Electronic Missives From Me, Myself and I
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.
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