matt’s music blog

The Scissor sisters are a band that, like old wine, get better with age. Their first release, a self-titled album, was outrageous, funky, and had blatant homosexual overtones. It was good, and humorous, but more in a novelty band kind of way. Not so much in a Good Album, way.

And then they released Ta-dah. Which leads with the opening track I Don’t Feel Like Dancing and only gets better. They start out with a disco sound, and really move all over the place, with some of the songs almost hitting a Vaudeville/burlesque feeling.

So, with that stunning intro, lets actually get into the song it’s self.

We start out with a nice little piano line in the back, and vocals, that remind me a bit of Rufus Wainwright.

If anyone was headed for the gates of hell I know you’d be first.
I used to picture your obituary and I wished you the worst.
The danger of the playground. The radio’d said you drowned.
and I’m sorry, almost. Almost sorry.

Yesssss. One of the things that I enjoy thoroughly in a song, is humorous song about dying. This is a technique that’s also displayed in they’re song I Can’t Decide. So someone died, and our humble narator, is glad that the person in question died. But he’s sorry. Almost.

No sympathy is given to the perpetrator charged with the crime.
(Ahhh ahhh)
I’m willing to admit that it feels good to be a victim sometimes.
I won’t ever get to thank you for the terrible things you said.
I’m sorry, almost

This verse is about the same, and then it moves into the chorus, adding a bassline, and drums.

that you’re-
dead to the world, where I hoped you would be.
I never imagined you’d live on in me.
You gave me destination, but I payed for the ride.
The place you punched my ticket left a crater inside.
Where I cried.
(He cried)
Where I cried.
(You died)

The addition of breathy little backing vocals and really cool imagery in the lyrics carries us on into the next part, we’ll call it, chorus 2

Where I cried from the bruises, learned to live with the scars.
Now you live in the mirror. When I look, there you are.
You’re the shadow on the faces of the people I meet
Have you claimed eternal shotgun in my passenger seat?
Well, I’m sorry.
(Almost)
Almost sorry.
(Ahhh ahhh)

Then we get a little solo of… I want to say kazoo, that almost sounds like Goerge Harrison style guitar to me. Then finally we end with this last message.

Sometimes the best design is done by damage.
The accident can cease.
A rainbow still looks pretty when it bleeds.

Before we even get into the song part of it, let me just say, I am totally in love with the title of this song. It’s great. Okay, but moving on.

This is a great, sort of funky number off of the Album “Rock of the Westies” It’s not what you really expect from Elton John. It’s got a lot of Wah Wah guitar, synthesizers and the use of Peter Frampton-esc talk box.

It’s just a really good, solid song. I’m not sure that there is a lot of in depth analyzation that we can do on it. But I can tell you, one of the best parts about this song, is Elton’s exclamation of “Holy Cow!” in the first verse.

The actual lyrics are inspired by a comic book character from the 1950’s, Dan Dare. This song it’s self is Elton John lamenting about how he didn’t join Dan Dare on his flight.

So long captain Dan
I fail to see what motivates your hands
Goodbye restless night
You know I loved Dan Dare, but I couldn’t make his flight
So long, so long

There are truly few people that can make comic book songs, and not have them sound silly. Others to consider are Paul McCartney’s Magnetio and Titanium Man, and Queen’s Flash, if you are interested. I think I’ve said all there is to be said here.

-James out

I’m trying something new – rather than pointing out particular songs that I like, I’m going to go through my music library. Hopefully this’ll give me an excuse to post a little more regularly, instead of only when I decide that any particular track is worthy of ‘favorite’ status. Also, this’ll probably result in me reviewing stuff that I don’t actually like – maybe even things that are better off being deleted from my collection.

Myth Takes always plays first by default on my car stereo, by merit of ‘!!!’ (pronounced as making a clicking sound three times in a row, e.g. ‘chk chk chk’) being the first artist name alphabetically. The titular first track is catchy, with percussion that’s precise enough to be attention-grabbing, but there’s enough grittiness that it blends well with the rest of the instrumentation. The low whispery vocals alternating with wide guitar solo lines build anticipation, even though you could argue that the payoff never comes on this track – it’s the next one where you get a climax.

‘All My Heroes Are Weirdos’ is arguably better in the first 20 seconds then in the entire rest of the song – the guitar gets a little too crazy, I think, and it makes it tough to listen to for very long – it’s nothing like the driving intro.

‘Must Be The Moon’ settles into a nice almost disco-y groove as soon as it starts, and holds onto the kick/snare/tambourine pattern throughout the rest of the track – and it’s good stuff. The vocals are interesting too – there’s just enough there to keep things interesting, but they know when to pull back and let the instruments have their turn. The electronic stuff that elbows its way in towards the end of the track is also much appreciated.

‘A New Name’ has some interest growly bass and what might be some bells, as well as occasionally cool  percussive elements, and a neat establishing guitar line, and sort of reminds me of Damon Albarn’s vocal stylings at some points.

I almost feel like ‘Heart Of Hearts’ is sort of a bridge song, I don’t want to say ‘filler’ because that sounds negative, but it just doesn’t work for me out of the context of the album – but within that context, its inclusion was fairly insightful, since it feels like it really ‘fits’ there between the first and second half.

‘Sweet Life’ isn’t all that exciting either, and I guess it kind of continues the ‘bridge’ section.

‘Yadnus’ on the other hand, starts out with a nice ragged synth lead, and one of my favorite percussion patterns – ‘Like It Or Not’ off of Confession On A Dance Floor by Madonna, for instance, sports the same 3/4 rhythm. Something about that sort of swaggering configuration always sounds really good to me. The rest of the song sort of swings around between staccato falsetto and guitar, then back to nice sparse guitar picks, and has a pretty neat finale ending.

‘Bend Over Beethoven’ is like 8 minutes, which is crazy, and it’s pretty standard !!! stuff – it does a good job of exploring all the possibilities that the song’s time affords it. I’ll bet it’d be fun to watch this song performed live.

Not a whole lot happens (apart from some interesting horns and synths) in ‘Break In Case Of Anything’, and I almost wonder if the song’s title is a reference to this track acting as a ‘break’ after the previous one.

‘Infinifold’ is the final track – and it fits in the last slot nicely. The eerie grungy guitar echoing around behind the piano and hushed vocals sound like an ending. Finally, things start to build back up at the end, about three and a half minutes into the song… but it never peaks again, it just fades out. A good way to end things.

It’s tough to pick my favorite song, but I’m gonna say that all three of the first tracks (Myth Takes, All My Heroes Are Weirdos, and Must Be The Moon) plus Yadnus are probably tied for first – Must Be The Moon might be slightly ahead, though, so here it is, for your listening pleasure:

The lyrics are random, but there’s probably a lot of Moby Dick in there. The samples are spliced together in a fun sort of way, though, it’s all pretty laid back – it’s hard for me to pick out anything in particular, apart from the expertly-crafted chorus, which gets stuck in my head all the time – a certain measure of a song’s success in my book.

There’s a whale, there’s a whale
There’s a whale fish he cried
And the whale was in full view
There’s a whale, There’s a whale
There’s a whale fish’s bow
And the whale was in full view
Whale fish, whale fish, whale fish
And the whale was in full view
There’s a whale, there’s a whale, There’s a whale fish
And the whale was in full view

This was one of the best albums to come out in 2008, and it was totally unexpected for me – I wasn’t really (and I’m still not I guess) a big Kanye fan, considering he’s acted like a jerk on several occasions, but this album knows exactly how to get to me – auto-tuned vocals, the 808 drum machine, hop-hop that swings more towards funk/soul and electronic music then rap… so tasty.

It starts out strong – just listen to that gut-rumbling kick, and Kanye’s slightly FX’d vocals:

In the night, I hear ‘em talk, 
the coldest story ever told 
Somewhere far along this road, he lost his soul to a woman so heartless…
How could you be so heartless? 

So the intro is the chorus, and all it takes is a clap and a caliope-sounding staccato chord line to moves us into the verse:

How could you be so, cold as the winter wind when it breeze, yo 
Just remember that you talkin’ to me though 
You need to watch the way you talkin’ to me, yo 
I mean after all the things that we’ve been through 
I mean after all the things we got into 
Hey yo, I know of some things that you ain’t told me 
Hey yo, I did some things but that’s the old me 

I’m not sure why the ’street’ vocabulary doesn’t annoy me – normally a lot of that sort of slang turns me off, but in this context, “afta’ all da tings dat we been do, afta all da tings we got into” sounds… I don’t know, it sounds refined, almost cultured, like the narrator is trying to be reasonable with his girl, which I’m sure is exactly what it’s supposed to sound like. It works. The perky yet minimal hits that hit towards the end of the verse, into the chorus, keep with the ‘less is more’ approach that a lot of the tracks on this album take.

There’s more good lyrical candy in the second verse:

How could you be so Dr. Evil, you bringin’ out a side of me that I dont know… 
I decided we weren’t gon’ speak so 
Why we up 3 A.M. on the phone 
Why does she be so mad at me fo’ 
Homie I dont know, she’s hot and cold 

“How could you be so Doctor Evil?” Good stuff – and the short conversational “Why do she be so made at me fo? Homie I don’t know, she’s hot and cold,” line is so appealing, as far as the rythem and meaning goes.

And then there’s the bridge, where things get super grunged out for a second on the line, “and we jus’ gon’ be enemies.” It’s a nice quick break, before we get back to the chorus. That’s basicly all there is – no additional instrumentation, just some auto-tuned vocalizing.

I think a lot of my attraction to this song comes from its minimalism, and the fact that it’s telling a story. This is established in the first chorus right up front: “In the night, I hear ‘em talk, the coldest story ever told, somewhere far along this road, he lost his soul – to a woman so heartless…” It’s almost like a ghost story. This is good stuff.

In contrast to Surprise, this track is all about the vocals and lyrics, and the instruments play a strictly supporting role.  The percussion and bassline are both catchy, but somehow Cee-Lo’s voice is the most important player. This is firmly established as soon as the song starts – the vocalizing in the beginning somehow says, “listen, I have something to tell you.” I think the chords help with this – it’s a familiar and comfortable progression, making it easy to take for granted while you listen to the words.

She’s my friend she doesn’t judge me.
She has no idea I’m ugly.
So I have absolutely nothing to hide,
because I’m so much prettier inside.

The distorted effect on the vocals somehow makes it seem really earnest, as though he were singing as hard as he could because he wants to express how much he loves her.  The sentiment is simple: she can’t see, so she doesn’t see his flaws, she only knows who he is as a person, and he finds that attractive. Is it about a blind girl that he loves, or about marijuana? It could go either way, I guess, although weed seems like more of a stretch. Either way, this is an expertly constructed song.

As with most Gnarls Barkley tracks (and the majority of Dangermouse-produced material in general), ‘Surprise’ features incredibly catchy bass and percussion that is hard not to bob your head to. The vocalizing in the beginning and sort of oldies-sounding instrumentation does a great job of grabbing your attention, sort of like an announcement that something important is about to happen. The extra little bit of triangle and woodblock in there is like a cherry on the top of a icecream sunday, and the ragged clapping gives you a subconcious cue that other people are enjoying themselves and you should be too.

Cee-Lo’s voice weaves in and out of the instruments, not too overbearing or understated – it almost sounds like he ran across a backing track that he liked and improvised the song on a whim (not entirely unheard of, apparently).  However, in this case I’m hardly paying any attention to the lyrics, which are well-written and full of good word choices, but in the face of the expert instrumentation (which includes the vocals) they’re just not important.