CONTEXT: i listened to these guys a lot in late middle and early high school, gradually dropped off, haven't listened to them almost at all since like 2015
have been revisiting them over the past few days since it'd be cool to see 'em live in a couple months, haven't checked out DBD or Ember yet (don't worry, i will!), and there's also a handful of songs off the 2nd through 4th album i've heard at most once or twice and don't have in my iTunes -- a brief wikipedia scan informs me that those songs are Simple Design, Forget It, Away, Believe, Rain, Intro, Topless, Outro, Crawl, Hopeless, and Lights Out. so i don't know any of those either. (based on listening to Crawl a couple days ago, and maybe the vaguest memory of Topless, my guess is some of those are probably among the scream-ier ones in their discography that i deleted at first glance because that's less my thing? no idea tho)
i also never spent nearly as much time with Dear Agony as the other albums, so almost all of its songs will be excluded even tho they're in my iTunes because i just don't know them well. the only Dear Agony songs i know well enough to feel comfortable ranking them are Fade Away, I Will Not Bow, Give Me A Sign, and Anthem of the Angels
anyways that aside on with the LIST!!, from the perspective of someone who hasn't really listened to these guys in years; expect an updated, perhaps more in-depth, version once i've re-familiarized myself with Dear Agony, filled in the gaps on the 2nd/3rd album, and actually heard the newest few! please feel free to let me know how trash my taste is, alternatively i'm super interested in which songs i like more or less than most people, other than probably So Cold and The Diary of Jane idk what the fan favorites are really, and there's a few in my top tier that i suspect might be unpopular picks.
also i'm going into this blind and not relistening to songs for it and the result is that some of these songs i haven't heard in years -- so, again, stay tuned for an updated ranking
MY RANKING OF BREAKING BENJAMIN SONGS IS AS FOLLOWS:
33) Here We Are - so i don't really know this song at all and it just barely gets included because at least it's in my iTunes. if it were off dear agony, i probably wouldn't be including it. that said i jumped around a bit in it and from the five seconds i heard, it sounds like it could be my aesthetic?, but also like the version in my iTunes is absolute potato quality, and was downloaded in late 2015. this is weird as hell to me because why would i even do that?, i wasn't listening to breaking benjamin then and even if i were just filling in gaps, i didn't even fill in all the gaps off this album so why did i even download this one? anyways, maybe this one will rank higher once i hear a less awful-quality version and actually get to know it.
32) Firefly - apparently this song is a big fan favorite but i just don't see it, i'm pretty sure i always thought of it as a lesser one with a kinda frantic uninspiring melody. that said i literally haven't heard it once in over three and a half years so maybe i'm wrong!
31) Sugarcoat - so this one is definitely too scream-y for me in general, like it's objectively impressive that his range can go in there of course but i don't really like when he spends too much time in it; i feel like if i wanted to listen to THAT much screaming i'd just listen to a band that specializes in it, no?, and also on a sheer subjective level i don't want to, so, yeah. that said this song isn't like BAD; where i'll give it points is that the "let me believe that you're on your waaay" part has a more like high-pitched kinda punk-ass cadence to it that i like and that juxtaposes nicely with the screaming; it's always impressive to me when he goes that quickly from one part of his range to another so fast. so i like that a lot, but the scream-y part itself is just Too Much and not something i'd spend a lot of time with. the early more subdued, melodic part at the start of the first verse is also pretty good and is the kind of breaking benjamin i generally like the most but is dragged down by the relatively inferior production of Saturate (which feels like it snowballs w/ the later screaminess to make the song feel "rough" in a way that doesn't go nicely with that intro) to just kinda feel like the inferior version of a great Phobia song. ykwim???? that said typing this out has me thinking that maybe, just maybe, i can come around on this song as kind of a dope smorgasboard of all the things breaking benjamin has to offer --- but eh to me it just feels less put-together than that and kinda jarring, erratic, and more abrasive than i want it to be. i have never really cared for it i don't think
30) Fade Away - this is just ok
29) Break My Fall - this is also just ok
28) I Will Not Bow - a marginally superior version of Fade Away
27) Until The End - i like this one. it is adequate. my recollection is that it has a bit of frustration to it, which is different than they sometimes go for, but that it also as such never quite settles fully into being a more melodic Breaking Benjamin song or being a more aggressive one and just feels kind of restrained somehow, so it's just kind of there, compared to others.
26) Had Enough - i mostly remember the way he says "greedy little bastard", and i like the way he says "greedy little bastard", but it's not enough to bring the song further.
25) Medicate - haven't heard this one in ages. as of now i mostly just remember the kinda chorus as being kind of uninspiring... but i also feel like this one might have been one of my low-key sleeper favs back in the day...? not sure why. definitely one i'll need to actually listen to again bc my mind is blanking on it right now
24) Wish I May - this one is just ok as far as opening debut tracks go, to my recollection -- good, satisfactory, but not particularly standout. that said i haven't heard it in like 2+ years so could be wrong
23) Polyamorous - this one was always interesting to me, because, like -- "my polyamorous friend got me in a mess of trouble again" -- is he saying.... like, i think the way we're SUPPOSED to read it is that he himself is polyamorous, his "polyamorous frend" being his tendency for such proclivities, and like he got himself in trouble. okay, word. but for quite some time i always just read it as -- and still have a hard time not hearing it as -- benjamin having a friend, who is polyamorous, who gets him into trouble, like i'm picturing a guy he's friends with who is always sleepin' around and gets into all kinds of wacky sitcom-esque hijinks as a result that ben gets roped into. anyways i remember this one as having a pretty cool and kinda static-y guitar riff that i liked but not a lot else? i think i remember setlist.fm saying it was one of their most-played live tho so i guess it's prob a big fan fav and staple?? interesting as it never felt that way to me!
22) Natural Life - "the naaaaatural liiiiiife, you're booooorn, you diiiiie" those lyrics feel so silly to me and i'm never even sure what they're supposed to mean, because, like, yes? that is how life works? always? like -- if you're trying to make some kind of point about society vs. what it'd be like if we all lived in the jungle -- it's not like out in the wild we'd just be born and die and that's it, or else we wouldn't have, you know, reproduced as a species -- so like, i don't know what he's even going for here? it's a very simplistic view of life and i don't get it lol sounds kinda edgelord-y and like a 14 y/o who's less woke than they think they are. of course i also remember none of the other lyrics so i could be totally wrong here; that chorus always just stood out to me as a bit silly. that said -- that same simplicity makes it very easy to remember, which sure does help in a ranking of songs by a band i haven't actively listened to in like 3+ years!
21) Next To Nothing - wow wtf i always felt like saturate was my favorite breaking benjamin album back in the day but it is just getting SLAUGHTERED in this ranking -- i'll need to spend more time with some of these. anyways i remember i always used to get next to nothing mixed up with sooner or later, which doesn't even really make sense to me because they're off totally different albums and i don't think they even sound particularly similar? lol. so now the things i remember it for are mostly a.) that, and b.) the way he goes "NEEEXT to NOTHing" which i remember liking. i bet there's a good chance i like this one more than i remember, because SPOILER: mixing it up with sooner or later has to mean it's good. but i feel like i remember not caring about it all that much. i don't know!
20) Give Me A Sign - many dear agony songs are being excluded even though i've heard them a mild amount because they just didn't stick in my memory comparatively; this one is one of the ones that did!, even though i feel like it's probably kind of a deep cut? idk i just remember digging the vocals on the "GIVE me a SIGN" like they felt emotional in a more natural way than he sometimes does, and the way it comes crashing down at the end with the "FOREVER, FOREVER, THE SCARS WILL REMAAIN" part is fairly effective and climactic and adds a good amount of tension and drama to a song that otherwise could slide thru the cracks as one of those tracks you don't remember much. this song is mildly underrated, i bet!
19) 18) Breath - "y'take the BREATH right out of MEEEE, you left a HOLE where my heart should BEEEE. ya gotta FIGHT just to make it THROUUUUGH cause i will be the DEATH of YOU" okay if i can remember the chorus when i have heard the song one time in over 3 years, that's gotta say something, right? my memory is that this one had a good chorus, some other good things i liked, but never ranked as one of my FAVORITES. good - QUITE good - but not one of the GREATS, you know?
18) 19) Follow - i FOLLOWWW YOU, YOU FOLLOW MEEEE -- i don't know why but the choruses of Breath and Follow always feel kind of similar to me and i tend to link them in my mind. of the two i remember Follow a little bit better. but actually i'm 100% sure i liked Breath more so fuck it i'm swapping the order, while still wanting to leave the post in the order in which i wrote it. Breath now outranks Follow.
17) Breakdown - okay now we're rapidly getting towards the greats, because Breakdown, like Breath, always ranked in my "very good and would be an all-time great if i didn't like this band so much; it's a near-great" tier. i had a Breaking Benjamin Mix Playlist that i listened to like every day in graphic arts freshman year of HS for quite some time (it was generally either that or some songs from R.E.M.'s New Adventures in Hi-Fi on shuffle [iiii can't saaaay that iiii love jesus {okay i highly doubt there's much overlap between r.e.m. and breaking benjamin fans lmao but if there is any that's all the more reason why MAYBE ONE PERSON READING THIS appreciates the hell out of a new test leper reference they damn sure didn't click this post expecting}]), and i think i deleted it which is hella sad, but the one thing i'm DAMN SURE of was breakdown was the opening track, i know that for a fact. because how could it not be?? that piano intro, man, that just screams "opening track" (...though it's not even the opening track of its own album lmao do you think if i called up ben burnley and was like "hey allow me to tell you what the track order for your own album should have been" he'd be cool w it?) in all the ways. and then the lyrics open with "Let the fun and games begin" which, again, awesome way to open a mix playlist. it then has a gradual rise in intensity as it approaches the chorus (it took me like 7 tries to spell approaches wtf), which is pretty great in itself and again makes it an awesome opening track for a mix -- so, if you're ever making a breaking benjamin mix, put this as the opening track; i assure you you will not be disappointed and may even learn to come to like the song more as a result.
that said my recollection is that OTHERWISE, other than that role, it was again great-but-not-ONE-OF-the-greats and that i didn't love it AS much as i wanted to, but i still liked it quite a bit for sure. also i'm trying to remember how the chorus goes but for some reason my mind's just fucking giving me the chorus to "next to nothing" instead
16) Anthem of the Angels - okay this one is for sur--- like, i'm going to go out on a limb right now and say there's NO WAY this wasn't a single at the time, right? there's no way.--for sure one of the immediate standouts. like, you know, there's some songs on some albums that, when you hear them for the first time, you just know right away "this is one of the better ones, this is going to be one of the ones we all agree is pretty good and that ends up being one of the most iconic of the era" and i feel like this has to be one of those. i mean "Anthem of the Angels" is a hell of a title (like there's an angel on the Phobia cover and you're immediately forcing yourself to try to live up to Evil Angel [which i believe is one of the more highly-regarded songs by fans, yes?] which is QUITE A DAUNTING TASK -- and then, when you include a word for "song" IN a song title, juxtaposed with epic/iconic imagery... you're setting up lofty expectations) but this song does a pretty damn solid job earning it. i just feel like, if you're listening through the album, you know right away this is one of the standouts.
it's got a softer sound than some of their others in a sense, it's got the violins at the start, it feels a little more smoothly produced, and the whole thing's got that kinda almost-apocalyptic, i-should-listen-to-this-while-outside-during-a-rainstorm-and-in-no-other-context feel to it which is instantly standout, right? right. this is for sure one of the ones that grips you quickly and it's a good'un. (if you're actually reading through this entire post, here's a dead: the period inside this parenthetical will link you to a picture of a breaking benjamin poster i made in that same graphic arts class at age fifteen.) but i feel like other songs just do more -- they rise to the position of being A Great Breaking Benjamin song naturally, whereas this one just attempts to be and promises it and delivers on being a very nicely composed, well-produced song, but others just do a little more, have a more unique kinda vibe or aesthetic that sticks with you a little better maybe. i feel like this song's one everyone's gonna have in their top 15 or thereabouts, lots of people in their top 10, but of those people, not too many are gonna have it top five. and like most songs in most people's top three wouldn't be in as many people's top fifteens, so this one's got that mass appeal, but doesn't do AS much with it, comparatively, or have that hits-you-right-in-that-special-spot UNIQUENESS to it.
alright abrupt gap here settle in boys girls enbies n others cuz the top fifteen is where SHIT'S ABOUT TO GET REAL with the all-time greats. like there's a big gap between what we've cover and what we're about to cover
15) Shallow Bay -- this surely has to be among everyone's favorites, yes? it closes the first album and it does so with quite a bomb. like it just immediately HITS you with that kickass riff that you're gonna remember for ages after the first time you hear it, it comes out with a giant "COME ONNNNNN!!!!!!!" and then it just -- it has this BIG, SHOW-STOPPER (i have to imagine that when they play this one live, it's usually at the end of the main set) feel to it -- yet at the same time, doesn't go FULL-ON INTENSITY to where it becomes too aggressive; it has juuust the right amount of restraint in the verses - to make it so that when he DOES come out darker on the "YOU WAIT UNTIIIL" parts, it feels all the more effective. this song is the absolute perfect combination of restraint and excess, it's such a fist-pumping anthem, i have to imagine that --- like, with any artist, there's the songs "everyone loves" that are more popular among those who don't know the artist well (ex. "I'm On Fire" if we're putting it in springsteen terms), but still decently popular among the big fans, too -- breaking benjamin version of this would be anthem of the angels, maybe? but then there's the songs that are more known only to Fans of the artist, i'm not saying they're super obscure, but you gotta have listened through a full album or two to know 'em, and among fans who have done that, those songs are agreed upon as the staples. i mean maybe this song is more well-known than that (because it WAS the title of the compilation), idk, but i feel like it's not? anyways, point is this song is great in all the ways, totally deserves to be the title of the compilation album, and i feel like it's gotta be a crowd-pleasing show-stopping set-closer, and through all this it somehow manages to make "I'm a California castaway, I don't think you wanna fuck with me" sound unironically badass while i'm listening to it lmao and that is no small feat.
fucking great song
14) Home list of fucking badass things i'd expect to hear from breaking benjamin:
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songs called "evil angel" and "dance with the devil"
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So Cold, in general
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a relationship song that uses drowning someone as a metaphor and contains the line "THE SURFACE IS GETTING HOOOOTTTERRRRRRR"
list of things i would not ever, ever expect from breaking benjamin:
- a song about that movie where judy garland clicks her sparkling ruby heels on the pretty golden road with her scarecrow, that like -- isn't even about it vaguely, or in a metaphorical way, but literally contains "i'm gonna get you / and your little dog, too" within its lyrics.
this... this is not something i'd expect to exist. ever. at all. especially on a debut album. it should be so weird that it does.
...YET IT ISN'T, BECAUSE IT WAS FUCKING BADASS ALL THE SAME???
like the subject matter for this song is so unexpected -- but it was done sincerely and so they were like "fuck it, if we're gonna make a wizard of oz song, we're gonna make a GOOD wizard of oz song", and that's exactly what they did. they just performed it as if it were a typical, crushing, badass breaking benjamin song without altering it based on the subject matter at all, and the result - as one might expect! - is that then it... is a typical, great breaking benjamin song, and then the colorful subject matter only serves to make it all the more memorable.
i love how the vocals on the verses here are more subdued -- like, they're being said in a whisper of sorts! -- but it's still a louder, biting whisper -- and then alongside that you've still got the same intense guitar stuff and chorus i'd generally expect and so it feels like the song sets itself up well for satisfying payoff. ultimately i guess that in a vacuum the guitar work and chorus here - while they help contextualize the verses and make them, and the song in general, work better - aren't AS great to me as in the songs that outrank it. but it's literally always been one of my favorites, and i think for quite some time it WAS my favorite, back in the day.
13) Forever - haha wow i didn't even intend for them to rank together like this (and actually they originally didn't; had another song @ #13 but writing about it moved it up significantly) but here we are. so this is probably the softest, bordering on acoustic song in the breaking benjamin canon, at least that i've yet heard -- and it's absolutely great, not just for novelty but because it's a legit beautiful song. there's just something about the guitar that keeps the song constantly... alive, flowing, and beckoning, in a sense. the vocals on the chorus, then, with a great sorta reverb or echo to them, get to a similar part of his range that some of the more Rockin' songs get, but without being quite as Big and Powerful about it. then what really makes the song land, and something i'd forgotten til re-listening recently, is that it actually does develop into a full-on rock song at the end, in something i wouldn't expect at the start, with the last chorus rising quite a bit and giving us an actual guitar-n-drums conclusion/climax to the song. this is awesome because if not for that, the song would be less dynamic, might feel more like it was being done for novelty/for the sake of "something different", whereas here it feels like an honest addition to the canon that, as a more stripped-down song and hidden track they've basically never performed live, is still clearly being done with the intention of putting out something different than their usual work, is still being done sincerely; at the same time if it got TOO far into the rock zone it'd feel TOO similar to the usual stuff and thus ruin the point -- so, it fits its role perfectly, and aside from that is just a very pretty song that then morphs fluidly and in an interesting way into a solid, rock one, and the result is the Breaking Benjamin song i've listened to the most over the past couple days.
12) Unknown Soldier - so there's a song on a tony hawk game that's also called unknown soldier, that's also one of the best songs on the soundtrack just as this is one of the best BB songs, and that actually kind of sounds like breaking benjamin a bit!! this is an interesting(-to-me) factoid as i played a lot of THUG2 at around the same time i was most into breaking benjamin, so, that was always fun to me. it does not influence the ranking other than i guess maybe making unknown soldier stand out more to me than it would have otherwise? that said i'm sure it would have stood out a ton regardless. after the helicopter blades at the start -- which, as with Water (wait jk i moved Water up on the list so you haven't seen its write-up yet!), opens the song on a lyrically appropriate sound effect that also lends a bit of gentleness and softness to the song, if only for those seconds -- the guitar intro HITS you at the same moment the drums do so and it's just an abrupt punch of awesomeness that comes more-quickly-yet-more-effectively-at-the-same-time than usual. and then the chorus of "SHOW ME WHAT IT'S LIIIKE" gets into that big deep part of his range that i just love and so this instantly becomes a standout breaking benjamin song, because when looking for a great BrBe song, other than an awesome guitar riff and a great chorus, what else do you need, really? it sounds almost like Sooner Or Later in a sense, which is the second time i've referenced Sooner Or Later on this list, but i guess that's because in many respects my metric for "what's a great breaking benjamin song" is, probably, "how much does it sound like sooner or later". if i listened to it more recently i'd have more to say but it definitely remains in my mind as one of my favoites; maybe spending more time with it soon will make me apprecaite it more as i've barely listened to it in years! but i still remember it as one of the great ones.
11) The Diary of Jane - oh shit did he do it did he knock out their big song right before top ten THAT'S RIGHT HE DID IT. that said i have a feeling that this song might rise even more as i spend more time with the band in coming months -- like this song was, just like for many other people, the first breaking benjamin song i ever heard. it came up on the radio and i was in the back seat and asked my sister in the front "WHAT IS THIS? WHAT IS THIS TELL ME SO I CAN WRITE IT DOWN AND LOOK THEM UP IT'S REALLY GOOD". i loved it right away, it was enough for me to go home and check out So Cold and the Saturate album, and that's where it all started, folks!!! probably the same for tons of people. it remained my favorite song of theirs for a little bit, until i started listening to more stuff and it was overtaken by some others (that still outrank it on this list and so i won't spoil which ones!) since then, in my mind, it's kind of fallen to the place of #15ish, #16ish (i mean i've never had a list before now but that's around how i've felt about it) -- like it's a great entry-level song to get into them but not Definitive enough or Special enough in its own right to land as one of the best -- but relistening to it in recent days i was like whoa hold up, this one's better than i thought! like as i've kind of indicated throughout this, one of my favorite things about them as a band is benjamin burnley's wicked range, like i swear he has three distinct voices (at least) that i can think of offhand that are all totally different and it's wild to me; i figured for a while that the band had multiple lead vocalists. and this song's greatest strength for me is that it kinda captures all of them -- you get Screamy Benjamin on "WHAT HAVE I BECOOOME", you get (my fav) punk-ass, abrasive-but-with-mild-restraint-and-not-quite-SCREAMING Benjamin (throughout most of the song, really), and you even get a big of Deep, Booming, Resonant Benjamin (think "WHAT DID YOU MEAN WHEN YOU SAAAAIIID NOOOOO") on the "i will try to find my PLACE", like he doesn't quite go there, but he tiptoes around it, and if you've listened to them, you know he could be going harder there if he wanted to.
those are my favorite things about the song, and it also opens with that same kinda rain-y vibe that Anthem of the Angels has, and it's great. also is it just me or does his voice, on the abrasive-but-not-that-much stuff that makes up most of the song, sound more high-pitched here than usual??? it doesn't even sound like he does on a lot of their other stuff, i feel like.
so it's a great song and a great exhibition of them as a band, one that a couple weeks ago might have ranked lower but that i'm remembering has a really good show of his skills as a singer, and so maybe in the revised ranking it could do even better, who knows!, but i doubt it tbh bc i just love the others that surpass it THAT MUCH more.
10) Skin - so i could be wrong, but my guess is that "Skin" is probably a pretty deep cut that most people don't have a strong attachment to and wouldn't have in their top ten? which i can totally get (i mean if it's an assumption i'm making more or less independently then of course i can lol) because it sounds kind of... loose, in a lot of ways -- but personally, that's a part of why i like it; it's not haphazard or random, it's just got this less dense quality to it than a lot of other Breaking Benjamin songs. you know? like, some of their stuff (incl Diary of Jane) just HITS you with all the sounds and musical elements at once - and that's fine! - but i like how with this one it feels a little more spaced out, stripped-down almost, there's not as much Happening but that also means that it's more reliant upon the melody and the vocals which imo are at some of their best here. it feels a little jollier than some of their other stuff, too, almost -- i dunno the beat of it is kinda bouncin', feels like a bop, at least compared to something like The Diary of Jane which i'm listening to it directly after haha. like it's not as though this is a happy song, it still even has some of the scream-iness, but at the same time it's just got... y'know, it's got a spring in its step, sort of!.
and i dunno i just think, like, everything this song's doing sounds good. as i say the more loose or stripped-down quality of it forces it to be strong in itself, and it is: there's just this kinda swagger in the vocals or something to where i feel like, on the rare occasions it's done live, he probably enjoys singing it; the unexpected, additional introduction like halfway thru the intro of the second, more distorted guitar is a good touch; i like the way he pronounces his Rs on stuff like "Grow" and just... in general, it sounds like he's pronouncing things weirdly on this song?, and i'm into it. like his pronounciations of "couldn't", "yerrOLD", "i'm OFF-FRR the weekENND" -- the sounds he stresses and the vowel sounds he uses just feel a little off compared to how you'd usually pronounce them or how he would in a lot of other songs, i could bemore specific here if i went into the EXACT syllables and what about thme sounds off, but it's just a running thing. i like the fun declaration of "Bombs awaaay" and the way it unexpectedly gets a little more high-pitched on the end of the "ay" if you listen closely, which i didn't even really notice til doing this write-up and listening to it (basically my rule is the songs i don't remember well, i'm not re-familiarizing myself with, but some of the songs i already know and love, i have on in the background as i write about them.) i like the way the guitar winds down super abruptly at the end of the intro leaving just the drums - it feels kinda playful.
i feel like this song's probably not talked about much and is an underrated one but, imo, aside from just being a lighter one, it has this stripped-out feeling that works well and means that in order to justify its existence and not be filler, it has to have - and then does have! - a solid melody and an overall distinguishing element, in this case the weird kinda way he's singing and pronouncing things, and at the same time it also just does a lot of subtle, little things right with lots of good and cool little moments if you're paying attention. so Skin is a great deep cut. looks like they randomly brought it out live a bunch in 2016 which i wouldn't expect; i doubt they'll do it again on this tour but if they do, at a show at which i'm in attendance, i'll be thrilled!
9) Evil Angel - So this is probably a song nearly every Breaking Benjamin fan likes, right? Like -- "Evil Angel" is a pretty Breaking Benjamin-y title, and this song delivers on it quite fully. I know recently, there was a thread asking for people's favorite song, and some guy in the very top comment named this one - and it was a comment that also went into why it was his favorite, so it might have been upvoted for that - but it could also have been upvoted for being a popular answer, not sure. I think a number of people might have put it top three in some other thread too? dunno. At any rate, the kinda muffled factor on his voice is solid, the "Noooo / Doooon't [...] Aloooone" on the lead-in into the chorus is one of the prettiest and most attractive vocal moments he's ever had, has a cool guitar intro (though this one opens with drums!) which is again kinda a big factor in most top-tier BrBe songs, and overall there's just this really solid vibe in the verses, between the imagery of the lyrics -- betrayal, wings, driving nails... -- of kind of mystery, ominousness, and it works very well, at the same time as all those vocals and the production on them sound very pretty. And then a huge payoff is, starting on the second chorus, it's extended and you get the higher-pitched-gravelly "why can't I breaaathe" lines, you know the ones I mean - and it's great. It's good stuff! This is just a very solid, immediately likable, standout Breaking Benjamin song, and I imagine most fans would surely rank it at least this high. I am wondering whether it should be about two spots higher myself, but for now, I'll leave it where it is.
8) Dance With The Devil - I feel like I've pretty much always linked this song and Evil Angel in my mind; they're nearly back-to-back tracks on the same album, a devil is more or less an evil angel! and the imagery of Evil Angel is not dissimilar from dancing -- kind of romantic stuff, "glide over me" and "put me to sleep" and all that -- and they spent some time battling for the title of my favorite Breaking Benjamin song, often went back and forth as #2 and #3, etc.... which also means, most crucially of all, they're both great! I love the slight-but-only slight roughness of the guitar at the start, the way Benjamin starts singing before the drums kick in is a fun effect -- and the result is that then, when the intro stops and the rougher, denser guitar falls down and his vocals start singing in the same melody he already started, you get the feeling that something is starting, a dramatic vibe like the stage is being set for something big. Beyond that... I don't know, I'm left with surprisingly little to say about this song!; I feel like it's one of their more typical ones structurally, and probably one of their more accessible?, without much Screaming or too much intense guitar work and so on -- but still one of the greats. The vocals are among my favorites here; without much Screaming, or too much frantic going on, you're left with just the natural appeal of his voice and still some impressive amount of range -- the whole "I believe in you [...] I won't stay long in this world so wrong" on the lead-in to the chorus is great, it starts with the more high-pitched-gravelly vocals, then gets a bit deeper, and then the chorus vocals are just kinda the best of everything. On the "ToNIIIGHT" and the second "So WROOONG" leading into the second chorus, he hits some big, great notes here, too. I'm also a big fan of the way that he extends the "I" in "I won't stay long[...]" -- so that you get "lies" and "I" feeling like they rhyme, on successive words, which adds to an almost breathless feeling the whole thing has -- it's good stuff.
Just a great, easily likable song with a lot of good elements and that basically just puts their naturally satisfying sound and his very solid voice on display in a way that may be relatively typical and simple but that therefore allows some of that innate appeal to really come otu and take center stage.
7) Water - how the fuck is "water" not even in my top ten??? what??? oh man. loljk; after I wrote about it, I moved it up from #13 to #7. HERE'S WHAT I WROTE: like when i said i was p sure Saturate was my fav breaking benjamin album, it's because like -- fucking Water, Home, Shallow Bay, Phase? Skin, No Games (don't @ me)? that is such an all-star collection of tunes, guys!! so notice how, while some saturate stuff went out early, it has 7 of my top 15 and that is just a great track record, a larger overall collection of knock-it-outta-the-park songs than any other album has. anyways from the slight gander around the subreddit i've taken lately, it seems like this one is pretty beloved, which is great to see and i probably don't even have to justify its high placement, but i will anyway. it, like Home, definitely spent some time as my absolute favorite. like that sound at the start (that.... what is that? submarine or some shit?) is immediately unique and draws you in and fits with the imagery of the song, the vocals in the verses start off having this softer part that still has a twisting darkness to it of sorts with a bit of an odd distortion, the sudden, chilling ascent of "WHAT DID YOU MEAN WHEN YOU SAAIIIIIID NOOOOOO", and then the chorus has him get into that part of his range he goes sometimes where like -- it's abrasive, it's got the gravelly undertone, but it isn't SCREAMING - and i love when he spends that time there. despite this song being one i remember as very Big and Dramatic with the SAID NOOOO/THE SURFACE IS GETTING HOOOOOOTTERRRRRR parts, the chorus is actually not as Big and Loud as all that and is exactly where i'd want it to be. it also has this dark sort of feeling to it that's very fitting for its subject matter, basically being about someone who's trying to be protective and ends up toxic and controlling -- it totally captures that darkness in a way that feels very authentic.
one of my favorite parts of it all is the "i didn't want anything from you" near the end -- i love when a song does that, switches up a word on ya or something similar -- because basically, it's like it's rewarding you for paying attention. it's setting up, in a way that feels kind of meta, its own norms and rules about what it as a song is going to do, sets you up with a certain expectation - then, all within the same thing, switches 'em up on ya. it's great. and in this case, when it's basically just a change of adding ONE syllable, the effect is that it's still fundamentally the same line but just feels a little more disjointed -- which is awesome for the descent into madness that is this song.
"water" is just a fucking awesome breaking benjamin song and i'm happy that people here seem to feel the same way.
6) Phase - From my brief glance around the subreddit, it seems like this -- even compared to the other songs I'm saying seem popular -- is VERY popular, perhaps the most popular? :O Which.... come the fuck on, lmao, of course it is. Like when I talk about certain songs' great guitar intros or whatever, by "intro" I usually mean 10-20 seconds or something, just a catchy riff or whatever that eases you into the song. But this song, for a minute and a half, has a full-on INTRO, and it's fucking awesome and probably the biggest reason why most people -- including me -- love this song. It's got that long, extended drum part that legit doesn't sound anything like anything else they've done -- and it gradually works in more percussion as it goes, rising a little bit -- then it brings in that darker bass, and you instantly know you're in for a Breaking Benjamin song, and it feels darker and more ominous, then the guitar, then the other guitar -- and after that gradual build of growing darkness and hype, and then the more expected guitar segment - like, that immediately makes the entire song feel like a huge payoff, it's a minute and a half before he even sings a word, which for this band is a long-ass time.
As yet a further display of -- or really a way of directly highlighting and weaponizing -- Ben's range, you then get him basically doing a call-and-response with himself in the verses, which is incredibly fun -- vocals built a bit on the "My imitation of life" part to lead you up into the chorus -- the "YOUR EYE" part is another one of those big impressive notes -- and then you get a pretty good chorus, the wording of "Out of the ground, I rise to grace" goes with the structure of the song and enhances the Hype momentum of it -- I love how the final line of the verse is significantly longer than all the others and shifts up the melody a bit in its second half, it's just this unexpected touch (sort of like the "nothing"->"anything" from Water, but here happening within the same chorus) that keeps you hooked, invested, not sure what's gonna happen next, adds to the feeling of disconnect of the song. It's great. And on the second chorus, he sings it in a much more affected way -- again, always fun to see the song develop on successive choruses like that, but here it happens in a much stronger way than usual with some of his most impressive vocals in any song on that final line of the chorus. I love it.
From a sheer songwriting perspective -- the overall progression of the song, the composition, the way it develops -- this is arguably the single best in the Breaking Benjamin canon, and if anyone put it at #1 on their entire list, as I imagine many people do, I'd have no reason to disagree.
OKAY ANOTHER BIG GAP BECAUSE AS GREAT AS EVERYTHING ELSE IS THIS TOP FIVE IS SUPER SPECIAL
BUT THE WRITE-UPS ARE GONNA GET SHORTER BECAUSE GOD DAMN I'VE BEEN AT THIS A WHILE IDK
I MEAN I FULLY INTEND ON DOING ANOTHER LIST AT SOME POINT (WHERE SONGS LIKE "WATER" THAT ALREADY GOT A THOROUGH EVALUATION WON'T GET MUCH MORE, BUT ONES LIKE "MEDICATE" WILL AND WILL PROBABLY HAVE THEIR RANKINGS CHANGE QUITE A BIT) SO I CAN ALWAYS JUST SAY MORE THEN
Anyways, these are the five best ones:
- jk, apparently I hit the 40k character limit for posts. See the comments for my ranking of my top five (which are, alphabetically: No Games, So Cold, Sooner or Later, You, You Fight Me.) -
Submitted January 09, 2019 at 10:15AM by DabuSurvivor http://bit.ly/2Fi2vds
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