Doc Jethro Pilgrim's Coal Frontier Miracle
The Pneumatic Pride of Albion
Sun Hark's Oriental Thunder
Electronic Missives From Me, Myself and I
Monday 29 November 2010
Leading Lights - Cast of Characters - part One
Doc Jethro Pilgrim's Coal Frontier Miracle
The Pneumatic Pride of Albion
Sun Hark's Oriental Thunder
Monday 23 August 2010
Blur : Their Best Tracks (IMHO, of course!)
This Is A Low
The story was that Alex gave Damon a handkerchief as a birthday gift. In it was written the shipping forecast of England. From that, Damon wrote ‘This is a Low’, not only Blur's greatest song, but also one of the best songs in the history of pop music. Taken on its own, it’s a perfectly good song : no one can argue about the pretty vocal melodies throughout, and Damon’s use of the weather as a metaphor for a country’s state of mind is typically clever and incisive. It showcases all four members working in perfect harmony (witness Alex’s contribution, which add a subtle layer of melody to the wordless passages, or Dave’s empathic drumming), and the production touches by Stephen Street added quirks (is that a backward loop or Graham’s strumming?) that made it wholly unique. In the context of an album, it would have made a terrific closer, and after experiencing the myriad observations of English life on the previous tracks, serves as a summation and a peak (the inclusion of the beery knees-up ‘Lot 105’ as an epilogue did not dull its impact one bit). It rivals Pulp’s ‘Common People’ as the greatest hybrid of pop song and social commentary. And I’m sure that this song is responsible for igniting thousands of people’s curiosity of England, with specific mentions of the Thames, Dogger Bank, the Bay of Biscay, and the likes. It’s a modern ballad with an antique quality, a tender ode with bursts of dissonance, a story about decay that manages to be fresh and uplifting,and a true classic.
Beetlebum
As a Blur fan, the long wait between The Great Escape and its follow-up is more than a little agonizing. Everyone, it seemed, has gone mad for Oasis, and The Great Escape, though greeted with critical hosannas on its initial release, experienced a huge backlash, with critics accusing its subjects as mere caricatures. Another tour of the United States still proved futile, and Damon, who commented that “The only thing we have in common with Oasis is that we’re both doing shit in America” was forced to watch helplessly as ‘What’s The Story Morning Glory’ reached Number 5 in the Billboard chart, and ‘Wonderwall’ became a worldwide hit. Graham was getting sick of being famous. Rumors of cocaine abuse circulated, and intra-band relationships were deteriorating. It is to their credit as individuals that the pressure did not break them, but instead forced them to regroup, to go back to their art-school roots, and made an album that didn’t give a damn about what the critics and the fans expect. That’s the trait that I like most about Blur, in that they seemed to operate on their strongest when everyone is against them. So in spring of 1997, we heard the first single of Blur’s fifth album, to be titled… Blur. ‘Beetlebum’ dropped all traces of the English ‘Oompah-oompah-Chimney-Sweep’ musical stylings of their previous work. Instead we get choppy guitars, angular rhythms and vague lyrics. And, dammit, it worked like magic! Hard as he might try, Damon’s pop instincts prevailed, and although the musical backing is jarring and odd, its delicious melody is guaranteed to stick in your head forever after a few listens. Plus, the lines “She’ll suck your thumb/She’ll make you come” managed to be both weird and sexy at the same time.
End of A Century
So good that even Noel Gallagher admitted his admiration for it.
He Thought of Cars
Overlooked amid other songs on ‘The Great Escape’, this hauntingly beautiful track is in many ways a precursor of Radiohead's lyrical preoccupation in 'OK Computer', in which the future is full of unease and paranoia is an everyday occurrence. It finally got its due when it was included on Blur's second retrospective "Midlife : A Beginner;s Guide To Blur".
Popscene
Or, the single that created the Britpop genre. It’s all here, you know : the punky pacing, the melodic basslines, the loud guitars, the horn section, the Cockney accent. Released in 1992, it was Blur’s Huge Leap Forward, their best work up to that point. However, the fact that it reached a lowly number 32 in the charts drained the band of its optimism and put Blur’s career on a tailspin. The press’ interest has moved on to grunge and all things American, and Blur’s standing as a favorite was well and truly usurped by an up-and-coming indie band with an androgynous singer and a ridiculously talented guitarist called Suede (named, lest we forget, by Justine Frischmann, Damon’s then-girlfriend). In retrospect, its unfortunate fate proved to be beneficial to the band. It strengthened Damon’s convictions to pursue a new direction, anchored in the uniquely British music of the Kinks, the Jam, Gang of Four and Teardrop Explodes. ‘Popscene’ ( a raucous, joyous blend of all the bands mentioned above) didn’t appear on the band’s best-of album, and its exclusion made it seem like Blur is spitefully saying to its audience, “Well, you ignored this back then, why would you want it now?”
To The End
Parklife is a great album, a classic, perhaps. But it’s also a bit bipolar, a bit maddening. Why? Because for every serious, well-crafted pop song such as ‘To The End’, there is a track that was seemingly created by very drunk people. It’s hard to think that an album with songs as punkish, as throwaway as ‘Bank Holiday’ and ‘Jubilee’ also has a song as graceful, as lovelorn as ‘To The End’. Even in itself, though, ‘To The End’ is a track rife with contradictions. The music may be meticulous, but the emotions are very naïve (‘You and I collapsed in love’), and though the mood may be blissful, even the protagonist is not sure about their eventual fate (‘Looks like we might have made it, looks like we’ve made it to the end’) To the end of what? A courtship? Does it mean now they’ll be together forever? Or the end of the affair/relationship? Are they separating? Remember : ‘Neither of us mean what we say’ and ‘Those dirty words make us look so dumb). For me personally, its swoon, its sweep, its grandeur is more than enough for me to reach a conclusion that, yes, ‘To The End’ is the greatest love song of the Nineties.
For Tomorrow
Best experienced as the longer version known as ‘Visit to Primrose Hill – Extended’, ‘For Tomorrow’ saved Blur from oblivion, and provided a manifesto that they will bear for the next few years. Its blend of punk guitars, strings and maddeningly catchy chorus provided a perfect calling card for the New Blur : gone are the loopy, dance-driven rhythms and the baggy clobber. The New Blur is a suited-and-booted, uniquely English proposition, and soon they will save England from grunge and have the whole of Britain in their cusp.
Best Days
Graham Coxon described this song as ‘sad, sad, sad’. The line ‘all the people wouldn’t like to hear you, if you said that these are the best days of our lives’ is pessimistic, sure, but the wistful tone and the jaunty piano solo in the middle made it so, so beautiful. Could the mention of London landmarks such as Bow Bells and Trellick Tower make its appeal more selective?
Sing
The strangest track on Leisure is also its best. Monotonic piano, slivers of guitar noise and Alex’s melodic bassline, and an irrestistible “Aah-aa-aa-aah” chorus. Best known for its use in Trainspotting where Ewan MAcGregor and Ewen Bremner ran away from the Police.
Girls & Boys
If there's a case for pop music as a product, then Girls & Boys stands as its greatest proponent. It screams 'pop song' from its first second until its fade-out. It's so catchy that if you listen to it in the wrong mood then it can came out as annoying. It's tongue-twisting chorus is immediate enough to be sung along with after a single listen. The drumbeats make you move your feet. The bassline (Duran Duran, anybody?) makes you move your bum. Graham's alternately keening and grinding guitars is the lone element that makes thing song a Blur song. And for the cover they put up a kind of photograph you'd usually find in a condom ad.
Sweet Song
Maybe he didn’t mean for it to be taken literally, but the line ‘My streets are pop music and gold’ from ‘Sweet Song’ perfectly sums up Damon Albarn. In him we have someone who can craft a great pop song seemingly without effort. Personally, this song is dangerously close to becoming my favorite Blur song. It’s just truly heartbreaking, almost unbearably so. And although the final line offers a dash of hope ( “I hope to see the good in you come back again, I just believe in you”),
Badhead
For a guitarist with a penchant for noisy freak-outs and obscure American hardcore, Graham Coxon is also a master of subtlety. His work here is reminiscent of Roger McGuinn on his heyday. Couple that with a catchy horn riff and Damon’s beautiful melody, and you got an under-rated classic, one that was bafflingly never released as a single.
Chemical World
Initially, I thought Chemical World was a fucking annoying song. I never really liked Madness, and this song seemed too much like a rip-off of Our House with Graham Coxon’s loud guitars making it louder but not very interesting. Well, I was a fool for having thought so. Chemical World is the perfect blend of the cheeky and profound. The call-and-response verses seem so simple, but the chorus and Damon’s coda of “Until you can see right through” is the stuff of magic. Great video, as well.
Song 2
If ‘excitement’ is also a song and not just a state of mind, then it’s ‘Song 2’. Nothing more needs to be said.
Blue Jeans
'Blue Jeans' must have been intended by its author as a very specific personal vignette. The mention of Portobello road suggests a certain location, the line about 'air-cushioned soles' and the title itself says a lot about the author's favorite things. But the beauty of the song is that its emotional core is very universal. It expresses the feeling of not wanting to change, of wanting things to stay the same, and the desire for understanding from your loved one. It's a great tune, though only rarely performed, sadly.
Coffee and TV
Worthy of inclusion based on the classic Hammer and Tongs video alone, this track's catchiness still possess a jittery core. The strumming on the verse (how can something be so lethargic yet frantic at the same time?), the switch from Graham to Damon when it slides into the chorus… there's a lot of things to like in it. The overall melodiousness of the song made this one of the Blur tunes everyone is familiar with.
Chart position:
Tender:
Tender wouldn’t make any sense to someone who has never fallen in love and suffered through it. Tender spoke without any regard to subtlety, going straight to the point. It’s a bit corny, sure, but it’s heartfelt. And it was one of the first instances of Damon tearing his heart out for us to see (which will be elaborated on most of the tracks in 13). And anyone whose heart didn’t skip a beat when the London Community Gospel Choir swoops in during the chorus is quite possibly dead.
Young & Lovely
Young & Lovely could have easily made it to Modern Life is Rubbish. It can hold its own against For Tomorrow and Chemical World. It is easily superior to Turn It Up and Villa Rosie. However, the bland production does it few favours.
:
Out of Time
Can Blur survive without Graham Coxon? History proved they cannot. It is simply not Blur without that nervous, bespectacled Greg Sage devotee stage left. Let's modify the question a bit: can Damon, Alex and Dave create a superb record without Graham's input? The answer, for everyone who first heard Out of Time, is a resounding yes. Out of Time is one of the most straightforward Blur songs. It's very direct, both in structure, tune, and lyrics. Graham's absence in this one is probably beneficial. The rudimentary guitar is ably aided with melodic subtlety by the bass, and the break in the middle, where it sounds like it was recorded in another dimension, is as eerie as it is beautiful.
:
You're So Great
Alex has his ‘Alex’s Song’, and Graham has this. One voice, three(?) guitars, an endearing melody and a universal lyric about affection. Why is this not a hit? Because it sounds like it was taped from an old, beat-up transistor without an antenna and a wet sock on its speaker, that’s why.
The Universal
If anyone said that the Great Escape is an overblown piece of crap, they're half right. It's by no means crap, but overblown? well, one listen to the Universal justified that. It sounds like This Is A Low buffed up with a muscle suit. Justine Frischmann hated the lyrics to this song. She thought that “It really really really could happen” is a bad line. And, fair cop, for Albarn at the time, it was a bit blunt. For all its bombast, however, Stephen Street whipped up a string section that’s so grandiose that its (small) failings can be easily dismissed. Great Stanley Kubrick homage for the video as well.
Good Song
The ‘junk-shop pop’ tag may seem old-hat by now (Boy Least Likely To, Psapp and Nizlopi, stand up), but Good Song was a breath of fresh air when we first heard it. It’s also one of the few instances in Think Tank where Blur doesn’t try to replace Graham’s guitars with technological knick-knacks, instead letting it revel in its own sparseness. “Sleeping, but my work’s not done/I could be lying on an atom bomb/I’ll take care/’Cos I know you’ll be there/And you seem very beautiful to me”. It’s immediately memorable, it moves like a machine missing a few cogs, and it sounds like a creaky old music box that is desperately in need of an oil change. That’s filtered through an 8-bit video game. Which makes it all the better, really
Strange News From Another Star
Hauntingly beautiful but lost amid the rest of the album’s penchant for noise, this ballad was written by Damon when he discovered Iceland as a source of retreat from the UK, whose public’s affection for Blur was on the wane. It always seemed funny to me that although David Bowie received a co-writing credit for MOR (fair cop, since it does resemble ‘Boys Keep Swinging’ a bit too much for comfort), but ‘Strange News From Another Star’, with its desolate lyrics (‘All I wanna be/is washed out by the sea/the death star over me/Wont give me any peace’), spectral organs and quietly strummed guitars made it a much more direct homage to the Dame’s early epic ‘Space Oddity’. And, to keep it on track with its album brethren, it ends with a fucking loud barrage of martial drums and sundry white noise.
Sunday Sunday
The birth of the typical “Blur Stomp”. Sadly, Sunday Sunday’s greatest failure is that it cannot maintain its freshness. Every Britpop band worth its salt has copied its martial drums (Supergrass’ ‘Mansize Rooster’, to name but one) and none-more-English lyrics, but then, Sunday Sunday is not entirely original itself. It certainly owes a lot to music hall and theatre. You can almost hear Eric Idle or Peter Cook singing it on a TV Special. Its release as a single after Chemical World while not gaining Blur many new fans, but it did consolidate their position as Britpop torch-bearers.
Death of A Party
Demoed way back in 1993, it's weirdly prophetic : the downfall of the Britpop scene is inevitable sure, but it sure left a mess that its participants still felt : Pulp will eventually split up when JArvis Cocker realized that stardom is not fun after all; Oasis disappeared up their own arses in a cocaine blitz and never regained their vitality; Elastica just kind of retreated; etc etc. It's a sad song, lethargic in tempo, but its chorus once again shows Damon's seemingly unlimited capacity for a melodic hook.
The story was that Alex gave Damon a handkerchief as a birthday gift. In it was written the shipping forecast of England. From that, Damon wrote ‘This is a Low’, not only Blur's greatest song, but also one of the best songs in the history of pop music. Taken on its own, it’s a perfectly good song : no one can argue about the pretty vocal melodies throughout, and Damon’s use of the weather as a metaphor for a country’s state of mind is typically clever and incisive. It showcases all four members working in perfect harmony (witness Alex’s contribution, which add a subtle layer of melody to the wordless passages, or Dave’s empathic drumming), and the production touches by Stephen Street added quirks (is that a backward loop or Graham’s strumming?) that made it wholly unique. In the context of an album, it would have made a terrific closer, and after experiencing the myriad observations of English life on the previous tracks, serves as a summation and a peak (the inclusion of the beery knees-up ‘Lot 105’ as an epilogue did not dull its impact one bit). It rivals Pulp’s ‘Common People’ as the greatest hybrid of pop song and social commentary. And I’m sure that this song is responsible for igniting thousands of people’s curiosity of England, with specific mentions of the Thames, Dogger Bank, the Bay of Biscay, and the likes. It’s a modern ballad with an antique quality, a tender ode with bursts of dissonance, a story about decay that manages to be fresh and uplifting,and a true classic.
Beetlebum
As a Blur fan, the long wait between The Great Escape and its follow-up is more than a little agonizing. Everyone, it seemed, has gone mad for Oasis, and The Great Escape, though greeted with critical hosannas on its initial release, experienced a huge backlash, with critics accusing its subjects as mere caricatures. Another tour of the United States still proved futile, and Damon, who commented that “The only thing we have in common with Oasis is that we’re both doing shit in America” was forced to watch helplessly as ‘What’s The Story Morning Glory’ reached Number 5 in the Billboard chart, and ‘Wonderwall’ became a worldwide hit. Graham was getting sick of being famous. Rumors of cocaine abuse circulated, and intra-band relationships were deteriorating. It is to their credit as individuals that the pressure did not break them, but instead forced them to regroup, to go back to their art-school roots, and made an album that didn’t give a damn about what the critics and the fans expect. That’s the trait that I like most about Blur, in that they seemed to operate on their strongest when everyone is against them. So in spring of 1997, we heard the first single of Blur’s fifth album, to be titled… Blur. ‘Beetlebum’ dropped all traces of the English ‘Oompah-oompah-Chimney-Sweep’ musical stylings of their previous work. Instead we get choppy guitars, angular rhythms and vague lyrics. And, dammit, it worked like magic! Hard as he might try, Damon’s pop instincts prevailed, and although the musical backing is jarring and odd, its delicious melody is guaranteed to stick in your head forever after a few listens. Plus, the lines “She’ll suck your thumb/She’ll make you come” managed to be both weird and sexy at the same time.
End of A Century
So good that even Noel Gallagher admitted his admiration for it.
He Thought of Cars
Overlooked amid other songs on ‘The Great Escape’, this hauntingly beautiful track is in many ways a precursor of Radiohead's lyrical preoccupation in 'OK Computer', in which the future is full of unease and paranoia is an everyday occurrence. It finally got its due when it was included on Blur's second retrospective "Midlife : A Beginner;s Guide To Blur".
Popscene
Or, the single that created the Britpop genre. It’s all here, you know : the punky pacing, the melodic basslines, the loud guitars, the horn section, the Cockney accent. Released in 1992, it was Blur’s Huge Leap Forward, their best work up to that point. However, the fact that it reached a lowly number 32 in the charts drained the band of its optimism and put Blur’s career on a tailspin. The press’ interest has moved on to grunge and all things American, and Blur’s standing as a favorite was well and truly usurped by an up-and-coming indie band with an androgynous singer and a ridiculously talented guitarist called Suede (named, lest we forget, by Justine Frischmann, Damon’s then-girlfriend). In retrospect, its unfortunate fate proved to be beneficial to the band. It strengthened Damon’s convictions to pursue a new direction, anchored in the uniquely British music of the Kinks, the Jam, Gang of Four and Teardrop Explodes. ‘Popscene’ ( a raucous, joyous blend of all the bands mentioned above) didn’t appear on the band’s best-of album, and its exclusion made it seem like Blur is spitefully saying to its audience, “Well, you ignored this back then, why would you want it now?”
To The End
Parklife is a great album, a classic, perhaps. But it’s also a bit bipolar, a bit maddening. Why? Because for every serious, well-crafted pop song such as ‘To The End’, there is a track that was seemingly created by very drunk people. It’s hard to think that an album with songs as punkish, as throwaway as ‘Bank Holiday’ and ‘Jubilee’ also has a song as graceful, as lovelorn as ‘To The End’. Even in itself, though, ‘To The End’ is a track rife with contradictions. The music may be meticulous, but the emotions are very naïve (‘You and I collapsed in love’), and though the mood may be blissful, even the protagonist is not sure about their eventual fate (‘Looks like we might have made it, looks like we’ve made it to the end’) To the end of what? A courtship? Does it mean now they’ll be together forever? Or the end of the affair/relationship? Are they separating? Remember : ‘Neither of us mean what we say’ and ‘Those dirty words make us look so dumb). For me personally, its swoon, its sweep, its grandeur is more than enough for me to reach a conclusion that, yes, ‘To The End’ is the greatest love song of the Nineties.
For Tomorrow
Best experienced as the longer version known as ‘Visit to Primrose Hill – Extended’, ‘For Tomorrow’ saved Blur from oblivion, and provided a manifesto that they will bear for the next few years. Its blend of punk guitars, strings and maddeningly catchy chorus provided a perfect calling card for the New Blur : gone are the loopy, dance-driven rhythms and the baggy clobber. The New Blur is a suited-and-booted, uniquely English proposition, and soon they will save England from grunge and have the whole of Britain in their cusp.
Best Days
Graham Coxon described this song as ‘sad, sad, sad’. The line ‘all the people wouldn’t like to hear you, if you said that these are the best days of our lives’ is pessimistic, sure, but the wistful tone and the jaunty piano solo in the middle made it so, so beautiful. Could the mention of London landmarks such as Bow Bells and Trellick Tower make its appeal more selective?
Sing
The strangest track on Leisure is also its best. Monotonic piano, slivers of guitar noise and Alex’s melodic bassline, and an irrestistible “Aah-aa-aa-aah” chorus. Best known for its use in Trainspotting where Ewan MAcGregor and Ewen Bremner ran away from the Police.
Girls & Boys
If there's a case for pop music as a product, then Girls & Boys stands as its greatest proponent. It screams 'pop song' from its first second until its fade-out. It's so catchy that if you listen to it in the wrong mood then it can came out as annoying. It's tongue-twisting chorus is immediate enough to be sung along with after a single listen. The drumbeats make you move your feet. The bassline (Duran Duran, anybody?) makes you move your bum. Graham's alternately keening and grinding guitars is the lone element that makes thing song a Blur song. And for the cover they put up a kind of photograph you'd usually find in a condom ad.
Sweet Song
Maybe he didn’t mean for it to be taken literally, but the line ‘My streets are pop music and gold’ from ‘Sweet Song’ perfectly sums up Damon Albarn. In him we have someone who can craft a great pop song seemingly without effort. Personally, this song is dangerously close to becoming my favorite Blur song. It’s just truly heartbreaking, almost unbearably so. And although the final line offers a dash of hope ( “I hope to see the good in you come back again, I just believe in you”),
Badhead
For a guitarist with a penchant for noisy freak-outs and obscure American hardcore, Graham Coxon is also a master of subtlety. His work here is reminiscent of Roger McGuinn on his heyday. Couple that with a catchy horn riff and Damon’s beautiful melody, and you got an under-rated classic, one that was bafflingly never released as a single.
Chemical World
Initially, I thought Chemical World was a fucking annoying song. I never really liked Madness, and this song seemed too much like a rip-off of Our House with Graham Coxon’s loud guitars making it louder but not very interesting. Well, I was a fool for having thought so. Chemical World is the perfect blend of the cheeky and profound. The call-and-response verses seem so simple, but the chorus and Damon’s coda of “Until you can see right through” is the stuff of magic. Great video, as well.
Song 2
If ‘excitement’ is also a song and not just a state of mind, then it’s ‘Song 2’. Nothing more needs to be said.
Blue Jeans
'Blue Jeans' must have been intended by its author as a very specific personal vignette. The mention of Portobello road suggests a certain location, the line about 'air-cushioned soles' and the title itself says a lot about the author's favorite things. But the beauty of the song is that its emotional core is very universal. It expresses the feeling of not wanting to change, of wanting things to stay the same, and the desire for understanding from your loved one. It's a great tune, though only rarely performed, sadly.
Coffee and TV
Worthy of inclusion based on the classic Hammer and Tongs video alone, this track's catchiness still possess a jittery core. The strumming on the verse (how can something be so lethargic yet frantic at the same time?), the switch from Graham to Damon when it slides into the chorus… there's a lot of things to like in it. The overall melodiousness of the song made this one of the Blur tunes everyone is familiar with.
Chart position:
Tender:
Tender wouldn’t make any sense to someone who has never fallen in love and suffered through it. Tender spoke without any regard to subtlety, going straight to the point. It’s a bit corny, sure, but it’s heartfelt. And it was one of the first instances of Damon tearing his heart out for us to see (which will be elaborated on most of the tracks in 13). And anyone whose heart didn’t skip a beat when the London Community Gospel Choir swoops in during the chorus is quite possibly dead.
Young & Lovely
Young & Lovely could have easily made it to Modern Life is Rubbish. It can hold its own against For Tomorrow and Chemical World. It is easily superior to Turn It Up and Villa Rosie. However, the bland production does it few favours.
:
Out of Time
Can Blur survive without Graham Coxon? History proved they cannot. It is simply not Blur without that nervous, bespectacled Greg Sage devotee stage left. Let's modify the question a bit: can Damon, Alex and Dave create a superb record without Graham's input? The answer, for everyone who first heard Out of Time, is a resounding yes. Out of Time is one of the most straightforward Blur songs. It's very direct, both in structure, tune, and lyrics. Graham's absence in this one is probably beneficial. The rudimentary guitar is ably aided with melodic subtlety by the bass, and the break in the middle, where it sounds like it was recorded in another dimension, is as eerie as it is beautiful.
:
You're So Great
Alex has his ‘Alex’s Song’, and Graham has this. One voice, three(?) guitars, an endearing melody and a universal lyric about affection. Why is this not a hit? Because it sounds like it was taped from an old, beat-up transistor without an antenna and a wet sock on its speaker, that’s why.
The Universal
If anyone said that the Great Escape is an overblown piece of crap, they're half right. It's by no means crap, but overblown? well, one listen to the Universal justified that. It sounds like This Is A Low buffed up with a muscle suit. Justine Frischmann hated the lyrics to this song. She thought that “It really really really could happen” is a bad line. And, fair cop, for Albarn at the time, it was a bit blunt. For all its bombast, however, Stephen Street whipped up a string section that’s so grandiose that its (small) failings can be easily dismissed. Great Stanley Kubrick homage for the video as well.
Good Song
The ‘junk-shop pop’ tag may seem old-hat by now (Boy Least Likely To, Psapp and Nizlopi, stand up), but Good Song was a breath of fresh air when we first heard it. It’s also one of the few instances in Think Tank where Blur doesn’t try to replace Graham’s guitars with technological knick-knacks, instead letting it revel in its own sparseness. “Sleeping, but my work’s not done/I could be lying on an atom bomb/I’ll take care/’Cos I know you’ll be there/And you seem very beautiful to me”. It’s immediately memorable, it moves like a machine missing a few cogs, and it sounds like a creaky old music box that is desperately in need of an oil change. That’s filtered through an 8-bit video game. Which makes it all the better, really
Strange News From Another Star
Hauntingly beautiful but lost amid the rest of the album’s penchant for noise, this ballad was written by Damon when he discovered Iceland as a source of retreat from the UK, whose public’s affection for Blur was on the wane. It always seemed funny to me that although David Bowie received a co-writing credit for MOR (fair cop, since it does resemble ‘Boys Keep Swinging’ a bit too much for comfort), but ‘Strange News From Another Star’, with its desolate lyrics (‘All I wanna be/is washed out by the sea/the death star over me/Wont give me any peace’), spectral organs and quietly strummed guitars made it a much more direct homage to the Dame’s early epic ‘Space Oddity’. And, to keep it on track with its album brethren, it ends with a fucking loud barrage of martial drums and sundry white noise.
Sunday Sunday
The birth of the typical “Blur Stomp”. Sadly, Sunday Sunday’s greatest failure is that it cannot maintain its freshness. Every Britpop band worth its salt has copied its martial drums (Supergrass’ ‘Mansize Rooster’, to name but one) and none-more-English lyrics, but then, Sunday Sunday is not entirely original itself. It certainly owes a lot to music hall and theatre. You can almost hear Eric Idle or Peter Cook singing it on a TV Special. Its release as a single after Chemical World while not gaining Blur many new fans, but it did consolidate their position as Britpop torch-bearers.
Death of A Party
Demoed way back in 1993, it's weirdly prophetic : the downfall of the Britpop scene is inevitable sure, but it sure left a mess that its participants still felt : Pulp will eventually split up when JArvis Cocker realized that stardom is not fun after all; Oasis disappeared up their own arses in a cocaine blitz and never regained their vitality; Elastica just kind of retreated; etc etc. It's a sad song, lethargic in tempo, but its chorus once again shows Damon's seemingly unlimited capacity for a melodic hook.
Friday 16 July 2010
Saturday 3 July 2010
Some of my Favorite Songs of the Last Ten Years - part Two
- Blur - Sweet Song
- A Girl Called Eddy - Somebody Hurt You
Extreme emotions are a dime a dozen in pop music. Declarations of eternal devotion from a song’s protagonist is as common as the disappointed statements of a jilted lover. Sympathy and antipathy are cheap. Empathy, on the other hand, is rarer, and a bit harder to express since pop songs do descend into sentimentality most of the time. Empathy (and its close relative, Understanding) can be found in its plainest in the lyrics to this song, the key track on A Girl Called Eddy’s debut album. It’s a song of comfort, delivered by an older, wiser narrator who, we can surmise, has experienced the world and all it offered, both good things and bad ones. She’s not blind to the fact of its often-cruel nature, and offers her knowledge to someone who’s new to it all (“Please don’t be afraid of the things that are real/And don’t be afraid of whatever you feel/I’m feeling it too”). She’s offering some advice on how to deal with it, but never sugarcoats the hard facts (“If you go looking for things like in the younger days/There wont be an answer/Only love can change your way”). And hey, she’s sweet on the guy, too (“Someone might hurt you/but it will never be me”). All the above, plus a tune that can break even the hardest of hearts, made this song one of the best of the last decade. Truthful, real, and sublime.
- IVY - One More last Kiss
Ivy's One More LAst Kiss was inspired by The Pet Shop Boys' October Symphony, as Andy Chase put it on his track-by-track commentary in their official website. And while it does share a certain wispiness in its musical backing plus some electronic blips here and there, it's a richer, more solemn composition compared to its inspiration. Some of its appeal rests on Dominique Durand's restrained delivery. Deeper than usual, she sang as if the song is something precious, something to be cherished and treasured. And, well, it is. It's one of the best songs in their repertoire.
The rest is down to its lyrics. For a simple pop song, One More LAst Kiss contains more truisms in its lines than an average philosophy book. It deals not with dreams, but reality. Not with making choices, but facing the inevitable. In a music world filled with stock emotions and greeting-card sentiments, It takes a courageous soul indeed to pen the line "I'm not afraid to be lonely. It's just a question of how long I have to wait". But wait! Isn't that what we all feel at some point of our lives? These days, in the age of "Miss Independent" and "Single By Choice", it's refreshing to hear someone telling it like it is.
- Ryan Adams- Strawberry Wine
Sometimes you associate a song with a certain event in your life, but more often you associate a song with a person. There are songs that soundtracked your first crush, your first breakup, and (maybe) your first paycheck. When I hear “Strawberry Wine” I always think of a girl I knew. I met her in 2005, right around the time Mr. Adams released his “29” album. Now, the second track on said album is the aforementioned “Strawberry Wine”, and it contains the lines “Strawberry blonde, with curls”, which perfectly describe this person’s looksw. Now this is a unique trait for an Indonesian, which is why it really struck me. Nothing else on the song matches the situation though. However, it is a lovely, lovely tune, the kind of song perfect for a balmy evening, to help you relax after a hard days work.
- TRavis - RE-offender
- Josh Rouse - Sweetie
- Delays - Valentine
- Innocence Mission - Love that Boy
- Hard Fi - Tied up Too Tight
- Rufus Wainwright - Fourteenth Street
- Eisley - My Lovely
- Tahiti 80 - 1000 times
- NEko Case - People got a Lotta Nerve
- The Shins - Gone For Good
- The Corrs - One Night
- Ryan Adams - World War 24
- A Girl Called Eddy - Somebody Hurt You
Extreme emotions are a dime a dozen in pop music. Declarations of eternal devotion from a song’s protagonist is as common as the disappointed statements of a jilted lover. Sympathy and antipathy are cheap. Empathy, on the other hand, is rarer, and a bit harder to express since pop songs do descend into sentimentality most of the time. Empathy (and its close relative, Understanding) can be found in its plainest in the lyrics to this song, the key track on A Girl Called Eddy’s debut album. It’s a song of comfort, delivered by an older, wiser narrator who, we can surmise, has experienced the world and all it offered, both good things and bad ones. She’s not blind to the fact of its often-cruel nature, and offers her knowledge to someone who’s new to it all (“Please don’t be afraid of the things that are real/And don’t be afraid of whatever you feel/I’m feeling it too”). She’s offering some advice on how to deal with it, but never sugarcoats the hard facts (“If you go looking for things like in the younger days/There wont be an answer/Only love can change your way”). And hey, she’s sweet on the guy, too (“Someone might hurt you/but it will never be me”). All the above, plus a tune that can break even the hardest of hearts, made this song one of the best of the last decade. Truthful, real, and sublime.
- IVY - One More last Kiss
Ivy's One More LAst Kiss was inspired by The Pet Shop Boys' October Symphony, as Andy Chase put it on his track-by-track commentary in their official website. And while it does share a certain wispiness in its musical backing plus some electronic blips here and there, it's a richer, more solemn composition compared to its inspiration. Some of its appeal rests on Dominique Durand's restrained delivery. Deeper than usual, she sang as if the song is something precious, something to be cherished and treasured. And, well, it is. It's one of the best songs in their repertoire.
The rest is down to its lyrics. For a simple pop song, One More LAst Kiss contains more truisms in its lines than an average philosophy book. It deals not with dreams, but reality. Not with making choices, but facing the inevitable. In a music world filled with stock emotions and greeting-card sentiments, It takes a courageous soul indeed to pen the line "I'm not afraid to be lonely. It's just a question of how long I have to wait". But wait! Isn't that what we all feel at some point of our lives? These days, in the age of "Miss Independent" and "Single By Choice", it's refreshing to hear someone telling it like it is.
- Ryan Adams- Strawberry Wine
Sometimes you associate a song with a certain event in your life, but more often you associate a song with a person. There are songs that soundtracked your first crush, your first breakup, and (maybe) your first paycheck. When I hear “Strawberry Wine” I always think of a girl I knew. I met her in 2005, right around the time Mr. Adams released his “29” album. Now, the second track on said album is the aforementioned “Strawberry Wine”, and it contains the lines “Strawberry blonde, with curls”, which perfectly describe this person’s looksw. Now this is a unique trait for an Indonesian, which is why it really struck me. Nothing else on the song matches the situation though. However, it is a lovely, lovely tune, the kind of song perfect for a balmy evening, to help you relax after a hard days work.
- TRavis - RE-offender
- Josh Rouse - Sweetie
- Delays - Valentine
- Innocence Mission - Love that Boy
- Hard Fi - Tied up Too Tight
- Rufus Wainwright - Fourteenth Street
- Eisley - My Lovely
- Tahiti 80 - 1000 times
- NEko Case - People got a Lotta Nerve
- The Shins - Gone For Good
- The Corrs - One Night
- Ryan Adams - World War 24
Some of my Favorite Songs of the Last Ten Years - part one
1. Richard Hawley - The Ocean
I’m proud of the fact that I know who Richard Hawley was since when he was the guitarist in the Sheffield-based Brit-poppers Longpigs. The second guitarist, I might add. Not the one who threw rock-star shapes and received the spotlight, but the one who stood quietly in the back and strummed the chords to Radiohead-like songs written by their photogenic frontman Crispin Hunt. The Longpigs (or, as they were known Muslim countries, the LP’s) made two albums (one fantastic, one a bit meh) and then disappeared. Crispin Hunt resurfaced as a songwriter for, of all people, Natalie Imbruglia. Richard Hawley joined Pulp’s touring line-up as, again, a second guitarist, playing assistant to Mark Webber.
So, with that kind of CV, I didn’t expect for him to be such an accomplished songwriter, and a great singer as well, with a croon midway between Nick Cave and Roy Orbison. He released great albums like “Late Night Final” and “Lowedges”. But just when you’re content to whisper small praises and clap politely, he released “Coles Corner”, an absolute blinder of an album which contains an unarguable masterpiece of a song in the form of “The Ocean”. I don’t know how to describe this song. I can’t even tell you what it’s about. Usually when I get curious about something I’ll immediately google it to find out more, but not with this song. I don’t quite know why. And maybe I don’t want to know. In the same way that you like someone but you cannot exactly define the qualities that made you feel that way, so it is with me and “The Ocean”. I just have the feeling that it’s useless to figure it out, that if you examine it, it will ruin all the magic and suck out all the mystery. All I know is that it possesses one of the loveliest melodies I have ever heard in my life. Just listen to it. When the whole thing kicks up halfway in, and everything became louder, bigger, and more emotional, I guarantee you’ll feel the same.
2. Monkey Swallows The Universe - Bloodline
Oh how much I missed the old REM. The group who produced low-key folk-pop gems that slowly but surely got under your skin. Nowadays, it seems that the band members’ lives have drifted away from the band: Michael Stipe is more interested in applying horrible blue make-up, Peter Buck in playing sidekick to Robyn Hitchcock, and Mike Mills in playing Fantasy League baseball games. However, from England we did get a new band playing the same kind of music REM was doing in the early Nineties. Plus, in Nat Johnson, we also discovered a vocalist with a delivery so assured that it makes up for her lack of sex appeal. “Bloodline” is the highlight of their second album, “The Casket Letters”. Notice how the pleasant melody plus the restrained alto of Johnson initially hid the raw, strong emotions in the lyrics. “And someone’s gotta come, to take us all out of here / before there’s nothing left”. Guaranteed to give you chills every single time.
3. Broadcast - Before WE BEgin
I love “Before WE Begin” since the first time I heard it. Now to me this is weird because songs this immediate usually never stuck with me. I usually associate this kind of tune with commercial jingles and radio hits : catchy but disposable. So what made this track so enduring that all these years I kept on listening to it and still enraptured by its beauty? I simply cannot put my finger on it. Once again, analysis cannot win when the song just attacks your nervous system and affects the pleasure center like that of the most potent drug. I cant find any official video for the song on Youtube, but you can check out the song with the clip below, and though this video lacks Trish Keenan’s presence, it does have a goofy girl doing an even goofier dance. If you don’t like the song, then at least the clip can bring a smile and make your day just that little bit brighter.
4. Gorillaz - Hongkong
You can describe the music of Gorillaz in many words : “Cool”, “Exciting”, “Quirky”, “Fun”, but rarely has it been called “Poignant” or “Beautiful”. Yet those two adjectives perfectly describe this song. Only a genius like Damon Albarn could have written an absolute gem like this and give it off to charity.
5. OAsis - Falling Down
Or, as I’d like to call it, “Tomorrow Never Knows, part deux”. Okay, “Setting Sun” is quite similar (it even has the same number of syllables), but “Falling Down” deserves props because it’s the last decent Oasis song. “We live a dying dream/if you know what I mean”… Well, we don’t, Mr. Gallagher, but we’ll gladly sway our heads from side to side and pretend its 1966 anyway. The reason why Oasis remain popular is that, given their limited ability as purveyors of meat and potatoes rock and roll, they at least inject all they do with such brazen attitude and self-belief that it’s impossible not to admire them. Anyone else who nicked songs so frequently as Noel Gallagher would have drowned their heads in shame. Noel on the other hand, doesn’t seem to care, and sometimes even proud of how much he can get away with. One more thing you have to admire about the Gallaghers : given meat and potatoes, they realized that they don’t have to cook a standard stew, but instead created something else : a delicious-tasting... dynamite.
6. DEath CAb for Cutie - Transatlanticism
7. Josh Rouse - Quiet Town
Before I have said that we often associate songs with people. But other times, certain songs remind you of a certain place. Maybe it’s the type of music, and maybe it’s the lyrics that made us do that. Josh Rouse’s “Quite Town” is such an example. I always remembered my time in Papua when I hear this song.
I’m proud of the fact that I know who Richard Hawley was since when he was the guitarist in the Sheffield-based Brit-poppers Longpigs. The second guitarist, I might add. Not the one who threw rock-star shapes and received the spotlight, but the one who stood quietly in the back and strummed the chords to Radiohead-like songs written by their photogenic frontman Crispin Hunt. The Longpigs (or, as they were known Muslim countries, the LP’s) made two albums (one fantastic, one a bit meh) and then disappeared. Crispin Hunt resurfaced as a songwriter for, of all people, Natalie Imbruglia. Richard Hawley joined Pulp’s touring line-up as, again, a second guitarist, playing assistant to Mark Webber.
So, with that kind of CV, I didn’t expect for him to be such an accomplished songwriter, and a great singer as well, with a croon midway between Nick Cave and Roy Orbison. He released great albums like “Late Night Final” and “Lowedges”. But just when you’re content to whisper small praises and clap politely, he released “Coles Corner”, an absolute blinder of an album which contains an unarguable masterpiece of a song in the form of “The Ocean”. I don’t know how to describe this song. I can’t even tell you what it’s about. Usually when I get curious about something I’ll immediately google it to find out more, but not with this song. I don’t quite know why. And maybe I don’t want to know. In the same way that you like someone but you cannot exactly define the qualities that made you feel that way, so it is with me and “The Ocean”. I just have the feeling that it’s useless to figure it out, that if you examine it, it will ruin all the magic and suck out all the mystery. All I know is that it possesses one of the loveliest melodies I have ever heard in my life. Just listen to it. When the whole thing kicks up halfway in, and everything became louder, bigger, and more emotional, I guarantee you’ll feel the same.
2. Monkey Swallows The Universe - Bloodline
Oh how much I missed the old REM. The group who produced low-key folk-pop gems that slowly but surely got under your skin. Nowadays, it seems that the band members’ lives have drifted away from the band: Michael Stipe is more interested in applying horrible blue make-up, Peter Buck in playing sidekick to Robyn Hitchcock, and Mike Mills in playing Fantasy League baseball games. However, from England we did get a new band playing the same kind of music REM was doing in the early Nineties. Plus, in Nat Johnson, we also discovered a vocalist with a delivery so assured that it makes up for her lack of sex appeal. “Bloodline” is the highlight of their second album, “The Casket Letters”. Notice how the pleasant melody plus the restrained alto of Johnson initially hid the raw, strong emotions in the lyrics. “And someone’s gotta come, to take us all out of here / before there’s nothing left”. Guaranteed to give you chills every single time.
3. Broadcast - Before WE BEgin
I love “Before WE Begin” since the first time I heard it. Now to me this is weird because songs this immediate usually never stuck with me. I usually associate this kind of tune with commercial jingles and radio hits : catchy but disposable. So what made this track so enduring that all these years I kept on listening to it and still enraptured by its beauty? I simply cannot put my finger on it. Once again, analysis cannot win when the song just attacks your nervous system and affects the pleasure center like that of the most potent drug. I cant find any official video for the song on Youtube, but you can check out the song with the clip below, and though this video lacks Trish Keenan’s presence, it does have a goofy girl doing an even goofier dance. If you don’t like the song, then at least the clip can bring a smile and make your day just that little bit brighter.
4. Gorillaz - Hongkong
You can describe the music of Gorillaz in many words : “Cool”, “Exciting”, “Quirky”, “Fun”, but rarely has it been called “Poignant” or “Beautiful”. Yet those two adjectives perfectly describe this song. Only a genius like Damon Albarn could have written an absolute gem like this and give it off to charity.
5. OAsis - Falling Down
Or, as I’d like to call it, “Tomorrow Never Knows, part deux”. Okay, “Setting Sun” is quite similar (it even has the same number of syllables), but “Falling Down” deserves props because it’s the last decent Oasis song. “We live a dying dream/if you know what I mean”… Well, we don’t, Mr. Gallagher, but we’ll gladly sway our heads from side to side and pretend its 1966 anyway. The reason why Oasis remain popular is that, given their limited ability as purveyors of meat and potatoes rock and roll, they at least inject all they do with such brazen attitude and self-belief that it’s impossible not to admire them. Anyone else who nicked songs so frequently as Noel Gallagher would have drowned their heads in shame. Noel on the other hand, doesn’t seem to care, and sometimes even proud of how much he can get away with. One more thing you have to admire about the Gallaghers : given meat and potatoes, they realized that they don’t have to cook a standard stew, but instead created something else : a delicious-tasting... dynamite.
6. DEath CAb for Cutie - Transatlanticism
7. Josh Rouse - Quiet Town
Before I have said that we often associate songs with people. But other times, certain songs remind you of a certain place. Maybe it’s the type of music, and maybe it’s the lyrics that made us do that. Josh Rouse’s “Quite Town” is such an example. I always remembered my time in Papua when I hear this song.
Monday 22 February 2010
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