Time for even more negative ranting in a best list:  2010 was a terrible year for music.

There are many reasons why I think this, and I’ll probably mention it more in the future, so I’ll try to keep it short in this case.  But for the cases of this list, 2010 was the year the music industry stopped caring about rock music.  After a great year in 2005 and a good year in 2007, rock’s representation on the charts plummeted over the next three years as the emo craze died out and people couldn’t take another hard rock masquerading as post-grunge song.  But instead of finding trends to replace those dying breeds, the music industry slammed the door shut and threw away the key.  In 2009, we did have The All-American Rejects, Shinedown, Nickelback, Daughtry, and The Veronicas all notching places on the year-end list.  Not my personal favorites, but hey, at least we were represented.  And in 2010, they, and all other true rock artists… were just gone.  Not a single rock or even alternative artist was represented in the top 50 of the year-end chart.

The highest-ranking rock song of any type on the year-end list was “According To You” by Orianthi, at number 55, a song that didn’t chart on either the Alternative or Mainstream Rock charts.  It was number 61 until we finally found a song that made either of these charts: “Animals” by Neon Trees.  Somehow, against all odds, this band from Utah broke through in the worst year in rock music history.  And then they scored a second crossover hit in 2012 with “Everybody Talks,” which topped “Animals” by becoming the band’s first top ten hit.  These songs were their only real hits on the Alternative charts, too, until this year, with their lead single from I Can Feel You Forgetting Me.

And dare I say it… these guys topped those unlikely successes.

“Used to Like” – Neon Trees

Alternative
#4 peak, #17 year-end

It’s hard to believe these guys have had two hits that made the Billboard Year-End Hot 100, but that’s where all discussions of Neon Trees start.  Since 2012, they haven’t been able to sustain their early career success.  Other than a brief blip on the charts with “Sleeping With a Friend” in 2014, these guys have been mostly silent.  In 2020, they finally released their fourth album I Can Feel You Forgetting Me, and this song became their highest charting song on the Alternative charts since “Animal” despite low Spotify numbers.  And man, is “Used To Like” a new and improved version of this band – just as sleek as their now-old hits, but with an even more infectious chorus and a more mature outlook on life and relationships.

The instrumentation isn’t that far off from “Animals” and “Everybody Talks” with its gleaming guitar chords and widescreen keyboard riff that introduces the song, but I’m gonna be honest.  This song made it up this high almost entirely because of that chorus.  So let’s just skip to that.

Oh honey now you said I’m acting crazy
And you don’t see what you see
Get back to what you used to like about me
Back to what you used to like about me

Highs so high, drinks for free
Let’s go to extremes
Get back to what you used to like about me
Back to what you used to like about me, yeah, yeah, yeah

Everything about this chorus is amazing.  First off, after a brief moment of silence during “Oh honey, now…” all the instruments come in with seemingly twice the force they had in the intro and verse – The drums expand to a tight, pulsing rhythm, and the guitar becomes distorted and shows its gritty yet accessible edge.  Adding to that, Tyler Glenn’s vocal melodies in the chorus are insanely catchy.  OK, I need to clarify.

I’ve ranted long and hard on how songs over the last fifteen years are solely getting attention, especially on the pop charts, because they are catchy.  That’s because these songs are so focused on sounding catchy that they shortchange the rest of the song so that the instrumentation is a non-presence and the lyrics are either meaningless, pathetic, or a bunch of la-las and na-nas because they couldn’t come up with any real words.  But the chorus of “Used To Like” is not like that.  “Used To Like” is the good kind of catchy – the song that makes you want to burst into song every time you hear it.  Tyler Glenn’s enthusiasm in the chorus is contagious and you get to hear his voice at great elevation, as mentioned before the instrumental section is at the top of their game, and the lyrics fit with the theme of attempting desperate measures to revive a relationship.

Unlike “Animals,” which was about rock’s favorite topic: sex, “Used To Like” discusses using positive memories in order to save a relationship that is basically dead.  Glenn may sing about his love interest in the song being his “thrill forever,” but it turns out by the end of the song he’s just saying that because he’s “used to being lonely, never good at being holy,” meaning he’s really doing it because he doesn’t want to be alone.  It may be far less joyous than “Animal,” but “Used to Like” demonstrates a newfound maturity for the band, understanding that some things are just better left in the past.

This song is one element away from being a perfect song – there’s a weird phasing effect at the end of the bridge that doesn’t work well.  But when that’s the worst thing I can say about a song, then Neon Trees have done well.  With an absolutely killer chorus, Neon Trees proved to us why they are worth following again.  

SOURCES

Mosk, Mitch.  “Interview: Neon Trees Return With Electrifying Anthem ‘Used to Like.’”  Atwood Magazine 14 November 2019.  Web.  22 January 2021.

IMAGE SOURCES

Single cover from Spotify

Photo of Neon Trees from Hidden Jams