The Livin End - End Of The World

This song appears on the soundtrack to Tony Hawk's Underground 2, it still one of the most popular songs from the Modern Artillery album.

The Horrible Crowes - Behold The Hurricane

The Horrible Crowes are a side project formed by Gaslight Anthem frontman Brian Fallon with his guitar Tech, Ian Perkins. Fallon explained on his blog, "The name comes from a poem called the Twa Corbies, which means, 'two crows.' Check it out, it's a dark commentary on life." This was the first single released by the band and it was made available for streaming through RollingStone.com on July 13, 2011.

Sum 41 - Screaming Bloody Murder

Frontman Deryck Whibley went through a rough patch during the writing of Screaming Bloody Murder, starting in 2009 with his wife of three years, Avril Lavigne, filing for divorce. The Canadian singer told MTV News that after coming through the other side, he found a happiness he's never known before: "I wrote a lot of these songs in a dark period, because, going through the divorce period was a very hard, dark time," he said. "And what I realized, I guess, is, when you're going through something — whether it's a death in the family, a divorce, something that's very unexpected and painful — you go super, super low, and then when you can come out of it, what you thought was your highest point becomes even higher. And that's where I'm at now, and that's where I was at making the record. When I was writing it, it was in the low period, and now I'm at a highest point that I didn't know existed."

Switchfoot - Dark Horses

Writing for The Huffington Post was an interesting transition for Foreman. Speaking about how it relates to his songwriting, Foreman said: "It's really hard to fit a complex idea into a 3-minute pop song. And when you're dealing with issues that you're passionate about, usually they have various levels. And within a poem, you can get around the issue of space, and in a song the same way, by simply leaving holes and alluding to what you're talking about. And there's all sorts of ways to do it. With an essay, you actually have to be a little bit more forthcoming and prove what you're trying to say. So to that end, the song can be a little bit more of the mystery and leave the whole thing open ended. But there's something really gratifying, as well, about saying exactly what you mean. And I've really enjoyed those essays for that reason."

Staind - Not Again

Relationships within the band were at their lowest ebb during the recording of Staind. Things deteriorated to the extent that singer Aaron Lewis and Mike Mushok were barely speaking to one another and longtime drummer Jon Wysocki departed from the band following the recording process in May 2011. Lewis told Audio Ink Radio this track reflected the difficult process of laying down the album. He said: "It all manifested itself through the song - the duress and struggle that it was to make this record."

Snow Patrol - Called Out In The Dark

This is the lead single by alternative rock group Snow Patrol, from their sixth studio album. The song was written by the band's frontman Gary Lightbody, and produced by Jacknife Lee, who has worked on their previous three sets. It was recorded in Topanga Canyon in Los Angeles. The single premiered on Zane Lowe's Radio 1 show on July 21, 2011 and was released on September 2, 2011.
This song, along with other tracks on Fallen Empires, finds Snow Patrol venturing into dance territory. Lightbody told The Sun: "I've always DJed and dance music has always been a big part of our lives, but it's never really been part of the music. So we just let go a little bit this time."

Sigur Rós - Hoppípolla

This was issued as a single in the UK after becoming ubiquitous on BBC in late Spring 2006. It was used as the background music for the trailers for Sir David Attenborough's natural history series, Planet Earth, for the closing credits of the BBC's coverage of the 2006 FA Cup final, and to promote their coverage of the 2006 soccer World Cup.

Some of lyrics are in Icelandic and some in Hopelandish, the language invented by the band's songwriter, Jon 'Jonsi' Birgisson.

 

 

Santana - Smooth

Rob Thomas of Matchbox Twenty sang lead on this, but when he was writing it he thought they were going to use someone else. He and Shur would try to figure out who they would get to sing it, but then Arista contacted Thomas and asked him to do it.

Many of the lyrics are Thomas' ode to his wife, who is Puerto Rican ("My Mu Equita" translates to "My Little Doll" in Spanish). She ended up in the video.

 

 

Seether - Country Song

The song got it's title from its swampy verse riff. Frontman Shaun Morgan explained the track's meaning in a Seether newsletter: "In some ways I guess I was dealing with growing up and having to make better life choices. It's definitely not Country, but we recorded the album in Nashville, and felt like it was a small homage to such a wonderful city."

Ryan Adams - Lucky Now

The song's reflective lyrics of a bleak reality while never giving up hope is based on Adams' time in New York in his 20s. The track was originally written about Chris Feinstein, who played bass guitar for Ryan Adams & The Cardinals between 2007 and 2009. On December 15, 2009, he was found dead in his New York City apartment. Speaking to BBC 6 Music, Adams explained: "The first version was called 'Chris.' I was trying to write a song for my friend and former bandmate who passed away. The song I wrote was too direct, and I realised that there needed to be more self-reflection. I needed to make this feeling relatable to others, so that it could be relatable back to myself. In some strange way, it needed to be more altruistic, by being more first-person. It's a very strange concept, but when I listen to songs, I need to feel the narrator's shoes rubbing against my feet, you know? I needed to put myself in that place."
The version that appears on Ashes & Fire is the revised second draft. 

Queen - One Vision

Queen was inspired to write this by their Live Aid appearance in 1985 - millions of people sharing one vision of a better world.

When the band was approached to perform at Live Aid, they were in a rut and reticent to appear. But after their show-stopping performance, they re-entered the studio with renewed energy. They were back in Munich (a place they had previously hit trouble during the Hot Space sessions), but this time spent a lot of time working in the studio, not being distracted by drugs or other distractions - unlike the earlier sessions.

Queen - Who Wants To Live Forever

Queen was commissioned to write this for the movie Highlander, and Brian May wrote it after watching the first cut of the film. He wrote the line "Who wants to live forever" in a cab on his way home from the viewing of the film. Inspiration came from the scene where Connor Macleod (Christopher Lambert) takes his dying wife Heather (Biettie Edney) in his arms at the time of her death. This is also the scene where the song is played.

In the film, Freddie Mercury sings the first verse, but on the album, Brian May sings the first verse and Freddie sings the rest.

 

 

Metallica - 2x4

Great song from the Load album.

 

Manic Street Preachers - Motorcycle Emptiness

This slice of bitter angst originated when producer Steve Brown spliced together two early Manic songs "Go Buzz Baby Go"(with which it shares the chord structure and the phrase "Motorcycle Emptiness") and "Behave Yourself Baby." James Dean Bradfield then transformed the hybrid with a guitar figure that came to him in a dream.

Nicky Wire and Richey Edwards' lyrics were inspired by S.E. Hinton's novel about biker gangs, Rumble Fish. They attack the false idols of teen pop culture and the hollowness of the Western consumer lifestyle. "A six minute song about alienation and despair," was how Wire described the song's message to BBC Wales.
Some of the words were taken from the poem Neon Lonliness by Wire's poet brother, Patrick Jones.

 

 

Saliva - Badass

The band wrote this song with their producer Bobby Huff, who came up with the idea during their first songwriting sesson. "Bobby Huff had an idea for where he wanted the song to go, and he had a rough idea for the chorus," Saliva guitarist Wayne Swinny said: "We sat down in the studio; I had a guitar, and he had his phone with his little ideas that he hummed into it, and we put together a song really quick and easy."
"It was meant to be one of those 'sports anthem kind of songs,'" Swinny continued. "A lot of our songs, whether they were intended that way or not - most of them weren't - they just lend themselves to sporting events."

Ray Davies and Jackson Browne - Waterloo Sunset

Written by Kinks lead singer Ray Davies, he called this "a romantic, lyrical song about my older sister's generation."
Waterloo Bridge is in London, and the lyrics are about a guy looking out of a window at two lovers meeting at Waterloo Station. Davies used to cross Waterloo Bridge every day when he was a student at Croydon Art School.

Ray Davies brought this to the band while they were in the middle of recording the album. He was reluctant to share the lyrics because they were so personal. In a Rolling Stone magazine interview, his brother (and Kinks guitarist) Dave Davies said Ray felt "it was like an extract from a diary nobody was allowed to read."

 

 

Manic Street Preachers - Your Love Alone Is Not Enough

This song is a male-female duet between the Cardigans' Nina Persson and the Manics' James Dean Bradfield.
Bassist and lyricist Nicky Wire told Q magazine June 2009 that this song is about "suicide and connections with people who are gone."

Jack's Mannequin - My Racing Thoughts

It was this song which led to the theme running throughout the record. Said McMahon: "Marriage is a bit of a beast to tackle in a pop record but when I wrote 'My Racing Thoughts,' it became clear how powerful and loaded a subject this kind of love is and somewhere in that moment I began to lock into the broad concept for the writing sessions to come." The song was released as a single on August 2, 2011.

Radiohead - Lotus Flower

The King of Limbs is the eighth studio album by English alternative rock band Radiohead. Produced by Nigel Godrich, it was initially released as a download in MP3 and WAV formats, followed by a physical CD a month later. "Lotus Flower" was chosen by the group as the first single from the album. It was made available on February 18, 2011 when Radiohead's official blog published the song with an accompanying video, followed by a post announcing the release of the album.

Pulp - Do You Remember The First Time?

To promote the single, Jarvis Cocker put together a collection of interviews with celebrities recounting their "first times." The resulting 25-minute film features the likes of John Peel, Jo Brand, Vic Reeves & Bob Mortimer, Alison Steadman, Viv Stanshall and Justine Frischman of Elastica revealing their losses of virginity. Fun Boy Terry Hall has perhaps the best line: "She was into the Bay City Rollers, which put me off a bit. But not enough."
Whilst not necessarily the band's breakthrough single, Jarvis Cocker has described "Do You Remember The First Time?" as "the day modern-day Pulp was born."
This was where the signature sound of the band came together after the many years of experimentation and lineup changes that had proceeded.

Halász Judit - Az én apukám

Judit Halász is a very popular actress and singer with several high-ranking honours. She is the Goodwill Ambassador of UNICEF in Hungary.
This is a great song for children from her, called "My Daddy".