The Magical Brilliance of Ben Moody

(Originally posted as a Myspace blog, Sunday, April 29, 2007, 2:10 PM)

If you don't know who Ben Moody is, he's the former Evanescence guy who's been spreading his brilliance throughout the world of pop music. When he left Evanescence, I was heart-broken, but Amy Lee (and the rest of Evanescence) and Ben Moody have clearly influenced each other such that they have each continued to create some of the best music I've ever heard. But it seems that most of the public doesn't get to hear what I feel are among the best Ben Moody has contributed to....and that is the purpose of this blog...

Ben Moody (along with David Hodges) co-wrote "What About Now," which is by far the best song on the otherwise amazing Daughtry (self-titled) CD. Despite the utter perfection and beauty of this song (incredible music, incredible lyrics, and Chris Daughtry's incredible voice and talent), I get the sense that it will never see the light of radio play, perhaps destined to suffer the same fate as Kelly Clarkson's Addicted (also co-written by Ben Moody (with David Hodges and Kelly Clarkson)), also the best song on her otherwise amazing CD (Breakaway).

Both songs reach directly into your soul, into the deepest sulci of your brain, touching you emotionally like few things can; they're both the kind of songs that you stop what you're doing because you're just so mesmerized by the intensely beautiful sounds and you just listen and feel it...Yet you never hear about these songs; they don't appear to be given the chance to shine in the public's eye as singles.

It seems that it's too late for "Addicted" (Kelly Clarkson) since she seems to have a new CD on the way, but it's not too late for "What About Now" (Daughtry)...I hope I'm shown to be wrong, I hope it does find its way onto the playlists...

Interesting side note: As of the time of this blog posting, both Evanescence and Ben Moody have yet to accept me as Myspace friends...I've only been requesting their myspacely friendship for 6 or 7 months...

P.S. I realized I used a jargon-y word, so here's a definition:
"Sulci" is the plural form of Sulcus (because it's Latin). A sulcus is a fissure on your brain. Gyri (singular = gyrus) are the protrusions that sort of bubble out between the sulci.

I hope you've enjoyed this very brief lesson in neuroscience :-)

Updates (via comments I posted on the Myspace version of this blog)

June 23, 2007
Woohoo! Ben Moody accepted my offer of myspacely friendship! But alas, I continue to wait for Evanescence...

July 7, 2007 (07/07/07, a numerically exciting day!)
And the day has come, that I shall wait no more, for Evanescence has, at long last, accepted my myspacely friendship :-)

February 23, 2008
I was elated to see this week on American Idol, the Moody-Daughtry brilliance shining beautifully as "What About Now" played over some sort of montage of contestants. As far as I know, it's not a single (yet), but at least it's getting some public exposure :-)

July 3, 2008
Woohoo! I heard "What About Now" on the radio today! And they called it a new song!

My work here is done :-) This clearly happened because of me and my little blog! You're welcome, world!

Now, what shall I cause the world to do next...

Update:
Now, I mean September 7, 2009
Obviously "What About Now" has become rather popular, and appears to be loved by all humans. I'm so awesome for discovering it, and for causing it's success :-) hehehe

Ben Moody finally released his own CD called All for This (actually, I believe it's a CD-R), which you can download at Amazon (like I did). Obviously, Daughtry and Kelly Clarkson also have new CDs (Leave This Town and All I Ever Wanted respectively) which are also quite good :-)