullshit, and I really hope next year's ceremony will once again be a celebration of the best in all of cinema, instead of just the famous people you see and recognize.

Best Writing - Original Screenplay: Belfast (Kenneth Branagh)

Once again, due to Covid reasons and student budget reasons, I haven't seen nearly as many of this year's Oscar nominees as I would have liked to. So, for a large chunk of my predictions, I'm going based on what I know about the films based on trailers, reviews, trends, award season hype et cetera. Best Original Screenplay is quite a toss-up, as a few of the films have a solid chance, but the one I'm going with is Kenneth Branagh's Belfast. The semi-autobiographical story of a young man's upbringing during the Troubles in Northern Ireland sure sounds like something right up the Academy's alley, and the film won the Golden Globe for best screenwriting (extra impressive since the Globes don't separate it into original and adapted screenplays, so it's just one award for all scripts).

Best Writing - Adapted Screenplay: The Power of the Dog (Jane Campion)

Thankfully, some of the Oscar films are available to see even when one's budget and/or coronavirus sensibilities don't allow a trip to the cinema - and such is the case with Netflix Original film The Power of the Dog, a film with twelve Oscar nominations (more than any other this year). It stands to reason that a film so Oscar-friendly will win at least some of its nominations, and Jane Campion's screenplay based on Thomas Savage's 1967 novel was certainly decent - I haven't read the book, so I can't say if it was as 100% masterfully adapted from page to screen as fellow nominee Dune, but I do know that a slow-paced character drama about sexuality, alcoholism and jealousy will win an Oscar for writing before a science fiction masterpiece any day of the week.

Best Visual Effects: Dune

Now here's a category that sci-fi films are worthy of, in the strange world of the Academy Awards. While all of the five nominees for Best Visual Effects have achieved great-looking landscapes in their own right, Denis Villeneuve's Dune is in a category of its own with its breathtaking visuals worthy of the world from Frank Herbert's imaginative source material. Dune got the second-most nominations this year, so it's pretty clear that the Academy does value its technical achievments, which is why I'm calling that it will win the most awards tonight.

Best Sound: Dune

Every year, there are one or two categories that I feel really sure about, while most ones are toss-ups at least to some degree. And just like last year and the year before that, I've picked the one individual category that I'm the most sure about, and promising that if I get this one wrong, I will watch all the Sharknado! movies and rank them in excruciating detail. I haven't had to do that yet, as 1917 did indeed win Best Cinematography two years ago, and Soul won Best Animated Feature last year.

This year, I'm making my annual Sharknado! promise about Dune winning best sound - as far as I know, no other nominee used methods such as collecting sand from Death Valley, California and dusting it with Rice Krispies in order to create the perfect auditive feel for the spice of Arrakis, not to mention burying an underwater microphone in the sand and whacking the sand with a mallet in order to create the sound of the thumper used in the film, and several other out-of-the-box methods in order to create the 3200 unique sound effects that came together to create Dune's soundscape.

Best Short Film - Live Action: The Long Goodbye (Aneil Karia & Riz Ahmed)

This powerful short film can be found on YouTube on Riz Ahmed's channel, and I do recommend watching it - in under 12 minutes, one is powerfully exposed to the blistering sense of fear in the lives of immigrants in Boris Johnson -age Britain. The short is certainly worthy of an Oscar, and all the signs seem to be pointing towards a win, as it has more hype around it than the other candidates and seems to be the most praised Oscar-nominated short film that we've seen in several years.

Best Short Film - Animated: Robin Robin (Dan Ojari and Mikey Please)

Netflix's Robin Robin seems to be more 'on the radar' than its fellow nominees, as witnessed by it having a higher IMDB nomination than the other four nominees for best animated short, and that rating being from a significantly larger amount of votes. The modern twist on classic stop-motion animation seems like an aesthetic the Academy would appreciate, and while I haven't gotten around to watching Robin Robin yet, I've gathered that its story about an animal's journey to self-discovery has 'Oscar bait' written all over it as well.

Best Production Design: Dune

This is one of the toughest categories to call - Nightmare Alley's film noir sets look very impressive based on the trailer alone, while The Power of the Dog's set department clearly put a lot of work into the film's western aesthetic, and Spielberg's West Side Story has been criticized a lot for "having no substance or anything new to say while looking fancy and extremely polished", which might hurt its Best Picture chances but give it a shot in visual categories like production design. Still, I'd say that the frontrunner is once again Dune, as the film's majestic sets are ambitious as hell and loyally adapted from the pages of Frank Herbert's novel.

Best Music - Original Song: Encanto (Lin-Manuel Miranda - Dos Oroguitas)

Every year, there are a few categories that are a clear two-horse race, and this year, Best Original Song is one of them. I'd be extremely surprised if any other nominee than Lin-Manuel Miranda's Dos Oroguitas from Encanto or Billie Eilish's No Time to Die from No Time to Die got the win, but between those two, it's fifty-fifty. On one hand, No Time to Die is an excellent Bond theme by the world's arguably biggest artist right now, and it won the Golden Globe for Best Original Song. On the other hand, Encanto is a critical darling that got nominated in several categories, and Dos Oroguitas is just the sort of powerful musical piece from an animated family film highlighting Latino culture that the Academy is prone to vote for. While neither choice will surprise me, I'm gonna go with Dos Oroguitas.

Best Music - Original Score: Dune (Hans Zimmer)

I haven't seen Encanto or Parallel Mothers yet, but after listening to their soundtracks on Spotify, it feels like it makes sense for their scores to be nominated, but neither felt especially much like a winner. Especially in a year when something as masterful and exceptional as Hans Zimmer's Dune score is nominated. I'll be mad as hell if Don't Look Up or The Power of the Dog somehow win this award, because while both had decent soundtracks arguably worthy of a nomination, neither was especially mind-blowing, groundbreaking or genius in the way that Dune's soundtrack absolutely was.

Best Makeup and Hairstyling: The Eyes of Tammy Faye

In the last few years, the clear trend in this category has been highlighting films based on true stories, for their makeup and hairstyling departments transforming an actor to look exactly like the real-life icon they're portraying: the last four winners have been Darkest Hour where Gary Oldman looked more like Winston Churchill than Gary Oldman, Vice where Christian Bale was practically unrecognizable as Dick Cheney, Bombshell where John Lithgow became the spitting image of Roger Ailes, and Ma Rainey's Black Bottom where Ma Rainey's one-of-a-kind look was recreated on Viola Davis.

While many films over the past year had brilliant instances of makeup and hairstyling, and it wouldn't surprise me if Dune or Cruella nabbed the win instead, my money is on the biopic trend continuing, and The Eyes of Tammy Faye winning thanks to the very accurate look of Jessica Chastain as televangelist Tammy Faye Bakker.

Best International Feature Film: Drive My Car

For the first time in years, this category isn't set in stone. The last few times, only one of the Best International Feature films has also been nominated for various other categories, and it has therefore been clear that it would at least win this one. But this time, there are multiple nominees also nominated in other categories - the Norwegian The Worst Person in the World is also nominated for Best Original Screenplay, the Japanese Drive My Car is nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Director and Best Picture, and the Danish Flee has the obscure combination of nominations for Best Documentary Feature, Best Animated Feature and Best International Feature (I'm guessing it's the first film in history to have those three nominations).

Still, I do see Drive My Car as the likeliest choice, because it's the only one out of the bunch with a Best Picture nomination, not to mention the fact that it won the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film.

Best Film Editing: Dune (Joe Walker)

Again, Dune is just such a well-made production wonder that I'll be baffled if it doesn't sweep many of the more technical categories. With the smooth yet intense flow from scene to scene, Joe Walker's editing is an elegant pairing to Denis Villeneuve's directing to give the film its signature feel, and this intricate job is thoroughly worthy of an Oscar. Of the other nominees, I haven't seen King Richard but I haven't heard anyone praising its editing in particular, tick, tick...Boom! was excellent with its editing but I reckon it's not really on the Academy's radar to win anything, and I'd be floored if The Power of the Dog or Don't Look Up won this category over Dune.

Best Documentary - Short Subject: Audible (Matt Ogens & Geoff McLean)

I actually spent more time analyzing this category than any other. It doesn't help that I haven't seen any of the five nominees, and have to go based on what I've heard and read, but it also doesn't help that the so-called 'Oscar factors' of these short documentaries are very evenly divided. On one hand, The Queen of Basketball has the easily highest IMDB rating and it highlights the role of women in sports in (I'd imagine) a very Oscar-bait-y way. On the other hand, Three Songs for Benazir seems to hit Oscar bingo as it follows a difficult marriage, set in war-torn Kabul, and it has gained attention from multiple film festivals. But then there's Audible, which many critics have cited as specifically Oscar-prone, and it has been talked about more than the other nominees. So this could easily go in any number of directions, but I'm going with Audible based on my gut feeling.

Best Documentary - Feature: Flee

Like Best Original Song, this appears to be a classic two-horse race. I'm quite confident, based on everything I've seen and heard, that Best Documentary Feature will be awarded either to Danish critical darling Flee, or music icon Questlove's acclaimed documentary Summer of Soul. Flee has a lot going on for it, as it deals with immigration and war and it's nominated in two other categories (International Feature and Animated Feature), but Summer of Soul also has a foot or two in the race, as Questlove apparently takes a powerful look at cultural pride and the Black experience via the lens of the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival (I really want to see this movie), not to mention its BAFTA win for Best Documentary. Still, if only based on its other Oscar nominations, I'm gonna go with Flee, but I'll be happy if Questlove proves me wrong.

Best Directing: The Power of the Dog (Jane Campion)

Best Directing is often one of the most competitive categories, but this year, there's a clear frontrunner. I suppose the other nominees have a shot, as Kenneth Branagh's directing of Belfast has been praised (though not as much as his writing) and Steven Spielberg is Steven Spielberg, even when a film is NSFW ('not Spielberg's finest work'). But, the most likely candidate by all accounts is Jane Campion, with The Power of the Dog. With the Academy still trying to recover from backlash of not highlighting female directors, the more political side of the Oscars certainly has incentive to give this award to a female director for the second year in a row, and furthermore, it would be quite a deserved win - I found The Power of the Dog a bit overrated as a whole, but Campion's directing is always a class act.

Best Costume Design: Cruella (Jenny Beavan)

It's actually the negative reviews of this 101 Dalmatians prequel that convinced me of its Oscar chances - every single criticism I've heard of Cruella has been something along the lines of "Yeah, the story was laughable and cringey, but damn, those fantastical costumes did make it barely worth watching". Cruella's aesthetic has been praised a lot, and I figure it has a chance in both the Makeup & Hairstyling category as well as Costume Design, but I don't quite see a Cruella De Vil origin story winning two Oscars. My money is on it winning Costume Design, but I won't be surprised if the category goes to Dune or West Side Story instead.

Best Cinematography: Dune (Greig Fraser)

Most years, it's quite easy to separate my subjective feelings of who I want to win from my objective views on who is likely to win. This time around, those two are a bit muddled, because my feelings of Dune being so spectacularly well-made that it should win a shit-ton of Oscars are so strong. So, I don't know - it might just be wishful thinking that I'm betting on Greig Fraser's fantastic camerawork from Dune to nab a win. But I don't think so. Wishful thinking would be believing that Dune would win Best Picture or Best Adapted Screenplay, when obviously it won't. For Best Cinematography, though, I honestly believe in its chances, although the Academy might prefer The Power of the Dog for this category (though they really shouldn't).

Also, I'd be very content if the under-the-radar The Tragedy of Macbeth won this award, as the cinematography there was on par with Dune and poor Bruno Delbonnel has been nominated for six Oscars in his career yet has zero wins. But I'm guessing that Joel Coen's Shakespeare adaptation will continue to fly under the radar, and grab zero wins in the three categories it's nominated in.

Best Animated Feature Film: Encanto

This one is quite the no-brainer, with Encanto's cultural relevance, critical acclaim, Golden Globe win in the same category, and two other Oscar nominations taken into account. I suppose Flee has a slim chance as well, as it is also nominated for Best International Film and Best Documentary Feature (yes, I'm going to mention this in every category where Flee is nominated because it's such a top-tier fun fact), but I'm still guessing that they'll go with the heartfelt animated family film and not the animated Danish documentary.

Best Actress in a Supporting Role: West Side Story (Ariana DeBose)

It's a tale as old as time - no, I'm not talking about the classic 'Romeo and Juliet' narrative, but rather the fact that West Side Story gets remade on the stage dozens of times each year around the world, not to mention the already existing gold standard cinematic adaptation from 1961, which begs the question 'did we really need a big-screen remake of this musical?". Well, like it or not, a remake is what we got, and it has gotten a lot of acclaim despite very opinion-splitting overall reception.

One thing that people seem to agree on is that Ariana DeBose is great in the iconic role of Anita, and based on what I've seen of her acting/singing/dancing chops, I can certainly believe it. I might be relying a bit too much on Golden Globe precedent in my predictions, as they never tell the entire truth concerning the Oscars, but there is always quite a bit of correlation between the award ceremonies so it's a good elements to take into account - so yes, the fact that DeBose won the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress is one more reason to believe that she just might do the same in the Oscars.

Best Actress in a Leading Role: The Eyes of Tammy Faye (Jessica Chastain)

This category is a tough one to call, as Nicole Kidman from Being the Ricardos also has a fair shot on all accounts. I'm still going with Jessica Chastain, who is apparently quite incredible in the role of televangelist Tammy Faye Bakker. Having been nominated for films like The Help (2011) and Zero Dark Thirty (2012) but still having no Oscar wins on her resumé, Chastain's inevitable Academy Award is starting to feel long overdue and this might just be the year she gets there.

Best Actor in a Supporting Role: Coda (Troy Kotsur)

While I haven't had a chance to see Coda, Troy Kotsur already has my respect - it cannot be easy to make it as a deaf actor, let alone making it all the way to an Oscar nomination. The Golden Globe in this category went to Kodi Smit-McPhee for The Power of the Dog, but with no disrespect to Smit-McPhee who certainly was decent in his role, it is hard to believe that his would be the best supporting male performance of the year. Therefore I'm betting he won't go on to win the Oscar, and based on all I've heard about Kotsur's performance in Coda, he seems like the likeliest out of the bunch to go all the way, which would be a historical feat for the deaf community.

Best Actor in a Leading Role: King Richard (Will Smith)

This one is tough - I haven't seen King Richard, but I've seen three of the other nominees, and it's hard to believe any performance from the past year being more powerful than Andrew Garfield in tick, tick...Boom! or Denzel Washington in The Tragedy of MacBeth. But, Will Smith's role as tennis coach Richard Williams in this biopic about sports and fatherhood has gotten immense acclaim, and King Richard seems like a much likelier film to play well with Academy critics than tick, tick...Boom! and The Tragedy of MacBeth.

It seems like the right time for Will Smith to win an Oscar, as his consistent career and legacy have come to the point where the sitcom where he originally broke through has just gotten the 'gritty reboot' treatment on Peacock. Say what you will, no matter how good Smith is in King Richard and even if he does win the Oscar, I'm standing by my statement that no moment in his career will ever top the scene in The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (1990-1996) where his father has left him for the second time. That scene alone is enough to convince the world that this man had it in him to eventually win an Oscar and be among the greatest actors of his generation.

Best Picture: The Power of the Dog

A part of me is hoping that The Power of the Dog doesn't win Best Picture - no disrespect to this very well-made film which is especially notable for Jane Campion's atmospheric directing, but there were just so many better films in the past year. Still, can't complain too much if it takes the win; the people involved certainly worked hard for the film and the end result is quite beautiful in its own quaint way.

This Netflix original got 12 nominations, more than any other this year, and it won the Golden Globe for Best Picture, so all the signs are there. It also feels like typical 'Oscar bait', with its slow-paced character drama, strong performances by respected actors, and between-the-lines themes of envy, sexuality and illness woven into the story. A few other films, such as Belfast and Coda, have somewhat of a shot, but my money is on The Power of the Dog.

So, there are my predictions! Dune will win six awards, The Power of the Dog will win three, and Encanto and The Eyes of Tammy Faye will take two each. I'll let you know how I did with my prediction as a part of next week's post: the final post of Music Month! See you then.

Music Month: Top 10 bands I'd like to see live, had I a time machine at my disposal

Greetings, reader!

Welcome to the latest post of Music Month. Like many fans of music, I have a list of the still active bands/artists I'd most like to see live (excluding ones I've already seen, I reckon Rise Against, Sir Paul McCartney, Less Than Jake and Green Day would top my list). But in addition to this classic list topic, I've also compiled a top 10 of the bands I'd like to see live the most - if I had a time machine at my disposal. Given the ability to travel anywhere in time and space, like Doctor freaking Who, which bands would I be most keen on seeing and what year would I choose to see them? Read the list below to find out.

Here are my honorable mentions: Green Day 1994, Iron Maiden 1983, Pink Floyd 1975, Ramones 1978, The Who 1971.

10. The Rolling Stones, 1969

POV: it's December, 1969, and rock giants The Rolling Stones have just dropped their game-changing album Let It Bleed. The band is still young, energetic and in their prime, but they have enough material on their resumé that classic songs such as (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction, As Tears Go By and Sympathy for the Devil already exist and figure their way into the setlist. Not to mention the new album's offerings, like the excellent title track Let It Bleed, the anthemic closing track You Can't Always Get What You Want, and of course my 2nd favorite rock song of all time, Gimme Shelter. I would've payed good money to see these legends live, especially in that particular time.

9. Sex Pistols, 1977

I'm a huge fan of punk rock, and you can't talk about punk without talking about Sex Pistols. I've seen clips of their absolutely unmatched chaotic energy when performing live, and it must've been a thing to behold. I can just picture myself getting out of my time machine and walking into a dirty club in downtown London in 1977, and going berzerk with the rest of the crowd for a band going even more berzerk on stage. Johnny Rotten's signature snotty and growly vocals, matched with the not-very-technically-skilled but extremely raw-and-real instrumental work of the band's other members, would've been a sight for the ages.

8. Metallica, 1986

Three words: Cliff f**king Burton.

I've already seen Metallica live, and despite their rather old age, they still did a remarkable job - Lars Ulrich's drumming was zany as ever, Kirk Hammett wailed on his guitar with a great energy, and James Hetfield's thundering stage presence was felt by all. In many ways, the difference between this band in the 1980's and this band in the modern age isn't as large as it is with most bands who had their prime back then. But the main reason that Metallica still makes this list of bands I'd specifically like to see in the past, if I just got my damn time machine to work, is legendary bass player Cliff Burton, who tragically passed away late in the year 1986.

It's not like the bass player I got to see with the band was anyhow disappointing - Robert Trujillo has done an amazing job filling the shoes of those before him, and has been an integral part of the band's dynamic for almost two decades. But when watching live footage of the band's early days, one can't help but think that Burton was a giant among men, an icon of metal music and bass playing, and a larger-than-life figure who was taken from us too soon. It would've been so amazing to see the band live in early 1986, with Burton capturing the full attention of everyone in the packed stadium audience as he launches into the intro of For Whom The Bell Tolls. Chills.

7. Nirvana, 1993

On one hand, it's a whole thing that Nirvana was considered not to have a "conventionally charismatic stage presence". On the other hand, it's a young Dave Grohl, a prime Krist Novoselic and a still-alive Kurt Cobain, so who cares?? Upon arriving in 1993 Seattle with my time machine, I'd most definitely pay good money to see the iconic grunge trio doing their own thing, and it would be a special thing to witness - the Nirvana phenomenon was so huge and revolutionary, but lasted such a tragically short time. Conventionally charismatic this and stage presence that, I'll take a live performance of Lithium or About A Girl any day of the week.

6. Rush, 1981

Rush continued playing together to a very old age, and I always thought of them as one of the bands I'd love to see live upon getting the chance - until drummer Neil Peart passed away. Now, I'd give anything for the ability to go back in time and see the prog rock giants live when it was possible to do so. 1981 would be the optimal year for such a concert, as the band had just released their best album Moving Pictures and were still going strong in their prime.

The set list would be filled to the brim with new releases of the time, like Tom Sawyer and YYZ, as well as classics from the 70's, like 2112 and Fly By Night. Footage of Rush concerts from that time are a joy to watch, as the band's live energy and the passion of the fans in the crowd just looks like something else. I can just imagine how my eyes would be glued to the magical movements of my all-time favorite drummer for the entire duration of such a concert, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

5. Queen, 1985

This is the only case from today's list where I have a specific individual concert in mind - for all of the others, it's just any concert from the year I've chosen. But for Queen, I'd specifically take my time machine to London on July 13th, 1985, park it outside Wembley Stadium, and walk in to witness Queen's legendary Live Aid performance firsthand.

Sure, it's just a twenty-one minute performance as a part of a larger festival. But who cares? It's possibly the most iconic twenty-one minutes that the world of live music has ever seen. It was literally voted as the greatest live performance in the history of rock in a famous 2005 poll. What I wouldn't give to be in that crowd, witnessing Freddie Mercury as he grab's the audience's (and world's) attention with his uniquely brilliant stage charisma.

4. Rage Against the Machine, 1992

Rage Against the Machine swept the world's attention with a storm in the early 90's, with their socially relevant message delivered in a unique and explosive mixture of heavy metal sounds, punk rock attitudes, high-pitched rapping and a sick groove. And boy, it would've been great to be alive back then, to be in the eye of that particular storm and cheering the band on in a massive stadium concert.

I can only imagine the amount of moshing and screaming, as the band launches into Killing In The Name with RATM's trademark raw fury echoing between the band and the audience. Oh, to be there to experience the phenomenon firsthand...

3. AC/DC, 1978

I've actually gotten to see AC/DC live - twice. But they still make my top 3 of bands I'd like to see live in the past. There are two main reasons for this: number one, they're just so good. And number two, Bon Scott.

While the band's replacement singer Brian Johnson has become an icon in his own right, there's no getting around the fact that Bon Scott is a chapter of his own. It would've been such a treat to see the band live back in the 70's, before Scott tragically died of alcohol poisoning at a young age. Also, AC/DC's setlists back then included some top tier gems that haven't been played live in the post-Scott era, such as slow rocker Ride On and my all-time favorite It's a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock N' Roll). I specifically chose the year 1978, right before the band really broke through to a wide audience, because it would've been special in its own way to see the band playing a small-scale Australian venue, before being among the world's biggest rock stars.

2. Guns N' Roses, 1987

Once again, it's a band that I have gotten to see live, and while the concert was amazing, it would've been a whole other thing to see them in their very prime, with the legendary Adler-McKagan-Stradlin-Slash-Rose lineup still intact. Live footage from this time, just after the release of rock history's greatest debut album Appetite for Destruction, indicates that the Guns N' Roses of 1987 was dangerous, energetic, electric and simply not messing around as much as any band can be.

Their live chemistry before the dramatic series of fallings-out that would ensue in the following years, their sharp live playing before the drug use of certain band members would start to affect their instrumental performances throughout the 90's, and the youthful energy that they brought to the Los Angeles rock scene of the time are things I'd surely be watching in total awe, had I that damn time machine. Oh, won't you please take me home...

1. The Beatles, 1965

I mean, this was quite the no-brainer. Arguably the greatest rock band of all time, in their prime, while they still played live concerts - shut up and take my money! Even if it turned out to be one of the many infamous concerts where the band's sound was somewhat drowned out by the insane volume of screaming fans, it would still be a historical sight to witness Beatlemania at its height, and just the visual of the Fab Four on the same stage is something one can only dream of getting to see. Of course, it would be preferred that the concert my time machine would take me to would be one where the band is as audible as possible, and I chose '65 and not an earlier year because that's when the magnificent album Help! came out, so the setlist could include diamonds like the evergreen Yesterday, the masterful title track Help! and all-time great love song I've Just Seen a Face.

One thing that the career of the Beatles, the era where the Beatles performed live, and the lives of John Lennon and George Harrison have in common is that they were all tragically short-lived, and that is why my first stop upon getting a time machine on my hands would likely be to see the Liverpool-based quartet live in such a time when it was possible. The mental image of being in the audience in a Beatles concert just feels larger than life.

Thank you for reading! Tune in next week for the final post of Music Month, as I rank the songs from Finnish rock band Säätövara's debut album, Säätövara ja Kammotusten Kanootti. When is that album released, you ask? Why, it's already tomorrow! And it'll be available on Spotify and other streaming services, as well as physical CD's. Yes, I'm also very excited!

Music Month: Top 15 Genres Dearest to Me

Greetings, reader!

For starters, I reckon that today's list will be a bit controversial because no one in the world of music can agree on how different genres are defined. There is no one correct way to split music into genres, so I just decided to go with one of the many slightly wrong ways. The genres that qualify for this list aren't the very biggest broad and large umbrella terms (e.g. classical, jazz, rock etc.), but I also tried not to go too deep into subgenres upon subgenres (e.g. neoromantic modernism, swing revival revival, Scottish pirate metal etc.). Therefore I came up with a shortlist of genres that are roughly on the same level of broadness, so that they can be compared to one another. Of course, there are exceptions, as some genres are harder to divide into parts than others, and the amount of knowledge per genre that I have certainly has some influence.

I would like to emphasize that the list's title is "Top 15 genres dearest to me" and not "Top 15 best genres", because I find the idea of a 'best genres' list to be inherently stupid. All major genres have their genius masters as well as their boring lowpoints, and it feels wrong to call one genre better than another (except if you're comparing humane genres to abominations like Nazi punk and hatecore). Also, since I'm writing about the genres dearest to me, I don't have to pretend to know more than I do know about certain genres, but rather I get to give insight on which genres my specific taste on music is built on and which genres have produced the most substance to my liking.

Here are my honorable mentions: Funk, Grunge, Modal Jazz, Reggae, Swing.

15. Metal

Metal is a double-edged sword for me, and I considered should it even be on the list or not - it's a genre that I often find to be a bit overrated, because it's such a huge deal in Finnish rock circles. Metal is the #1 thing in music for so many of my friends, that I've spent a lot of time throughout the years wondering what all the hype is about. Still, because it's so big in my circles, I've gotten quite familiar with the world of metal during my life, and have therefore noticed how incredible it is at its best, even if it has never been as much 'my cup of tea' than many other genres.

Iron Maiden and Metallica are among my all-time favorite bands, and I say this fully aware of the fact that most real metalheads would shake their (metal-) heads at such mainstream and vanilla choices. I simply love the style of music those bands and many like them make, and I think Metallica's Master of Puppets is the one individual song that condenses everything great about the genre into one magnificent track. So, yeah, I suppose metal and its subgenres go into the same category for me as slasher films and Irish coffee - I might not feel like it all that often, but for a certain mood, nothing else will do.

14. Baroque

I can already hear a certain ex-girlfriend loudly responding that baroque is an era, not a genre - and she'd be right. But I see absolutely no reason why the different eras of classical music can't also be seen as genres, as they have certain characteristics that unify the artists and pieces belonging to that era/genre and set them apart from the others, just as the case is with jazz subgenres or rock subgenres. So, when making a list of the genres dearest to me, it made sense to categorize the different eras of classical music as one genre each.

Anyways, I never was the biggest classical music buff, but I do have great respect for that world and often strive to become more familiar with it. The often majestic and explosive pieces of the baroque era may not be the most chill stuff to listen to, but as was the case with metal, it's just perfect for a certain mood or context, not to mention the dazzlement that us music nerds feel when analyzing the genius thought processes of composers like Bach and Händel.

13. Cool jazz

Oh, hell yes. While jazz, much like classical, never was the #1 thing for me in music, I do have a soft spot for many subgenres of jazz, and none more so than this chill and classy variant from the 1940's and 50's. In contrast to the hectic feel of bebop that had dominated America's jazz scene until this point, cool jazz really cooled things down and gave the origin to the type of music you might hear in coffee houses and elevators.

Artists like Gerry Mulligan and Dave Brubeck, not to mention master-of-the-trade Miles Davis whose album Birth of the Cool will tell you everything about what cool jazz is all about, played a big part in my journey into familiarity with jazz - a journey that is still going on, and who knows where it might lead.

12. Suomirock

Suomirock is a specific thing. Not all Finnish rock is suomirock, and not even all Finnish-language is suomirock (although some do argue otherwise). Suomirock is a very specific kind of Finland-based, Finnish-language rock music, where the atmosphere is often steady, the sounds are subtle and the lyrics are about cars, drinking and sauna.

While suomirock doesn't always hit the spot (I think Pate Mustajärvi's woefully iconic Ukkometso highlights all my least favorite aspects of Finnish culture), at its best it is a wonderful thing. All of my top 3 favorite bands/artists from Finland are more or less suomirock - Eppu Normaali in the most traditional sense, Apulanta as a part of more modern suomirock with a punk twist, and Ursus Factory as a part of suomirock's "new wave". Speaking of the new wave of suomirock, the most obvious reason for this genre being dear to me is that my own band, Säätövara, is most definitely suomirock at heart, albeit definitely not the most traditional and typical kind.

11. Romantic

Now, to be clear, this refers to the romantic era of classical music, and not to the more usual meaning of the word in a modern context (e.g. love songs). The very best bits of classical music come, in my opinion, from this era, where wild individual expression and beautiful emotional compositions were all the rage. Most often when I feel like listening to classical music, it's bound to be something from this era, whether it's the later works of Beethoven building a bridge from Classicism into Romanticism, Jean Sibelius making Finland's voice heard with his immensely powerful works, or my personal favorite Gustav Mahler painting auditive landscapes with his atmospheric symphonies.

10. Musical

Sure, musicals are a combination of the musical and theatrical art forms more than a mere music genre, but it still qualifies for this list as the music from musicals is unique with a multitude of defining characteristics. I enjoy musicals a great deal, from the classics of the Tin Pan Alley era to the more modern groundbreakers, from the conventional Broadway hits like Les Miserables to the more out-of-the-box ones like Urinetown, from local Finnish pieces like Myrskyluodon Maija to global phenomena like West Side Story, and from the stage of a theater to the cinematic big screen adaptations.

The traditional compositional characteristics of Broadway songs, from certain emotion-invoking chord progressions to specific dramatic instrumental arrangements, may be clichés, but very positive ones in my view, as they always get the job done. I always appreciate when new ground is broken within the genre as well, as is the case with William Finn's genius melodies and rhythms in Falsettos, or the incorporation of hip hop into Broadway conventions in my all-time favorite musical Hamilton. I also find the job of actors in musicals fascinating, as the task of acting while singing requires tremendous emotional vulnerability and nuance, and this type of dramatic vocal performance is a truly underrated craft.

9. Pop

This was one of the most difficult ones to rank - A) because the field of pop is so ridiculously large and couldn't be divided into subgenres as easily as rock or jazz etc., B) because it is even harder to categorize than most other genres, and C) because it ranges from very bad to very good more than possibly any other genre. You know how in Harry Potter all of the bad wizards go to Slytherin, even though Slytherins aren't all bad by any means? That's pop. Almost all of my least favorite music happens to come from this genre, but I won't hold it against pop music too much because there is also so much amazing material in this massively influential and somewhat convoluted genre.

Any genre that has given us the genius compositions of ABBA, the smooth and suave sounds of Silk Sonic and the outlet for Adele's magnificent pipes to shatter the listener's heart, is a genre worthy of respect. And let's not forget that while the first mental image of pop music is likely one involving dance floors, modern electronic sounds and autotune, the genre has been around for a long time and has taken many forms - for example, many songs and albums from Frank Sinatra's heyday are categorized most often as "Traditional pop". So there's that.

8. Hip hop

"In my view, and in the view of my music theorist father, who went to music school, there are three elements to music: there is harmony, there is melody, and there is rhythm. And rap only fills one of these: the rhythm section. There's not a lot of melody, and there's not a lot of harmony. And, thus, it is basically, effectively, spoken rhythm, and so, it is not actually a form of music"

-Right-wing pundit Ben Shapiro, right before the world of music collectively told him to go f**k himself

If you're wondering why I'd bother including Shapiro's hilariously idiotic words here, it is because seeing him make those remarks made me realize just how much I care about rap music - I wouldn't have gotten so incredibly pissed off, if I was indifferent or lukewarm toward the genre. So, and I never thought I'd utter these words, thank you, Ben Shapiro! I never would've realized just how dear hip hop is to me if your infamous "Rap isn't music" comments hadn't riled me up so much.

While rock music and its certain subgenres have always been the #1 thing for me in many ways, my music taste continues to broaden into new directions throughout my studies, social circles and various music projects. Hip hop was actually one of the very first genres outside of rock that I discovered myself enjoying at a young age, much thanks to my brother and his recommendation of Eminem (yes, I know, how stereotypical for us white guys that Eminem is our gateway into rap). But, after becoming a big Eminem fan, I gradually started to acquaint myself more with the genre, finding some truly awesome artists and excellent pieces of music in the process.

While I'm still not super-deep into the culture, the rappers that I have familiarized myself with continue to play a big part in the music I enjoy listening to, from Childish Gambino's wildly artistic genius to the insane respect I have for trailblazers like N.W.A. and the Notorious B.I.G. Also, it's easier to have respect for a certain skill if you yourself suck at it, and as a musician who is comfortable singing but woeful at rapping, I have the utmost admiration for the lyrical wit and performative charisma of those that have mastered the art.

7. World

Cards on the table, it would be more accurate to categorize the traditional folk music of each country/area in the world as their own genre. But I don't know enough about most music cultures to qualify them as their own genres for this list, and it would be even more of a mess if I included "Finnish traditional music" as one genre but "Asian traditional music" as an other and so on. So I decided that under this one genre, I have all of the traditional folk music from different cultures around the world, and you just have to deal with it.

Also, I don't subscribe to the outdated division of 'western traditional/folk music' and 'world music', which is a woeful relic from the 'us and them' worldview where white Europeans had to be the center of everything and the rest of the world was seen as exotic otherness. I use the term 'world music' in the way that a great teacher at my university taught me to use it, to mean the traditional music of any culture in the world, with no narratives of 'our music' and 'their music' in the fold. Some of the coolest stuff I've gotten to learn in my university studies has been in the courses regarding world music, as it's so mind-blowing to learn how Indian melodic scales are so wildly different from the ones westerners are used to from the very get-go, or how Thai music is built on a whole array of instruments that I've never heard of but that sound amazing.

While there are incredibly many culture areas whose traditional music has a place in my heart, from the magical sounds of Celtic music to the mysterious and beautiful harmonies of the Middle East, I have to give a special shout-out to the islands of Polynesia. My discovery of Polynesian traditional music played a big part in my journey of realizing just how special world music is, and I love incorporating elements of Polynesian music into my piano playing or my compositions. It would be an absolute dream come true to someday travel to Tuvalu or Tonga, and get to jam with the locals.

6. Soundtrack

Yes, I know, it must be shocking that the guy whose movie/TV blog you're reading likes the music that is heard in movies and TV shows. In music circles, one comes across many forms of elitism, and one of the most frustrating views I've heard from music elitists is that movie soundtracks are bad because they sound like a cheap rip-off of classical music. Just no. Cinematic music is a beautiful and wonderful thing, which obviously is derived from classical and owes a lot of tribute to it, but has become its own thing in a very positive manner, as the decades have shifted movie music to a point of perfection where it is exactly the kind of music that fits the world of cinema the best, and I don't see why anyone should bother to have a problem with that except for wanting to show that you're smarter and better than everyone else. Did I mention that I don't like music elitism?

Anyways, for my love of movie soundtracks - it's a huge part of what makes cinema so special and magical. Can you imagine The Lord of the Rings without Howard Shore's epic score that so perfectly resonates with Tolkien's fantasy realm? Or Star Wars without John Williams' magnificent large-scale arrangements? What about Inception without Hans Zimmer's blaring horn sections, that escalate into more and more intense tracks until the movie's final scene unravels to the backdrop of Time, one of the most beautiful pieces of music ever created? And John Carpenter's Halloween wouldn't be half as scary if it wasn't for the brilliantly frightening main theme, while the climactic scene from Avengers: Endgame wouldn't feel nearly as massive if it wasn't for Alan Silvestri's dramatic and explosive arrangement of the main Avengers theme. So, yeah, soundtracks are a very important pillar of my music taste.

5. Blues

The genre that started as the field hollers of an oppressed people trying to find solace in music, and that grew into a massive phenomenon that played an integral part in the birth of rock music, will forever have a place in my heart. In addition to listening to it, blues has always been one of my very favorite genres to play, ever since my Aunt Diane taught me how the 12-bar blues works on the piano and I realized that the classical piano education I had received was somewhat restrictive on my creativity.

As a pianist, as a drummer and as a vocalist, I do much better on blues than I do on most other genres, and the genre's trademark mentality where jamming and improvisation play a massive part has always felt more close to home than genres where precision and playing 'by the book' are emphasized. From the early ruminations of icons like Robert Johnson, through the 1940's electric blues revolution in Chicago all the way to the transitional artists that brought blues to its peak while giving birth to rock n' roll, like Little Richard and Chuck Berry, this is one special genre.

4. Folk

Just to be clear, as 'folk' means two very different things in music, this does not refer to the traditional folk songs of various cultures that were discussed in #7. This refers to the contemporary genre that came to be in the 20th century - the one with the protest songs and the contemplating lyrics and the feeling of coming together to make the world a better place. Compositionally and instrumentally, American folk music is weirdly close to country music, but the key difference between the two is mentality, as folk has always been more open-minded and forward-thinking. Country is more "I'm gonna ride my tractor and drink a beer while the ol' wife does the dishes in the background", while folk is more "I travel across the country, describing the suffering I see, wishing for a less bleak tomorrow".

My falling in love with folk music is such a recent event that it's hard to say for sure, but I'm guessing that I'll always remember the summer of 2021 as the summer where folk truly came into my life and swept me away. It all started when I read John Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath, and found myself getting in touch with a specific kind of American mentality that had always eluded me, and I felt more connected than ever to my second homeland. For the rest of this fateful summer, I listened to a lot of Bob Dylan, a lot of Johnny Cash, and a lot of Bruce Springsteen.

Oh, and I also wrote over 40 American folk songs of my own in a span of a few months, and they were some of the best stuff I've ever written. I've made songs of my own in various genres throughout my life, but never have I felt as sure of my voice as a songwriter as I felt when making those. The trip my father and I took to the U.S. last October made this connection even stronger, as walking through the landscape and culture of my second homeland that I hadn't visited for several years (especially in a place like Cedaredge, Colorado) really brought forth my inner American folk musician.

3. Progressive

If you know me as a person, this won't surprise you. The same part of me that enjoys David Lynch films, Star Trek TV shows and other such things is also into progressive rock, as its trademark creativity and outside-the-box mentality always get to me. While there are modern instances of prog rock that I enjoy a lot, like Haken and Dream Theater, the genre's golden age is definitely the era of its birth, from the late 60's and early 70's. Progressive rock from that time is so filled with imagination, free expression, and the general quest to do something that no one has done before, and to sound totally different from anything else.

The genre's experimental madness comes across well in masterpiece-level concept albums from that time, such as The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here and Rush's 2112. Listening to prog rock has also had a huge influence on me as a drummer, as it was largely the drumming of Rush's Neil Peart and The Aristocrats' Marco Minnemann (not to mention my original drum teacher and prog rock mega-enthusiast Marko) that got me interested in the rabbit hole of unconventional time signatures and polyrhythms.

2. Punk

This one should surprise people who know me even less. Even before I entered my up-in-arms-liberal-active-citizen phase around 2016 (thanks, Donald Trump!), I enjoyed punk rock just because I liked how it sounded. The raw and unpolished sounds, the fast tempos and high energy, the often-snarled lyrics and instrumental parts that require little skill, there's some magic in that. Once I grew up and realized the cultural context behind punk - namely the 'fuck the system' attitude by disenfranchised people who are sick of injustice and want to make a stand with their music - my respect and sense of belonging in the world of punk grew to the next level.

From Black Flag's Rise Above and The Dead Kennedys' Nazi Punks Fuck Off to Green Day's Holiday and Rise Against's everything they have ever written, no other genre has resonated with me more than punk rock with its themes and messages. Punk has also had a major influence on my own band and my role in it: while suomirock is our main genre, I personally think that Säätövara is at its best when we let our punk influences run wild, as is the case with the song Telkkarista that you'll be able to listen to on Spotify once a certain debut album rolls out next week.

All in all, as long as our world is infected with Nazis, Donald Trumps and Vladimir Putins, we need stuff like punk rock as outlets to express the sort of rage that one might feel against these sorts of machines - hmm, someone should really form a band around that idea.

1. Rock N' Roll

In the end, it all comes down to a conversation I had with my friend Tuukka a few years ago. Upon discussing our love for rock n' roll, we went quite deep into just how inexplicable it is. I can't use any fancy terms of music theory or popular music studies to analyze why this genre, seen by some as a subgenre as rock and others as rock in its purest form, is so dear to me. It just is. I suppose anyone who has a clear 'favorite genre' can relate. It's the feel that you get, a combination of excitement and nostalgia and adrenaline, that nothing else causes in quite the same way.

For people with different favorite genres, it's a different combination of things that causes that reaction, but for me, it's the sound of distorted electric guitars, blues-influenced melodies and simple, tight drum beats in the tradition of The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, CCR and AC/DC. That is the very foundation of my taste in music, and all the other directions my music taste has taken over the years have grown around that base.

And because this genre so very dear to me has an unfortunate history of being whitewashed, I want to pay my utmost respects to the African-American trailblazers who steered the evolution of blues into the birth of this wonderful genre, before it became a global phenomenon for people of all colors to enjoy. If you're familiar with Elvis Presley and Buddy Holly, you should be aware that they became famous doing the same exact thing Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Bo Diddley and countless others had been doing long before them, but were able to spread the genre to a wider audience in a way the original maestros couldn't, due to the large-scale racism of the era. Rock music and its subgenres owe their very existence to these pioneers, which is why my recommended listening of my #1 favorite genre for today is Chuck Berry's Roll Over Beethoven.

Thank you for reading! Tune in next week for the continuation of Music Month, as I rank the top 10 bands I'd like to see live, had I a time machine at my disposal.

Music Month: Top 10 albums of all time

Greetings, reader!

Music Month continues, and today I'm discussing my favorite albums of all time. They're ranked based on how much I like them overall, with every possible factor factoring in to my decision - how well the album is made from song composition to mixing and production, how solid the quality of songs is and how the final product works as a whole, how much emotional value the album has et cetera. For me, these masterpieces are the best of the best.

Here are my honorable mentions: Awesome Snakes - Venom, Bob Dylan - The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, Iron Maiden - The Number of the Beast, The Airborne Toxic Event - All At Once, The Rolling Stones - Let It Bleed.

10. Rush - Moving Pictures (1981)

While I absolutely love thematic concept albums, and Rush has some amazing work in that category, my #1 favorite album from the legendary prog rock band is Moving Pictures - very much not a concept album but rather a more traditional collection of songs. The group's eighth studio album doesn't need to be conceptual to be an amazing work of progressive rock, because the songs are just so excellent.

It opens with Tom Sawyer, an intense high-concentration banger that has earned its stature as the band's best-known song and one of prog rock's greats. We're then taken on a colorful journey through a complex array of songs, from the touching lyrics of Red Barchetta and the genius rhythms of YYZ to the beautiful melodies of Limelight and the refreshing, reggae-influenced Vital Signs. Rush's off-the-charts creativity, coupled with the trio's absurd ability to be so musically talented that they can have fun and groove even when they're playing insanely complex rhythms, is on full display throughout Moving Pictures, which barely beats out other favorites like 2112 (1976) and Farewell to Kings (1977) as my favorite Rush album.

9. Ursus Factory - Pinkki Pilvi (2019)

The only Finnish album to make it into my all-time top 10 was a slow burn for me. I remember listening to this Helsinki rock duo's sophomore album for the first time, and thinking "hey, this is pretty good". Then it just got better and better with each listening, until sometime last year I realized that it's my favorite Finnish album of all time. There's just something about the unique type of chaotic energy that the band creates, with every song simultaneously feeling like a carefully crafted work of art but also a spontaneous brainfart that was put together in just a few minutes. It's neat yet careless, it's punk yet pop, it's silly yet deep, and it's just amazing.

While the album's predecessor Älä Lopeta Uskomista Rakkauteen Baby (2017) and its follower Onnellinen Sukupolvi (2021) are great as well in their own right, there's just no beating Pinkki Pilvi. Half of my top 10 favorite Ursus Factory songs come from this one magnificent record, that just keeps on giving - touching ballads like Askel Keveä and Mä En Tiedä Mitä Rakkaus On, rocking bangers like Sydän On Suuri and Pakko Mennä Keskukseen, and beautiful anthems like Tähdistöön! and Pinkki Pilvi ensue.

8. AC/DC - High Voltage (1976)

Most rock n' roll fans would choose the iconic Back In Black (1980) as their favorite album from this Aussie group, and I can see why. Back In Black is one of a kind, and it's amazing how the band was able to bounce back from the tragedy of lead singer Bon Scott's death by hiring next-best-thing Brian Johnson and continuing to make loud and dirty rock n' roll that would've surely made Scott proud. But for me, the Scott era trumps the Johnson era quite clearly - out of AC/DC's 16 studio albums, five were made with Scott on vocals, and they are on places #6, #5, #4, #2 and #1 in my ranking. And I don't mean this as a point to discredit the fantastic work of the band's later years, but rather to highlight how the Bon Scott AC/DC was some of the very best rock n' roll ever made.

And that can be heard most clearly in the band's debut international release, 1976's High Voltage. The album opens with It's a Long Way to The Top (If You Wanna Rock N' Roll), and as the readers of last week's post will know, it's literally my #1 favorite rock song of all time. The rest of the album continues in the same rocking spirit, ranging from classic-classics like T.N.T. and The Jack to cult classics like Can I Sit Next to You Girl and Rock N' Roll Singer. The umatched raw energy of early AC/DC is just something else, man.

7. Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here (1975)

"You play a chord, and stay on that chord for such a long time, that when eventually the chord changes, your whole world is turned upside down"

- A rough translation of my friend Olli describing Pink Floyd

This magnificent description of Pink Floyd fits a multitude of their songs, but the one it especially resonates with is Shine On You Crazy Diamond. This game-changing album opens with the first five parts of that behemoth, after which we're treated to the soul-shattering psychedelia of Welcome to the Machine, the trance-like groove of Have a Cigar, and the deeply emotional title track Wish You Were Here - after which the album goes full circle and ends with the last four parts of Shine On You Crazy Diamond.

It's all woven together in a dreamlike atmosphere, that will make you want to listen to the album again and again. Pink Floyd fans might ask you, "Which is better, The Dark Side of the Moon or The Wall?", and with no disrespect to said albums, I strongly see "Wish You Were Here" as the correct answer.

6. Rage Against The Machine - Rage Against The Machine (1992)

For some bands, the best songs are sprinkled evenly across their discography - for example, my list of the all-time Top 10 Iron Maiden songs features songs from nine different albums. In the other extreme, there are cases where almost all of the band's greatest songs are piled on to one album - hence my list of the all-time Top 10 Rage Against The Machine songs, and the staggering eight songs from their debut album that made it onto the list.

By the way, this doesn't mean that RATM's other albums are one bit bad or even average - there are some truly fantastic songs on The Battle of Los Angeles, and it hurts that only two of them are represented in my Top 10. But the debut album is such a masterpiece, that 80 per cent of its ten songs are thoroughly worthy of the band's all-time top 10 (and even the two missing ones would make my top 15).

Rage Against The Machine's debut album took America by a storm in the early 90's, as suddenly everyone was discussing this group that was as much a societal phenomenon as a mere rock band. In the blink of an eye, the disenfranchised minorities and frustrated activists had a megaphone echoing all of their most passionate thoughts, and the Fox News crowd had a new boogeyman to attack every night on television and to blame all of America's problems on. This one album, with its ten amazing songs, tackles pretty much everything wrong with American society from biased media outlets and greedy corporations to police brutality and systemic racism, and does so with a one-of-a-kind combination of high-pitched rap vocals, brutal heavy metal sounds, and a sick groove.

5. Green Day - American Idiot (2004)

For a teenage Veikko Hoffman, this album was nothing short of life-changing. American Idiot's emotionally charged, rock-opera-like storytelling resonated with my creative soul that yearned for cool concepts and large stories, while the socially charged lyrical themes resonated with a youth who was just starting to realize that war is bad, equality is good, and punk rock is amazing.

The album contains modern classics like American Idiot and Holiday, the lyrics of which feel like gigantic middle finger to the American leaders of the time (and gained a newfound relevance in the Trump era). There are songs like Boulevard of Broken Dreams and Are We The Waiting, where our fictional main character (although he's more or less based on Billie Joe Armstrong's own experiences) ponders his place in the world to the backdrop of some great music. There are the two nine-minute behemoths Jesus of Suburbia and Homecoming, where the pop punk trio goes full Broadway in a magnificent fashion.

There's also the tear-jerking Wake Me Up When September Ends, where Armstrong diverts from the album's story to sing honestly about the trauma of his own father's untimely passing, which strangely fits the rest of the thematic album perfectly and makes it feel more whole. And there are the underrated masterpieces Letterbomb and Whatsername, where Armstrong's dramatic storytelling and his explosive songwriting make for wildly emotional moments that will have you banging your head with a a tear in your eye. What a journey.

4. Less Than Jake - Anthem (2003)

And now we arrive at the 'Big Four' - four albums, that have been the best of the best to me for a long time, but are extremely hard to put into order as they all have such a strong case for being #1. After long consideration, I barely ended up ranking Less Than Jake's Anthem as the least of the four, but bear in mind that it still is a part of the quartet that trumps all other albums in my view, and is just inches away from the #1 spot.

The ska punk band based in Gainesville, Florida (as witnessed by the very Gainesville-heavy lyrics in about 96 per cent of their songs) has been very dear to me ever since I discovered them at an early age. I was playing Tony Hawk's Underground 2 with my brother, when one of the songs in the soundtrack was so good that I had to SoundHound it and look the band up. And while the song in question, That's Why They Call It A Union, is so good that hearing it in a video game soundtrack inspired me to get to know the band, not to mention the immense nostalgic value it will always hold, I can still honestly say that it's one of the least excellent songs on Anthem. The quality of songs, for a listener who enjoys this sort of music, is off the charts.

Anthem is chill, carefree and fun music at its best. It's the perfect album to listen to on a Friday night after getting done with the week's workload with the weekend ahead of you. It's the perfect album to listen to when taking a walk in beautiful spring weather, looking at the melting snow and thinking of the summer days ahead.

3. Guns N' Roses - Appetite for Destruction (1987)

In the category of debut albums, Guns N' Roses are in a league of their own. To make this point via statistics, I could point to the fact that my list of the Top 10 greatest Guns N' Roses songs has six songs from Appetite for Destruction and just four from any other album of theirs - this debut album has 12 songs on it, meaning that half of its tracks are in my top 10 from the whole band. To make this point in a more powerful manner, I plead you to simply listen to the first 35 seconds of Welcome to the Jungle while considering that it's the first track from the band's first-ever album. No band has introduced themselves to the world in a manner as exciting and badass as Guns N' Roses.

Appetite for Destruction is raw and real, it's dirty and dangerous, and it rocks harder than words can describe. Pretty much every track rocks in their own specific way, from the bluesy fun-time rock of Nightrain and the hypnotic groove of Mr. Brownstone to the fast-paced adrenaline of Out Ta Get Me and the anthemic stadium rock feel of Paradise City.

2. Rise Against - Siren Song of the Counter Culture (2004)

In 2000, George W. Bush controversially won the U.S. Presidential Election in the aftermath of the infamous Florida recount. In 2002, Bush and his administration lead an aggressive campaign to send troops into Iraq under false pretenses. In 2003, U.S. troops invaded Iraq, in what is best described by Michael Moore as 'a fictitious war being fought by a fictitious president'. In 2004, as Bush was campaigning for re-election under the nuanced and complex strategy of 'Let's make sure that everyone in America is scared shitless so they'll have no choice but to vote for the familiar idiots instead of the less familiar idiots', punk rock band Rise Against released this 41-minute 'fuck you' to the Bush administration and the Iraq war.

While Rise Against's first and second albums had been hardcore enough, their third and greatest studio release kicked things off with unforeseen fury, as the opening track State of the Union is one of the most aggressive songs I've ever heard - musically it would be a bit too heavy for my taste, but considering the context behind the song and the point the band was making, it's perfect that it's so blistering. From thereon out, we're treated to a multitude of intense and tight songs that combine beautiful melodies and powerful lyrics with a fast-tempo hardcore punk feel that Rise Against does best.

After ten songs of non-stop intensity, first-time listeners are treated to a surprise - the band's first acoustic ballad, which takes the listener straight to Nirvana (the concept of liberation from the activities of the worldly mind in Buddhism, not the band). Swing Life Away is the last thing you'd expect to hear on such an album, but it's the perfect piece to the puzzle, and just the breath of fresh air one needs at that point. The social themes of Siren Song of the Counter Culture are still there, but they are dealt with in a more positive manner - the song is a love story between two lower-class citizens, who don't have much but they have each other.

After this moment of serenity is over, the band treats us to one more punk rock masterpiece, Rumors of My Demise Have Been Greatly Exaggerated, which is filled to the brim with motivational fist-pumping energy, making it my favorite song to listen to when struggling to write the last few paragraphs of a long essay or mustering the strength to keep running for the last stretch of a long jog. With these two final songs, as well as the hidden track cover of Black Flag's Fix Me, the band turns the narrative on its head and makes sure that their furious and explosive album ends, against all odds, on a positive and hopeful note. As a whole, it's nothing short of majestic.

1. The Beatles - Abbey Road (1969)

Here's the thing with Abbey Road, the final album that the Fab Four recorded together - it contains all the different ways in which music can be good. If you don't think of different types of good music in relation to genre, but rather in relation to what a good piece of music can accomplish, you can find many different ways in which music can be good. A great song can be a creative and barrier-breaking piece of art, a touching piece that resonates with you emotionally, a lyrically genius piece of poetry, a show of skills for the musicians involved, a catchy and memorable tune, a funny track that makes you smile and/or laugh, an epic larger-than-life experience, or just something that sounds really neat and is fun to listen to. And Abbey Road by The Beatles is the only individual album I can think of that contains all of these.

No matter what makes your taste in music click, I'm sure you'll find something on Abbey Road that you'll enjoy. You have the rocking banger energy of Come Together, the moving emotionality of Something, the mind-boggling vocal performance in Oh! Darling, the silly entertainment value of Octopus' Garden, the experimental creativity of Because, the ultimate feel-good comfort of Here Comes the Sun, the structural songwriting genius of You Never Give Me Your Money, the soothing calm of Golden Slumbers, and the Shakespearean epicness of The End, all on the same album. And nothing can beat that.

Thank you for reading! Music Month will continue next week, with a ranking of the music genres that are dearest to me.

Music Month: Top 10 Rock Songs of All Time

Greetings, reader!

Last March, I diverted from my usual themes of movies and television to do 'Literature Month'. It was fun to write about one of my other passions for a change, so now I'm doing a theme month again - this time for perhaps the biggest of my passions. Well, excluding coffee.

So, welcome to Music Month! I'll start off with a list of my favorite rock songs of all time - as some of my friends and family will know, I made one the biggest lists of my life a few years ago: the Top 100 Rock Songs of all time. I considered doing a blog post of the entire top 100, but I figured no one would read the whole thing with descriptions and all, so I'm just going with my all-time top ten. If you're interested in seeing the content of the entire list, click here for a Spotify playlist with the whole thing from #100 to #1.

Here are my honorable mentions: Green Day - Jesus of Suburbia, Iron Maiden - Brave New World, Less Than Jake - Look What Happened, Lynyrd Skynyrd - Free Bird, Toto - Rosanna.

10. Foo Fighters - Walk

"The sacrifice, the knowing to survive

The first decline, another state of mind

I'm on my knees, I'm praying for a sign

Forever, whenever, I never wanna die"

Some of the songs among my all-time favorites are there for more 'objectively' respectable reasons, such as creativity in songwriting, brilliant showing of instrumental skill, a unique groove or any number of things. Others are there for subjective reasons, and perhaps none more so than Walk, a song very personally important to myself. Mind you, it is boosted further by having an all-around great modern rock sound and composition that fits the lyrics and ideas, but it would be nowhere near my all-time top 10 if it weren't for the song's deeper meanings to me.

Throughout elementary school and junior high, I was bullied and struggled with loneliness and a ton of social problems that come with the phenomenon. When I entered high school, everything (and I truly mean everything) changed, as I was suddenly in a safe and welcoming environment where people were kind and friendly to me. This changed the quality of my life for the better in a way that has stuck with me, and Walk by Foo Fighters is a song that I listened to a lot during this transition. Its lyrics about recovering from trauma and finding oneself have always resonated with me, and the song often moves me to a point of tears.

When I saw Foo Fighters live in 2017, I noticed something strange. Whenever one of my other Foo Fighters favorites, like Monkey Wrench or The Pretender, was performed, my reaction was to jump up and down with excitement, screaming the lyrics at the top of my lungs, as is tradition during exceptionally awesome rock concerts. But when Walk came on, I froze into a completely other state of mind. I felt as if I was in a trance, as seeing a song so important to me played live was so powerful, that I just stood still and took it all in.

9. Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody

"Too late, my time has come

Sent shivers down my spine, body's aching all the time

Goodbye, everybody, I've got to go

Gotta leave you all behind and face the truth"

The magnum opus of one of rock music's greatest bands is worth all the hype. While the song is somewhat opinion-splitting among diehard fans of rock, as many see it as overrated and worn out, I strongly disagree - first of all, if you're sick of hearing it for the 5000th time, let's still appreciate that the song is so good that the world loves it to the point where you hear the song everywhere you go. And secondly, I personally still get a kick out of Bohemian Rhapsody every time. Even though I've heard it more times than almost any other song. That doesn't matter. Every time I hear Freddie belt that last "FOR MEEEEEEE", with the band launching into one of the most rocking riffs of all, I feel the urge to headbang like I'm in Wayne's World (1992).

And even though I get the point that songs like this lose some of their appeal when listened for the millionth time, I don't think that's a fair merit to judge a song on - it's not Queen's fault that they made a song so epic that everyone wants to listen to it all the time. When considering my favorite songs of all time, and important viewpoint is remembering what it was like to hear the song for the first time, and what sort of reaction it caused when first discovered. And when listened to for the first time, Bohemian Rhapsody is a journey in a category of its own. The mysterious intro transitioning into a beautiful ballad, then taken via a heartwrenching guitar solo into a magnificent opera section, after which the band lets loose and rocks out in an adrenalizing fashion, followed by the bittersweet epilogue-like outro - this song is just something else.

8. The Beatles - All You Need Is Love

"Nothing you can make that can't be made

No one you can save that can't be saved

Nothing you can do, but you can learn how to be you in time

It's easy"

A grandiose intro sampling La Marseillaise, a goofy horn section, serene vocal melodies and joyful rhythms create the atmosphere to this ultimate feel-good anthem. The message of the song is not only important, but to my specific worldview, quite possibly the most important of them all. You might feel that the message is obvious and something you know already, but it is something that humanity keeps forgetting again and again - hence all the wars, all the violence and all the Vladimir Putins. So it's good to keep this song and its message in mind, and close to your chest.

The song ends in a breathtakingly gorgeous mess, where everything simultaneously reaches a point of climax but also falls apart, all while we hear short melodies and snippets from earlier Beatles hits, signifying that the song itself was a sort of climax for the band's career and a nostalgic look at what they've accomplished. The song is made even more powerful when considering its historical context, with the growing civil rights movement reminding the world more than ever that love truly is all we need. Love yourself and each other!

7. Don McLean - American Pie

"And in the streets, the children screamed

The lovers cried, and the poets dreamed

But not a word was spoken

The church bells all were broken

And the three men I admire most

The Father, Son and the Holy Ghost

They caught the last train for the coast

The day the music died"

Shivers. Absolute shivers. This folk rock epic takes the viewer on a magnificent journey, at the heart of which is the tragic 1959 plane crash where early rock icons Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and The Big Popper were killed. In the grand tradition of American folk rock, the song isn't simply a story about the crash, but rather a broad look at everything around it - the cultural landscape where Holly and company broke through, the culture that they paved in, and the ways in which their deaths affected the world around them.

For a song about such a tragedy, a majority of American Pie is remarkably joyful, which plays into the philosophy of reacting to a loved one's passing by celebrating their life rather than wallowing in sorrow. It's a beautiful tribute to the legends of early rock, a staple of American culture, and by the time the immensely touching final verse arrives, a tear-jerking emotional journey.

6. The Who - Baba O' Riley

"OUT HERE IN THE FIELDS

I FIGHT FOR MY MEALS

I GET MY BACK INTO MY LIVING

I DON'T NEED TO FIGHT

TO PROVE I'M RIGHT

I DON'T NEED TO BE FORGIVEN"

If you're wondering why I wrote my choice of lyrics in all caps, listen to the song and it'll become clear that there's no other way to write down the way in which Roger Daltrey belts the lyrics out for the whole world to hear. Oh, and before you do that, be sure to crank the volume up. Preferably you'll be listening from some high-quality speakers or headphones. If any song deserves to be heard only with good quality and a loud volume, it's this one.

Baba O' Riley is largely responsible for the existence of this list. A friend of mine had encouraged me to do a "Top 100 rock songs of all time" list for a long time, but it always fell through because I felt that sorting out the very top ones would be impossible - there were between 30 and 50 songs that felt like they would need to be in the top 10, and it would be immensely difficult even for a list-making-maestro like myself to compare such masterpieces to each other. But, after having these thoughts for a long time, I came across Baba O' Riley (through headphones, with volume at the maximum) which I hadn't listened to in a while. And I realized immediately that this is one of those few songs that I know would be in the top ten. As close to each other as the best rock songs are in terms of quality, I could immediately say that to me, Baba O'Riley is better than any Pink Floyd song, any Guns N' Roses song, and pretty much any song ever made with just a few possible exceptions. And that made me realize that the list is doable.

While the rest of the song is hellishly good as well, it's the intro that scores the highest points. About half of my Spotify playlists begin with this song, because I find it to be the world's best song to open a playlist with, by a long shot. I remember my friend Olli and I finishing our last shift of our awesome but exhausting summer job, realizing that the ordeal was finally over and starting our drive back home, when Olli asked me to put some good music on as the road trip started. I asked him to crank the volume to the max, and I started blasting Baba O' Riley. And at that moment, it was nothing short of a spiritual experience.

5. Rage Against the Machine - Killing in the Name

"Some of those that work forces

Are the same that burn crosses"

That line, repeated a multitude of times throughout Rage Against the Machine's most iconic song, is one of my all-time favorite lyrics. It's such a perfect take on the still-relevant issue of police brutality: the use of the word 'some' makes sure that the point isn't to vilify all cops, but the allusion to the KKK is one hell of a powerful reminder on how terrifying racism in law enforcement is, even when it is just 'some of those' that commit the act. The powerful lyrics are accompanied by brilliant guitar wailing from Tom Morello, drumming that escalates from atmosphere-building cowbell shenanigans to maximum-power-drum-banging from Brad Wilik, and passionate rapping and screaming by frontman Zack De La Rocha. The fake ending, which leads to a build-up into the even crazier real ending, is a trope familiar from many Rage songs, but it's at its very best here. The insane, chaotic brutality of the ending is so fitting when considering what the song is about and the fury it causes.

In the summer of 2020, there was a day when I was alone in my parents' house, watching news coverage of the Black Lives Matter protests in the aftermath of George Floyd's murder. The killing itself, not to mention the sheer violence in the police response to peaceful protests in its wake, got to a point that I had to turn the news off and process my feelings by channeling it into music - I went to my drum kit, blasted Killing In the Name through my headphones on full volume, and played along on the drums, hitting them hard while thinking about the song's subject matter and how topical it still is. And let me tell you, it was therapeutic as hell.

4. Rush - YYZ

I didn't choose a lyrical line to represent my all-time favorite progressive rock song, because the instrumental piece doesn't have any in it. YYZ represents everything I love about Rush, and the prog genre they belong to - using their immense knowledge and understanding of music theory as well as their wild imaginations, the trio created this genius piece that utilizes complex rhythms, exotic melodic scales and neat harmonies to sound thoroughly unique and groundbreaking.

From the chills-down-your-spine intro where my all-time favorite drummer Neil Peart taps his bell cymbal in the 5/4 rhythm that spells "YYZ" in morse code, through the various jamming sections and solos to the climactic half-tempo part with its epic synth sounds and drum fills, no other song grooves in quite a similar way as YYZ.

Peart's magnificent drumming, Geddy Lee's creative bass playing and Alex Lifeson's out-of-the-box guitar licks play so well together, that the song manages to feel like a group of musicians just having a blast and jamming together, while also feeling like an artistic and carefully written masterpiece, as the trio manages to play such difficult things with such ease. Out of this world.

3. Rise Against - Hero of War

"And the shells jumped through the smoke

And into the sand that the blood now has soaked

She collapsed, with a flag in her hand

A flag white as snow"

An acoustic ballad by a modern punk rock band might not be what you expected to see on a list of the greatest-ever rock songs. But, to me personally, that is exactly where Rise Against's emotionally devastating masterpiece ought to be. It's a song that moves me to tears every time, a song that has affected my worldview more than any other, and a song that has the best damn lyrics of all time in my opinion. And it is once again painfully relevant.

What makes Hero of War into such a pitch-perfect anti-war song is the fact that it tells its story through the narrative of a very pro-war individual. Instead of being high and mighty and singing about how evil and wrong the concept of war is to you and me, Tim McIlrath tells a story from the point of view of a young man from an unnamed country. This individual wants to become a soldier, fight for his country and kill his enemies with blind loyalty, because that is all he has ever known. He comes from a place so torn by war, that there are no higher aspirations or ideals of peace and diplomacy to aspire to. And to woefully many around the world, such an existence is real, as Hero of War reminds listeners in a painful manner.

By the time you get to the third verse, where this mislead narrator is forced to fire his gun on an innocent civilian woman, the song's anti-war message will pierce your heart and make you question humanity's violent tendencies in a staggeringly powerful manner. This song played a part in my journey to choosing civil service over the army, it played a part in my embracement of pacifism and being an active citizen, and overall it played a part in making me the man I am today. Thank you, Rise Against.

2. The Rolling Stones - Gimme Shelter

"Ooh, see the fire is sweeping

Our very streets today

Burns like a red coal carpet

Mad bull lost its way"

And then for the more conventional classics that you'd expect to see on a "Top 10 rock songs of all time" list. I love a song with a unique atmosphere, one that you can't quite describe with words no matter how analytical you try to get, and that is exactly what Gimme Shelter accomplishes. I arranged and performed this song in my high school music diploma concert, and I remember forcing my lineup to watch a video where this song plays to the backdrop of imagery from the Vietnam War, JFK's presidency, Civil Rights protests and other world events from the decade that preceded this song's composition, so that they could all get into the mindset of "Okay, it's the year 1969, we're the Rolling Stones, let's play some fucking rock n' roll".

While every part of this iconic piece of music, from the harmonica solo to the post-solo chorus with guest vocalist Merry Clayton's soul-piercing vocals, deserve to be praised, there is one part in particular that helps Gimme Shelter rise all the way to the second spot. And that is the intro, which I consider to be the greatest intro of all time.

When this particular riff with its intriguing harmonies, played with a thoroughly unique guitar sound, starts to play, as the other instruments start to slowly join in and build up, I get a chill beyond anything words can describe. From the drum fills to the low piano octaves to the wailing lead guitar's entrance, everything in this intro is pitch perfect, and the atmosphere it creates is compelling as hell - which is why Gimme Shelter has been used in a multitude of great movie and television scenes, always to a powerful effect.

Whether it's setting the mood to the opening scene of Best Picture winner The Departed, signalling that some shit is about to go down in Scorsese films Goodfellas and Casino, signalling that some shit is about to go down in Dexter, or signaling that some shit is about to go down in Person of Interest, I think it's safe to say that nothing boring is going to happen anytime after this intro starts to play in a movie or TV series. It feels like an approaching storm (fitting the lyrics well), but not in the traditionally suspenseful sense, but rather in an exciting "OH MAN, I CAN'T WAIT TO SEE WHAT HAPPENS NEXT" fashion.

1. AC/DC - It's a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock N' Roll)

"Gettin' robbed, gettin' stoned

Gettin' beat up, broken-boned

Gettin' had, gettin' took

I tell you folks, it's harder than it looks"

Along with Chuck Berry's Johnny B. Goode and The Beatles' Come Together, this is one of the three songs that define rock n' roll for me. And out of these three songs that represent rock music at its purest, It's a Long Way to the Top is the most dear to me, the most raw and real, the most memorable and simply the best. The song begins with exactly the sort of perfectly simple and rocking guitar riff that you'd expect from AC/DC, after which the rest of the band joins along in an exciting manner. The lyrics are at the very peak of the 'street poetry' that AC/DC's Bon Scott era is known for, and Scott belts them out with just the right attitude.

Also, we need to discuss the bagpipe. It will forever remain an inexplicable mystery how the world's least experimental band, known worldwide for doing the same simple no-risk garage rock thing for five decades, somehow came up with the idea of adding a bagpipe solo to the otherwise very conventional opening track of their debut album, and how this bagpipe solo on top of a raw and dirty rock tune ended up being the best-sounding thing ever recorded. The entrance of the bagpipe after the chorus is what I like to call the ultimate "AWWW YISSS" moment, and after all these years I still can't wrap my head around how it sounds so perfect and so much better than it has any right to.

For me, It's a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock N' Roll) is synonymous with rock music, and despite having listened to it hundreds and hundreds of times throughout my life, I still squeal with excitement every damn time I hear that opening riff.

Thank you for reading! Tune in next Thursday, as Music Month continues with a ranking of my top 10 favorite albums of all time.