Music Tuesday! – Sum 41

    Hello! This is a new kind of post I’ll be uploading every Tuesday! The basic premise of these posts is that I will be listening to every song of a band for a week, picking a new band to listen to every week! I am then going to review the band as a whole, and pick out a few of my favorite songs and albums to write about.

     I’m really excited to start writing about music every week, since it is something I care a lot about. I have wanted to do something like this for a while, but came up with this idea just a couple weeks ago. If you have any bands you want me to listen to and review, please leave a comment! I have a list of bands that I would like to get more acquainted with, so I will add any band that you guys suggest to the list!

     The band that I will be reviewing this week is Sum 41. They are a very punk rock band from Ajax, Canada. I have listened to a bit of this band before, but not a whole lot. I listened to every song of every album, and I would just like to say it only improved my idea of them. For years, I had only heard one song from them, In Too Deep, and it was a bit of a shock to realize that that is not their usual sound.

     I saw them once in concert and that was really the first time I was exposed to most of their music. That concert is really what got me into Sum 41 in the first place, so when I was thinking about which band to review first, they were one of the first bands that came to mind. After not really listening to them that much in the past, I already loved them and their message. I was really excited to start listening to some of their music that I had never heard before.

     I listened to all of the albums in order so I could get the experience that I was meant to have. I have never been able to do this before unfortunately, but my boyfriend got me Spotify Premium for Christmas, so now I can listen to albums the way they were meant to be listened to.

     Every week, I am going to pick out 3 albums and 3 songs that are my top favorites from the band that I listened to that week. If the band has less than 4 albums, I will pick my favorite album and also 3 favorite songs. Sum 41 has a total of 9 albums, so I will be picking 3 albums and 3 songs to rate and talk about. I was not prepared for the amount of music that I was going to listen to this past week. Each of the 9 albums are about 30 to 45 minutes, so it was about 4 to 5 hours of listening time to begin with. 

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Top 3 Albums:

    It is interesting to me that the most popular albums from this band are a couple of the oldest. I do really enjoy their older music, but I also really like their newer music as well. Not surprisingly, my favorite albums are also the most popular from Sum 41.

     Does This Look Infected? – I think this is by far my favorite Sum 41 album. It has the classic sound, and every song on this album is a song that I would choose to listen to again. I like how all of the songs sound and I think this is where they found their groove. They were just beginning to figure out what they wanted to do in the previous album, which I talk about next, but this album is where everything came together. However, that is just my opinion and may not be true at all. There are also a lot of songs in this album that I could imagine myself dancing and singing to, which is impressive compared to other bands. Wanting to sing along is common for me, but songs making me want to dance is not as common.

     All Killer, No Filler – There are a few songs on this album that do not have the classic Sum 41 sound, but I really like all of them. This is one of their most classic albums, and I am not really suprised that it is in my top 3. I already knew a few songs from this album, and I ended up loving the rest of them at the end of listening to it. Also, Fat Lip is on this album, and I think that is the best Sum 41 songs ever. I think it describes their band perfectly, and this album is a perfect home for this song.

     Underclass Hero – I love this album. The song titled Underclass Hero is such a good anthem for people in school or even out of school who feel alone or like they don’t fit in. This is such a great album because there is a slightly more juvinile feel to all of these songs. This album has a more punk than rock feel, and I really like that. There are some more slow songs in this album, and I usually do not like that, but I like these ones. These songs are more sad and ballad-like than most of their other songs, and I think that gives the whole album a more intimate feeling when thinking about it.

     I love all of their songs, and I like all of their albums. Even though their newer albums are not in my top 3 does not mean that I do not like them. I love a lot of their newer songs, but those albums just couldn’t beat the classic Sum 41 sound. 

Top 3 Songs:

    It is really difficult for me to choose 3 favorites from all of Sum 41’s songs since I love so many of them.

     Fat Lip – It took me a very long time to finally listen to this song. The first time I heard it was at the concert I went to, but I did not fall in love with it until recently. I liked it a lot at the concert I went to, but it did not have a special place in my heart at the time. I love the message of this song and I love singing to it in my car. If someone were to ask me what Sum 41 was about and what their music sounded like, I would definitely direct them to this song.

     Over My Head (Better Off Dead) – Years ago, I used to relate to this song a lot more than I do now. However, it still has a special place in my heart because this song was present through some rough times in my life when I did not feel at my best. This song is about things crashing down around you and trying to figure out how to put back the pieces. I think a lot of people can relate to this song for those reasons. Even though this is not a classic song from Sum 41, I still think that it is integral to their overall feeling and message.

     Still Waiting – This is more of a slower song compared to the rest of their songs. I really like this song, because this also has a really good message. This song is mainly about how the world is a hateful place and feeling alone. I really like this song because it brings all of these people who feel this way together to try and make the world a better place. Listening to this song is really helpful to me when I am feeling alone or down because of the state of the world. Sum 41 has this knack to pinpoint exactly how I am feeling most of the time, and that is one of the reasons I love them so much.

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     All in all, I love Sum 41. I love their sound, their message, and their overall attitude. They are very “screw society” and other similar things, and I love music like that. Hopefully, I will get to see this band again in the future because I really love them. I would also love to get to meet them and talk to them sometime in the future.

     After doing this first Music Tuesday, I think I am much better prepared to ration my time and make sure that I have enough time and listen to every song that a band has. I was not very prepared before this one, but I have a much better plan of approach now for the upcoming Music Tuesdays.

     Overall, I love this band and their music. If you have any suggestions of bands or musical artists for me to review, please leave them in the comments and I will add them to the list! Thank you all so much for reading my blog post and supporting my journey! I really appreciate every single one of you who reads my posts and maybe even shares them!