All Time Favorites

[Linzolle]

This was the song that got me into Celldweller (as it did a lot of folks), unfortunately the remix that I heard specifically on Newgrounds has been lost to me. I don't know if its even still there, it probably is, but I can't seem to find it. It was in like a geometry dash knock off back in like... 2009-ish? I know this song was in Dead Rising but I found it through Newgrounds.

man i used to listen to SOOOO much celldweller like, ten years ago. i don't even remember how i first got introduced to them, but weirdly i think it would through either like Blackstar or So Long Sentiment and i only went back to listen to the first album later

[Yardley]

If I introduce just one person to the epic ASTROPUP by super-awesome Army Of Moths, it will have been a successful day. It's a song about a superhero space dog. What's not to love?

[StarlightNecromancer]

This was the song that got me into Celldweller (as it did a lot of folks), unfortunately the remix that I heard specifically on Newgrounds has been lost to me. I don't know if its even still there, it probably is, but I can't seem to find it. It was in like a geometry dash knock off back in like... 2009-ish? I know this song was in Dead Rising but I found it through Newgrounds.

man i used to listen to SOOOO much celldweller like, ten years ago. i don't even remember how i first got introduced to them, but weirdly i think it would through either like Blackstar or So Long Sentiment and i only went back to listen to the first album later

He got back the rights to one of his old projects too! He's got Circle of Dust now and he's pretty often mixing the sounds of Celldweller, Scandroid, and Circle of Dust these days

[Linzolle]

This was the song that got me into Celldweller (as it did a lot of folks), unfortunately the remix that I heard specifically on Newgrounds has been lost to me. I don't know if its even still there, it probably is, but I can't seem to find it. It was in like a geometry dash knock off back in like... 2009-ish? I know this song was in Dead Rising but I found it through Newgrounds.

man i used to listen to SOOOO much celldweller like, ten years ago. i don't even remember how i first got introduced to them, but weirdly i think it would through either like Blackstar or So Long Sentiment and i only went back to listen to the first album later

He got back the rights to one of his old projects too! He's got Circle of Dust now and he's pretty often mixing the sounds of Celldweller, Scandroid, and Circle of Dust these days

definitely awesome that he's still doing it and mixing stuff together these days, I don't think I've really heard anything since Offworld, glad he's still doin it

[Micolithe]

We Shall All Be Healed is not the most popular, or strictly speaking even the best Mountain Goats album, but it is the most *textbook* mountain goats album. This is the one that is what I like about the mountain goats in it's most direct form.

If there is one song that has had the most impact in my life, it's Manic Street Preachers' "If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next". Back when I was a kid, I basically only listened to bangers - if a song wanted my acceptance it had to be energetic and it had to be upbeat, and I'd skip every single ballad (and most mid-tempos) in the Now-style compilations I mostly listened to at the time.

Then this track just appears out of nowhere in 1998 and completely rewires my brain. It's sad, it's aching, it's decidedly not a banger, but it hits me. I don't understand most of the words or the meaning (non-native English speaker here) but the haunting emotion just grips me, and the wordless vocals of the outro didn't even need to cross the language barrier to sound so powerful. It opened a whole new world of music for me and the next several years would find me digging deeper into indie and alt rock, full of that pre- and post-millennium anxiety, shaping my music taste massively. It also spiralled me deeper into the Manics' back catalogue and if there's one band that defines my teens, it's the Manics.

Manic Street Preachers rule and this album has the earliest example of a Transgender Ballad that I can think of where the writer has not transitioned (unless there's some relatively recent news I am not privvy to but I feel like I would've heard?)


As long as we're in Wales, I'm a long time Super Furry Animals fan, they were the first concert I ever went to that wasn't a local band playing in a barbecue restaurant after closing. I have a massive print of the Radiator cover on my living room wall.


Additionally, I'd like to thank System of a Down for radicalizing me rather than leading me to despair in my world of being in high school immediately post-9/11

[Cayman]

As always, you've got great taste, Micolithe.

I got to have a good conversation with a random guy who stopped into my shop about the influences on our musical tastes, and it's still fresh in my mind. I was one of those types that was "Linkin Park only until exactly age 15 then everything exploded as I developed actual musical taste." Pop punk was a huge influence on me and is still a favorite genre, but I stumbled into some electronic music early that had an outsized influence on my tastes.

In some strange twist of fate, I bought the full CD version of Boards of Canada's "Campfire Headphase" on a whim when I was forming my idea of music...literally just picked it out of a lineup and was like "that looks cool." It was one of my first moments of putting something on my headphones, and my eyes widening as I could feel my brain being rewired. Dayvan Cowboy is still one of my favorite tracks of all time.



I also had an uncle that, in retrospect, could definitely sense my formative tastes and also probably my sexual identity that was so close to a breakthrough. He burnt me a copy of Moby's "Play." Moby was razzed, elbowed, and ridiculed a lot for being "dorky techno" at his peak, but damn if this album didn't have a massive influence on me. Porcelain still sticks out to me as a standout, and to me just feels like the early 2000s. The Frutiger Aero of music.



Fun fact: the same day I got Boards of Canada, I also got another CD for free. (CDs were about to die out in the era of Napster, and I already had a primordial MP3 player pre-iPod. They were just giving away their stock at that point!). That happened to be Radiohead's "Kid A." For some reason, it didn't hit my brain as hard as Boards of Canada did, but it's an album I kept in my back pocket for years, listening to it here and there when the mood struck. The first track, Everything In Its Right Place, still gives me chills, though.

[niss]

after some consideration, i think my Favourite Song Of My Life is: it's getting boring by the sea by blood red shoes.



back when me and my friends were leaving high school and going to universities all across the country, there was a small music festival in oxfordshire we would go to every year. it was on a farm. one of the stages was in a barn and smelled like it too. it is still going, apparently! we haven't been in about a decade, but it looks like they still have the barn stage.

the last year that we went, my boyfriend at the time was finally able to come too. so i have treasured memories of all of us watching the band play this as their finale in a stinky barn.

and then it appeared in the scott pilgrim movie, so most people who have heard it at all know it from there. oh well.

(the other candidates i was considering were radio protector by 65daysofstatic, and you! me! dancing! by los campesinos!, both of which we also saw live at the same festival at various points.)

[wolfears]

pure concentrated yearning. this track haunts me

[Flint]

Manic Street Preachers rule and this album has the earliest example of a Transgender Ballad that I can think of where the writer has not transitioned (unless there's some relatively recent news I am not privvy to but I feel like I would've heard?)

Naw, Nicky Wire's never come out as transgender. If anything, his interest in/vocal expression of his feminine side has decreased over the years - but on the flipside he's also become much more focused on his cultural heritage as a Welshman and is increasingly obsessed about ~the past~, so all other topics have been pushed to the wayside as a result.

That said, there's a part of me that reads through late-period lyrics by Richey (particularly the ones unveiled through Journal for Plague Lovers) and gets the impression that he clearly wasn't comfortable in his skin in very many and sometimes leaning-on dysphoric ways, and maybe not being able to process that was part of the reason for his downfall. Buuuuut I do wonder if that's just a very 2025 queer media analysis way of looking at things, and it feels a bit off to speculate on stuff like this about someone who's not here anymore and who left behind cryptic fragments at best.

[Micolithe]

Buuuuut I do wonder if that's just a very 2025 queer media analysis way of looking at things, and it feels a bit off to speculate on stuff like this about someone who's not here anymore and who left behind cryptic fragments at best.

I think unless the signs were completely obvious in retrospect, then assuming musicians who are no longer with us were depressed because they were trans is pure speculation... It could be possibe, and I'm sure statistically it must have happened! But we'll never know for sure.

[JackieTheJackie]

I am a creature of spite.
I found this song while not doing so hot, and I fully blame it for my continued being around. Every time it comes on, I can just feel the energy spike, and I get a much-needed second wind. For that, I'd say this is my favourite singular song to date

[sutter]

The closing track of one of my all-time favorite albums, "Tomorrow, Wendy" by Concrete Blonde.

[DarkOverord]

So my taste in music was developing in 2004/2005 and I was DARING to watch Kerrang on Sky TV when my parents were out and I by chance turned it on and saw this video



Nemo by Nightwish honestly basically just pivoted my entire taste in music OOPS and I basically rushed to get the album, Once, as soon as I properly tracked down what it was (I missed the little intro card saying who it was the first time). Pity I'm very bad exploring more music and listening to stuff : ) (I'm trying to get better at it)

Anyway since then the other track that never leaves my brain is Floor Jansen's vocals on Storytime ha ha smiles

[hanalei]

I don't usually like to speak in superlatives, but I can truthfully say that "Take Me Home" by Phil Collins is the most important song to me. When I was in kindergarten or 1st grade, my father made a video about me -- basically a music video set to this song with Hi8 camcorder footage of me. He made another one for my sister. It was a gift.

I really cannot watch the video anymore because of Gender Reasons, but the song will always signify my parents' love.

[Araphel]

i dont think there is one answer to what my favorite song is that would be silly. but i definitely remember this album coming out as a major moment for me in my life. i remember being super excited for it, and being a huge tyler the creator fan, and rushing to listen to it the MORNING it came out. i think as someone with very eclectic music taste i admire how this song blends so many genres i love like hip hop, and pop so seemlessly, and in a way thats not overwhelming but rather creates something that can be poppy but sound so unique. also this album really sparked a fascination with music production for me because of how unique it sounds.