Welcome to Best Of… a playlist featuring the best tracks from certain artists picked by friends, readers and staff of Punktastic. This month on we have Maryam Hassan making us her ultimate playlist for Say Anything.Â
Picking the best Say Anything tracks is hard because there are just so many of them that make my heart to somersaults in my chest. Cutting it down to 10 was hard but I managed to get there in the end. Iâd like to add here though that Spotify doesnât have the self titled album available so I have had to not include âLess Cuteâ and âDo Betterâ, the latter might actually be my favourite Say Anything song. But you can go to YouTube and listen to them!
1. ALIVE WITH THE GLORY OF LOVE
This was the first Say Anything song I ever heard in the dark, dank basement club that is Bacchus about 10 years ago. From the opening drums and the choral ahhâs I was hooked. Banquet Records provided me with âIs A Real Boyâ and my life was never the same. The song itself is semi-autobiographical about Bemisâ grandparents who were holocaust survivors and tells a tale of two people in love surviving through hiding in the ghetto and in a work camp⌠which when you think about it is weird to hear at a punk club. Itâs a fantastic song to dance to though, you can get a real good twist going to it.
2. SORRY DUDES, MY BAD.
A lot of people write off âIn DefenceâŚâ as being too long and just not as good as what had come before but I think it contains some absolute gems of songs. In his earlier music Max Bemis writes a lot about his relationship with drugs and alcohol and his self medicating with both to treat his anxiety and it always comes out as raw, honest and clever, he plays on what he goes through where itâs really relatable. The middle part of the song with the support of a friend followed by someone offering him Xanax, the endless conflict of trying to be better about something and then slipping up which happens to all of us all the time.
3. RESOUNDING
The other thing Max Bemis is very good at writing about is love, but a tortured sort of love. Itâs never sugary sweet, thereâs always conflict and issues which is why itâs so cathartic to listen to. Resounding is a song I love because of the build up that just goes on throughout, the penultimate chorus of the track is just a mega singalong moment and then the end which is just all out shouting. It all just tugs at your heart a little.
4. THE CHURCH CHANNEL
âTheyâd let us play with markers, but I keep trying to draw infinity and I read the bible to pass the timeâ I have no idea what this song is about, from what Iâm guessing itâs to do with the breakdown Bemis had during âIn Defence..â the reason itâs on the list is because musically it is such a brilliant track. The switch to more uptempo when the lyric I quoted above comes in, the Hayley Williamâs part coming in with the churchy bells in the background. Itâs like a magical, wonderful thing.
5. EVERY MAN HAS A MOLLY
Ah Max Bemis, weâre on the subject of bad relationships again. âCan’t stop thinking about what she did wrong to me. Just can’t figure out just what I did wrongâ is something we all think at some point in our lives because hell every person in general has a Molly. My early twenties was full of relationships gone wrong, and was an age where I would obsess over details. This song got played a lot and it was played LOUDLY.
6. SIX SIX SIX
I fell out of love with Say Anything when âAnarchy My Dearâ came out. That album was a little forced to me, I thought Max didnât sound like the Max from previous albums. A lot of people put that down to him giving up his vices, getting married, having kids and being happy which was totally stupid of those people. When I first heard âHebrewsâ I was weirded out, but I couldnât turn it off. It was crazy sounding, and it was genius. This was the first single from it and it made me excited for this band again. âHebrewsâ was Max getting his vibe back and it was a beautiful thing.
7. THE PRESIDENTIAL SUITE
When Say Anything get acoustic it makes my heart happy. I had instances in my mid-twenties where I put my trust in people who turned out to be not very nice. Whilst I was dealing with that I listened to this song a lot (I like to relate songs to things going in my life⌠have we got that yet?). It has nothing to do with that really, itâs about shitty governments screwing over people which honestly after our travesty of an election is something we can all relate to.
8. BY TONIGHT
There are a few Say Anything that are just about sex and this one is the sexiest of all of those songs. Itâs just a couple of acoustic guitars and those whispery, raspy vocals which kick into that one electric guitar solo which create a song that just ⌠well itâs a very good song. I might need to go get a glass of water.
9. TOTAL REVENGE
This was my favourite song on âIs A Real Boyâ for a really long time because it is absolutely perfect to sing along to. The last three songs on this playlist have been acoustic based maybe because I just love Max Bemisâ voice. I listened to this album continuously for almost 4 years, I was very close to being one of those people who gets stuck in an era of music and thinks nothing else is ever good. Luckily I got a kick out of it but I still go back to this album because honestly thereâs just not a bad track on it.
10. ADMIT IT!
I knew I was going end on this song. âAdmit Itâ is the reason why âIs A Real Boyâ was such a life changing album for me when I heard it. Itâs clever, scathing and just brilliant and it today still describes so much of what I, and many others, hate about the music industry and scenes today. I know he tried to recreate this on a later album, but it was just never the same. Calling out the wankers around you in the best way and then saying youâre doing things your way and it works perfectly fine. This song comes on in my head every time someone tells me Iâm not punk enough. âWhat do you have to say for yourself?â