What, pray tell, is an Earworm Challenge, and how are we already on the second one? An Earworm Challenge is something I made up for fun; it’s when you make a note of every single song that gets stuck in your head for an entire day, and create a playlist out of those songs to share with others. I did this a little bit ago, and my 14-year-old, Miranda, took the challenge right along with me, and I wrote about it HERE. It was a lot of fun, and I’d like to make this a thing, if I can get enough people on board with it.
Since I’m wanting to share a new playlist here every week, I thought I’d do the Earworm Challenge again, and I’ll probably do it every couple of weeks or so. This time I left out a song or two. There was at least one that I refused to add because I don’t like it (might’ve been two, I didn’t write them down), and another that I don’t know the name of, just an idea of who sings it (I thiiiiink it’s Chicago), and by the time I was at a space to stop what I was doing and figure it out, I’d forgotten which song it was and how it went. Oops. This time, there was only one artist that had multiple entries, and that’s AJR. At least one of the songs that got stuck were direct results of another playlist I was working on, Super Good Album Closers. Anyway, I’ll add more notes about a few of the songs after the list, so without further ado, here is my Earworm Challenge playlist for February 27th.
Notes on some of the tracks:
Favorite Liar, by the Wrecks: this is a band that is new to me, thanks to Miranda. I kinda like them a lot. They remind me of American Authors and Colony House, for different reasons. This is a good song, catchy and fun to scream along with.
Unsteady, by X-Ambassadors: Suuuch an underrated and powerful song. It still gives me chills.
Lucky, by Seven Mary Three: this is a lesser-known song of theirs, that got some radio play, but not the recognition it deserves. Everyone knows Cumbersome, but forgets about or just never heard Lucky. I love the Mean Mr Mustard references.
A Million Ways, by OK Go: If you’ve never seen any of their music videos, stop what you’re doing right this second and go watch one. Better yet, I’ll link this one. It’s not even their best video, but all of them are bloody brilliant (and usually shot in one take). The absolute best is Here It Goes Again, but alas, that is not the song I had stuck in my head on Tuesday. Anyway, this may send you down an OK Go video rabbit hole. And I took my own advice and totally stopped what I was doing and watched this video when I went to retrieve the link for you. You’re welcome.
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All Together Now, by the Beatles: This came directly as a result of Miranda watching Yellow Submarine the day before. Kind of a lesser known song, I’d say, but it is in that movie. We hadn’t watched it in forever, but it was M’s favorite movie for years when she was much smaller. Her love for the Beatles started with me both finding a Yellow Submarine t-shirt for her as a toddler and singing the song to her a bunch. I even made her a Bedtime Beatles playlist on my iTunes to help her go to sleep when she was about 5. Anyway, if you listen to this one, you’ll quickly understand how it can easily get stuck in one’s head.
Plush, by Stone Temple Pilots: After stepping out onto the deck to call the dogs back in, I said, “It’s raining outside.” Ian responded with, “But is it raining in your bedroom?” and that’s all it took.
Steve’s Going to London, by AJR: Miranda took a really cool picture of her shoes reflected in the glass doors in the frozen food section at the grocery store. She wanted to put it on Facebook, and I suggested adding a song to it. She was stumped as to which song would fit, and I immediately thought of this one because of the bridge that starts out, “I tried hard to write a cool song, so I start with something simple like trying to put my shoes on.” She loved it, the song fit her photo perfectly, and we spent the rest of our grocery trip singing about Steve and friends. An incredibly infectious tune, this one.
Goner, by Twenty One Pilots: I was working on the aforementioned playlist of great album closers, and this one came to mind, as it’s the final track on their Blurry Face album. I didn’t put it on the list because I had already included them once with Truce from the Vessel album. Might end up including duplicate artists anyway, this band being one reason for it. Such a powerful song!
Overture, by AJR: Specifically, the Overture from The Click. Three of their albums open with an Overture, and this is the one I know the best. It’s also my favorite.
Safari Song, by Greta Van Fleet: I would love to hear the isolated vocal tracks on this, because this guy’s voice is incredible. If you’ve never listened to this band, do. Definitely Led Zeppelin vibes.
So that’s this week’s playlist. How ‘bout you? Ready to give the Earworm Challenge a go? If you do, please leave us a link to your playlist in the comments! I’d love to hear what gets stuck in your brain. Maybe we can inspire each other here. See you next week!
Serendipitous moment! All Together Now was stuck in my head this morning when I woke.