2015 has been a solid year in music. Luke already revealed his favorite songs and albums from the year, and now it's my turn. I'm gonna do my top 25 songs (only using released singles from 2015 albums) and my top 10 albums. Gonna be some good shit. Here we go.
SONGS
25. "On My Mind" - Ellie Goulding
24. "Love Myself" - Hailee Steinfeld
23. "Run Away With Me" - Carly Rae Jepsen
22. "Real Life" - Jake Owen
21. "Beautiful Drug" - Zac Brown Band
20. "Drag Me Down" - One Direction
19. "The Weekend" - Eden xo
18. "Same Old Love" - Selena Gomez
17. "What Do You Mean?" - Justin Bieber
16. "Cool" - Alesso ft. Roy English
15. "Overload" - Life of Dillon
14. "White Iverson" - Post Malone
13. "Lay It All On Me" - Rudimental ft. Ed Sheeran
12. "Omen" - Disclosure ft. Sam Smith
11. "Roses" - The Chainsmokers ft. ROZES
10. "Sorry" - Justin Bieber
9. "Hand to Myself" - Selena Gomez
8. "Cool for the Summer" - Demi Lovato
7. "Fight Song" - Rachel Platten
6. "Jet Black Heart" - 5 Seconds of Summer
5. "Jumpman" - Future and Drake
4. "History" - One Direction
3. "Love Yourself" - Justin Bieber
2. "Do It Again" - Pia Mia ft. Chris Brown and Tyga
1. "Perfect" - One Direction
Boom. There it is. One Direction has the song of the year again. Pretty easy decision to be honest. Gotta love it.
ALBUMS
10. Summer Forever - Billy Currington
9. Jekyll + Hide - Zac Brown Band
8. Emotion - Carly Rae Jepsen
7. Every Open Eye - CHVRCHES
6. Delirium - Ellie Goulding
5. Sounds Good Feels Good - 5 Seconds of Summer
4. Revival - Selena Gomez
3. What a Time to Be Alive - Future and Drake
2. Purpose - Justin Bieber
1. Made In the A.M. - One Direction
And it's a 1D sweep. Kinda predictable since all they do is put out fire flames but the rankings make it official. And they kept the fire coming in a year when they lost a band member, no less. Can't stop them.
Merry Christmas everyone. If Christmas can't stop me from doing this I don't know what can. It's not Christmas music because I've blessed everyone with a pretty fire Christmas Jams playlist already. Just regular ole fire flames tunes for you to enjoy.
One week until Christmas. Gotta love it. Not a lot of good new music but Chris Brown's new album is out. It's too bad he beat the shit outta Rihanna cause otherwise I'd love that guy. Never made a bad song I'm pretty sure. But anyway, a lot of classics lead the way this week. Enjoy.
Just like every other year, it's been a great year for music with tons of bangers coming at us from all corners so I tried to compile a list of my favorites. Leave a comment on what you think I left out or tell me how awful my choice in music is.
We start it off with Sammy Adam's new single "Remember" which is straight fire on the track, he finally released a good song again. Then we got 'Love Yourself' by the one and only J.Biebs, listen I used to hate Bieber more than anyone but his new album "Purpose" is incredible, god damn incredible. We've got some new ZBB on there, if you have ever read Top Cheddar before you know Zac is my boy. Tons of other great songs littered in there, some Kanye, Mike Posner (throwback), Grace Potter who's new album is nuts good. We've got it all for you, so give this playlist a spin.
Top 4 Albums of 2015:
4. Professional Rapper- Lil Dicky
Absolutely great record from Lil D. I still listen to it on a regular basis. It's a rap album for white guys and it crushes. Some hilarious tracks, some tracks that will tug at the heart strings. Lil D has got it all.
3. Purpose- Justin Bieber
I'm sure none of you saw this coming, maybe you did, i don't care either way. Purpose is an incredible album. We watched Bieber turn from a boy to a man and this album is stuffed to the brim with great tracks, I'm pretty sure 'Love Yourself' is my favorite song of 2015...
2. Jekyll and Hyde- Zac Brown Band
LOVED the new ZBB album. I'm a HUGE ZBB guy so I had to throw it in here, it was a great album for the first few months but my biggest problem with it is that I don't think it has longevity. In 20 years I don't think people will be talking about this record. I loved it and still jam to it frequently but it just doesn't hold that kinda weight in my opinion. 'Homegrown' was also heavily overplayed on the radio. Anyways, great work from ZBB.
1. Coming Home- Leon Bridges
Finally, my number 1. This record was absolutely incredible. I love every single track on it so it was hard to just pick a few for the playlist. I saw Leon this summer in San Francisco and his live show was great as well, for me hearing the songs live is what made them even better.
Derrick Henry is the lucky guy that got to win the Heisman this season. I was all in for Deshaun to take it home, but I guess it wouldn't be fair for him to win the Heisman and the Natty Ship. Henry had an incredible season and there is no arguing with that. Congratulations to Derrick.
Obviously I'm a little later than usual with this but that's because I had a final exam tonight and was studying today. But this is a great weekend. I'm done with finals, I'm going home for break, we got Clemson men's soccer winning tonight and advancing to the national championship Sunday, we got Deshaun in NYC for the Heisman ceremony (he better win) and of course we got Fire Jam Friday. It's a good one this week folks, so enjoy.
P.S. Tom Petty's "Free Fallin" is always the first song on an FJF after finals week.
I've been saying it all season. Deshaun Watson is the best player in college football. He's an underdog to win the Heisman, but honestly there's no reason Derrick Henry or Christian McCaffrey should win this award even though they've had record breaking seasons. Deshaun is the best player on the best team in the country and without him Clemson would probably be like 8-4. Instead they're 13-0 and heading to the playoffs as the #1 seed. Deshaun is the only player in the country with 3500 passing yards and 800 rushing yards. He's got 41 total TDs. That's okay, I guess. And guess what? He's the best quarterback in the country. Wanna know what position matters more than any other in football? Quarterback.
Derrick Henry is very good obviously. I've given him credit for his great season every week. But also, he touches the ball more than every running back in the country. And I'm sure any back up running back Bama has could run for similar numbers with the same amount of carries. He always gets off to slow starts, but Bama has the lead anyway, so then they run it with Henry literally the rest of the game and he has no choice but to accumulate yards. Getting 336 carries in a season shouldn't automatically make you the Heisman winner. Wayne Gallman coulda put up these numbers if he got 110 more carries. Shit.
Christian McCaffrey is a great player as well. He broke Barry Sanders' record for most all purpose yards in a season. That's crazy. But also, Stanford lost TWO games and he didn't have great games in either. He also has 12 touchdowns rushing and receiving combined. And a third of those came in one game. Deshaun has 11 rushing touchdowns which is more than this chump has. Enough said there.
The bottom line is that Deshaun Watson is the most complete player in the country playing the most important position in football, and led his team to an undefeated season. He steps up in big games when his team needs him most, whether it's with his arm or his legs or both. Simply put, he's the best player in the country.
It was championship week in college football, and it did not disappoint. Some great finishes, some great performances from Heisman candidates, and no doubt left who the four playoff teams are.
1. Clemson Tigers (vs. #10 North Carolina, W 45-37): Stupidity held Clemson back in the first half, as they had 8 penalties including 2 personal fouls on TJ Green leading to his ejection, which did not help the Tigers at all going forward. Also, punter Andy Teasdall went rogue and called a fake punt himself on 4th and 15 which didn't go well. BUT, the offense turned it on late in the half to get the lead back. And then they never looked back. UNC got lucky with field position and that's really the only reason they scored so much. Because the Clemson defense did a really nice job against their high powered offense. Also, you really can't say enough about Deshaun Watson. If Wayne Gallman didn't get scorching hot in the second half (170 of his 187 rushing yards were in the second half) then Deshaun might have had 400 passing yards and 200 rushing yards. He finished with 289 and 131, respectively and 5 total TDs. In my mind, he has to win the Heisman.
2. Alabama Crimson Tide (vs. #18 Florida, W 29-15): Derrick Henry is really good, no doubt. But he's had 90 carries over his last 2 games. One would hope he could put up big numbers with that amount of carries. He averaged 4.4 yards per carry this past Saturday. That's not that great. Alabama is very beatable. I mean, imagine if Florida had an offense? That game could have gone a lot differently. Sidenote: how many years is Nick Saban taking off of Henry's NFL career by running him over 40 times a game?
3. Oklahoma Sooners: BYE
4. Iowa Hawkeyes (vs. #5 Michigan State, L 16-13): This was a classic Big 10 game, which is probably exactly what Iowa wanted. But they died a long, slow death on Michigan State's 9 minute, 22 play drive that ended with a TD with 27 seconds left. That is one of the worst ways to lose a football game I've ever seen.
5. Michigan State Spartans (vs. #4 Iowa, W 16-13): How Connor Cook won the MVP of this game is beyond me. Dude sucked the entire game. LJ Scott was the one who scored their only touchdown, which was the game winner. And then Cook with the cocky grab of the MVP trophy.
6. Ohio State Buckeyes: BYE
7. Stanford Cardinal (vs. #20 USC, W 41-22): Christian McCaffrey had a pretty nice game, as he broke the single season record for most all purpose yards, passing Barry Sanders. Other than that though, screw Stanford.
8. Notre Dame Fighting Irish: BYE
9. Florida State Seminoles: BYE
10. North Carolina Tar Heels (vs. #1 Clemson, L 45-37): Good try UNC. But one ref realizing a guy's head was over the line didn't lose that game for ya. At least you have basketball season.
11. TCU Horned Frogs: BYE
12 Baylor Bears (vs. Texas, L 23-17): LOL
13. Ole Miss Rebels: BYE
14. Northwestern Wildcats: BYE
15. Michigan Wolverines: BYE
16. Oregon Ducks: BYE
17. Oklahoma State Cowboys: BYE
18. Florida Gators (vs. #2 Alabama, L 29-15): Florida's defense is really good. But their offense doesn't belong on a college football field.
19. Houston Cougars (vs. #22 Temple, W 24-13): Great season for Houston ends with the AAC title and earning a big bowl game against FSU.
20. USC Trojans (vs. #7 Stanford, L 41-22): Didn't even know USC was playing in the Pac 12 title game until it was going on.
21. LSU Tigers: BYE
22. Temple Owls (vs. #19 Houston, L 24-13): Good season for Temple. Just came up short though.
So this happened on Saturday night when the B's were up in Vancouver. This happened with 1:53 left in the game while the Canucks were down 4-0.... Anyone that knows anything about the NHL knows that Brandon Prust is an absolute scum bag, never been a good guy. Listen, who knows what Marchand was chirping out on the ice, he loves to get under guys' skin but this is fucked up. No place in hockey for it. Now I know everyone is gonna go "oh what about Lucic when he did that to Dekeyser in the play offs?"
Well that was equally as fucked up, Prust and Lucic were both fined 5k for cup checking. I think that these kind of plays deserve suspensions, just a game is better than nothing in my opinion. This move serves absolutely no purpose other than proving that you're a scum bag. In my opinion, the worst part of the whole Prust doing this to Marchand part is what Prust had to say after the fact...
It's not hard to tell that the $5,000 fine didn't rattle Prust too much, if the NHL wants to get this move out of the game, they may want to change the consequence. I hate Prust so god damn much, anyone that has ever been hit in the balls know how much it always hurts, doesn't matter how hard it is so him saying "it wasn't that hard" is just a bold face lie. Hey Brandon Prust, kick rocks you plug.
A decent bounce back week for new music, as we got some new Sammy Adams, Flo Rida, and a good amount of electronic stuff. Threw some classic Coldplay on here as well in honor of them getting announced as the Super Bowl performer in February. Also, in honor of the Stone Temple Pilots lead singer dying, I put some STP on here. #RIPStoneTemplePilotsGuy
It was Rivalry Week in college football, and it was another solid weekend of games. Hope all four readers had a great Thanksgiving, and I hope everyone else did as well.
1. Clemson Tigers (@ South Carolina, W 37-32): A little closer than I would have liked. I don't really get why we can't hold on to the football but whatever. Deshaun is a god damn baller and is so fun to watch. "If we ever win the turnover battle, we're gonna kill somebody" might be Dabo's best quote of the year and he's had some great ones. The Tigers have the ACC Championship coming up against UNC as they look to guarantee a spot in the playoffs.
2. Alabama Crimson Tide (@ Auburn, W 29-13): So Derrick Henry is really good. But also, you better run for a billion yards when you get the ball handed to you 46 times. A lot of people are just handing Henry the Heisman now, but I think it's gonna be pretty close between he and Deshaun.
3. Oklahoma Sooners (@ #11 Oklahoma State, W 58-23): OU took home the conference title with the blow out win over in state rival OK State. They're looking really good at the end of the season and since the Big 12 doesn't have a championship game, they've pretty much secured a playoff spot. Baker Mayfield will most likely be in New York as a Heisman finalist as well. He's really good.
4. Iowa Hawkeyes (@ Nebraska, W 28-20): Are you sitting down? Because I'm about to say something shocking. I actually watched most of this game. And Iowa's defense is pretty legit. Their running game is pretty solid, and they just keep finding a way to get the job done. Like Clemson, Iowa could care less about how perfect their victories are. They're undefeated, and that's pretty awesome.
5. Michigan State Spartans (vs. Penn State, W 55-16): So MSU followed up their big win over Ohio State with a blow out victory over Penn State. They locked up a spot in the Big 10 title game against undefeated Iowa.
6. Notre Dame Fighting Irish (@ #9 Stanford, L 38-36): A real tough game for the Irish. They scored to go up by 1 with 30 seconds left. And then they give up a field goal as time expires. I don't know how they let Stanford get down the field so easily but it happened and they lost. Sucks.
7. Baylor Bears (@ #19 TCU, L 28-21 2OT): It was POURING on Friday night at TCU. Both teams put up 14 points pretty quickly and then the score didn't change until overtime because it was so sloppy. But Baylor is back to being the fraud team of the year. Congrats!
8. Ohio State Buckeyes (@ #10 Michigan, W 42-13): Well it's safe to say OSU bounced back pretty nicely. They just absolutely crushed their rivals at the Big House. And Ezekiel Elliot had a solid game after his bitchy comments after the game last week.
9. Stanford Cardinal (vs. #6 Notre Dame, W 38-36): Big win for the Cardinal. If all hell breaks loose in the conference championship games then they MIGHT have a shot at the playoffs. But it's still pretty doubtful.
10. Michigan Wolverines (vs. #8 Ohio State, L 42-13): Not a great showing from the Wolverines on Saturday. They had a chance to make a statement, but noooope. Got blown out at home instead.
11. Oklahoma State Cowboys (vs. #3 Oklahoma, W 58-23): Oklahoma is just a better football team, but OK State definitely just crumbled these last two weeks. Had an opportunity to win their conference at home against their rival and they just folded like a pancake.
12. Florida Gators (vs. #13 Florida State, L 27-2): I don't know if anything in football is funnier than a team scoring 2 points. Like how were you good enough to force a safety when you're playing such an awful game? Two damn points. Laugh out loud funny for a team ranked 12th in the country and headed to the SEC Championship game. Alabama might play their third string and save their starters for the playoffs. Goodness.
13. Florida State Seminoles (@ #12 Florida, W 27-2): Florida's offense is horrendous. But you gotta give some props to FSU's defense for holding them to zero points. And Dalvin Cook is really good.
14. North Carolina Tar Heels (@ NC State, W 45-34): UNC finished undefeated in conference play and a dreadful loss to South Carolina to open the season is the only thing keeping them from rolling into the ACC Championship unblemished just like Clemson. Should be a great game Saturday.
15. Navy Midshipmen (@ Houston, L 52-31): Navy got absolutely roasted by Houston. Sucks for them.
16. Northwestern Wildcats (@ Illinois, W 24-14): A solid 10 win season for the Cats. That's about as good as you can be if you're Northwestern.
17. Oregon Ducks (vs. Oregon State, W 52-42): What an electric game this was. Just so much speed everywhere. Back and forth scoring. For a game that was supposed to be a blowout, the Civil War definitely provided some excitement on Friday afternoon.
18. Ole Miss Rebels (@ #21 Mississippi State, W 38-27): How bout Swag Kelly passing Eli Manning for most passing yards in a season at Ole Miss. Gotta love it. And SCREW the SEC for not having a YouTube page like every other conference where game highlights are easy to find. Sorry guys, no good highlight package of the Egg Bowl, where both teams are ranked. Gonna have to go find it on your own.
19. TCU Horned Frogs (vs. #7 Baylor, W 28-21 2OT): The Frogs got their star quarterback back and they got back into the win column.
20. Washington State Cougars (@ Washington, L 45-10): Wait why was Washington State ranked?
21. Mississippi State Bulldogs (vs. #18 Ole Miss, L 38-27): Dak Prescott had another great season but there's just not enough around him to win these kinda games.
22. UCLA Bruins (@ USC, L 40-21): Roller coaster season to say the least for the Bruins. Should be a little more consistent next year though.
23. Utah Utes (vs. Colorado, W 20-14): Cool win Utah.
24. Toledo Rockets (vs. Western Michigan, L 35-30): Jeez. Embarrassing Toledo. Can't be a consistent top 25 and lose to Western Michigan. Goodness.
25. Temple Owls (vs. UConn, W 27-3): There's the UConn we all know and love!
Rivalry Week is in the books. The top four teams all went on the road to play rivals and survived. Can't hate it. See you cats back next week to round up Championship Week. And a meaningless Baylor vs Texas game!
