Amph WMMR's Top 35 Rock Songs of 2011. Full List Posted.

#24: Five Finger Death Punch, "Bad Company"



Another excellent entry (the list certainly improves from 25 onwards)- while it may be a cover that, overall, is not radically different from the original, the heavier metal edge and slight lyrical edits greatly enhance the song over the original, without losing the western showdown vibe to the whole piece (if anything, that vibe is far more prominent than the original managed to achieve).

 

#23: Saving Abel, "The Sex is Good"



For me, this one kinda falls into the same category as Lowlife earlier on the list- amusing, harmless but nothing to rave about. Saving Abel's songs don't usually impress me much, but I will say that they have a great energy live- they were the opening act (I think, arrived late to the concert) for a show I saw a couple years ago. They have a surprising "Are you ready to rock?!" 80's hairband type energy I didn't expect based on their songs.

 

Since there hasn't been any further interest in the thread as a countdown, I'm just going to wrap up this thread with the remaining list:

1. Walk – Foo Fighters
2. These Days – Foo Fighters
3. Rope – Foo Fighters
4. Shake Me Down – Cage the Elephant
5. Country Song – Seether
6. Lonely Boy – Black Keys
7. The Adventures of Rain Dance Maggie – Red Hot Chili Peppers
8. The Sound of Winter – Bush
9. Lies of The Beautiful People – Sixx: A.M.
10. Help Is On The Way – Rise Against
11. Awake and Alive – Skillet
12. The Animal – Disturbed
13. Ghost of Days Gone By – Alter Bridge
14. Little Lion Man – Mumford & Son
15. Tonight - Seether
16. Waiting For The End - Linkin Park
17. What You Want – Evanescence
18. Tighten Up – Black Keys
19. Bet U Wish U Had Me Back – Halestorm
20. Adolescents – Incubus
21. Gimmie Shelter – Puddle of Mudd
22. Isolation – Alter Bridge

The Alter Bridge songs are quite good (Ghosts... being better than Isolation). Puddle of Mudd's cover of Gimme Shelter was fine but unnecessary (especially since the original didn't start getting heavy radio play until relatively recently). Incubus's song was fine. Halestorm is absolutely amazing, though this is not their best single it's not their weakest either. I've only just started to appreciate the Black Keys in the past few months. The Evanescence track is actually pretty good and a welcome return to form after their second (and beyond?) album failed to live up to the greatness of their debut. By contrast, Linkin Park is still in their post-Meteora slide.

Seether has some very good songs- Tonight is so so (and vaguely reminds of lyrics from some other song I cant place) while Country Song is very cool. Never heard of Mumford & Sons (and they got little, if any, play on MMR, so their inclusion is surprising). Disturbed is probably my favorite band of the last decade and The Animal is a downright awesome track that catches some great energy and evocative phrases. Skillet has also impressed me in different ways- this track was very good too.

As I mentioned earlier, Help is on the Way is one of the rather good songs that has had me take notice of Rise Against recently. The Sixx AM song isnt bad, though This Is Gonna Hurt is much, much better. Sound of Winter is a nice return to form for Bush that has some fantastic word usage. Wasn't thrilled abiut Rain Dance Maggie, despite loving almost everything that came out of Stadium Arcadium. Cage is harmless enough and has their own sound, so I can see why their included.

Hard to argue with the Foo Fighters dominance of the top of the chart. That whole album was flipping fantastic. I think These Days is the superior track of those three, though.