Arts & Culture

You may not listen to Justin Bieber a lot or at all by choice, but the words from his latest effort with Ed Sheeran are a go-to for being over everything that there is to be over. If cancel culture is not the top news maker of 2019 I will have to cancel whatever beats out cancel culture.

Back in my day, we used to just have angry music. It was great. It was "Paralyzer" by Finger Eleven or "What the Hell" by Avril Lavigne. Sorry Gen X, Alanis Morissette was just a little too ironic to be angry. Baby Boomers... okay, I've heard of Paul Anka, but I don't know the words to his music. If a song came up on YouTube I may recognize it from the radio. I think he was considered the Justin of his time and I doubt the songs were angry.

Angry music is the best. It also includes whatever you play when you are upset to get those feelings out. Recently I listened to "Missundaztood" again. P!nk is a similar age and demographic to me, so it was nice to just go back and remember why I love her music. Can we make her an honorary Canadian? You can be in the worst mood and if you put on the right CD (in case you haven't heard of CDs, they are a round disc that stores MP3s) suddenly you can just accept the angry moment for what it is and say to yourself "at least I'm not alone." 

So I thought as the year comes to a close I would do a 2019 angry music countdown of my favourite Canadian tunes, to help usher out all those alone feels. 

5. Céline Dion - Courage, 2019.

Céline does everything well. 

4. Toronto Mendelssohn Choir - Fantasie sur la Tempête de Shakespeare, 2019.

I wanted to include Grimes originally but the only recent release I could find was "Pynk" by Janelle Monáe off of the Dirty Computer album. It's a cute song, just not an angry song. Classical is great angry music! Especially if you are in a pinch as any classical music will do. 

3. Bülow - "Sweet Little Lies", 2019. Music available through Hoopla.

Having spent time in Toronto and filmed videos here, Bülow tunes count as Canadian content at least in my opinion. The Movements II album has a song about Nova Scotia after all, but my angry tune is actually "Sweet Little Lies", 2019. Watch the music video.

2. Strombellas - Rattlesnake, 2019.

"Salvation" was released in 2018, however it's still played on the radio now and came out on CD in 2019. Because it's one of my current faves I can bend my own rule and put it in the number two spot. 

1. Ed Sheeran - "I Don't Care", featuring Justin Bieber, 2019.

"When I'm with my baby yeah, all the bad things disappear, you have me thinking that maybe I'm somebody." I think that's how is goes, but it's true so even though it's overplayed I give it top spot.  

All are welcome to suggest songs or albums that you enjoy when you have the blues, or the song you consider your mood.