Taylor Swift’s ’22’ wasn’t eligible for today’s slot because Swift already made the cut with ‘Fifteen.’ But that’s fine, because I already have a ’22’ song I like better.
Lily Allen’s 2009 sophomore album, It’s Not Me, It’s You, matched, and maybe topped, her celebrated debut. She seemed on the verge of massive stardom, or at least the kind of sustained critical acclaim few pop artists enjoy.
The ’31 Numbered Songs’ project reaches drinking age with ’21,’ a track from young country phenom Hunter Hayes’ third album, The 21 Project.
Hayes released seven singles to streaming services before compiling them in a 7-song EP. He then released two new versions of the collection, one featuring acoustic versions and one featuring live versions of the same songs. He wanted to both give his fans a glimpse of how songs evolve from conception to performance and stretch the boundaries of how country music is distributed. Pretty heady stuff for a then-24 year old.
🔢 31 Numbered Songs 🔢
→ One memorable song named for each number from 1 to 31
Today’s track was one of the initial inspirations for my ’31 Numbered Songs’ series. I’ve been a big fan of this song since I first heard it nearly two decades ago and at one point I considered making it the kick-off track of a 2-week series on songs numbered 20 through 29. Fortunately, I didn’t jump the gun and we all got to discover some obscure rap artists in the 1-10 range.
I discovered Travis’ “20” as a hidden bonus track on the band’s acclaimed sophomore album, 1999’s The Man Who. It’s one of three hidden tracks that are each as strong as anything on the album proper.
Our next numbered song is one of the unlikeliest hits of the 80s, British electronic artist Paul Hardcastle’s spoken-word Vietnam war anthem ’19.’
Inspired by a documentary on PTSD, Hardcastle sampled news reports and interviews over a bed of electronic music, centered around the (possibly incorrect) statistic that the average age of a soldier in Vietnam was 19.
The ’31 Numbered Songs’ series reaches adulthood with ’18,’ a 2014 track from One Direction’s fourth album, appropriately titled Four. How many numbers can I get in one sentence?!
This song was written by Ed Sheeran (with Oliver Frank) for the band at the request of Simon Cowell. It wasn’t released as a single, but Niall Horan’s pronunciation of “chance” as “chonce” launched a thousand fan memes.
