matt’s music blog

I’m getting in the habit of dedicating these posts to people. So, in that spirit, this one goes out to my friend Oz, who listens to this every time that I’ve been in the car with him. I’ve known about Of Montreal for a while now, and enjoyed their albums immensely. They are a interesting mix of up beat pop, with wacky, almost manic lyrics.

This one is is one of those basic, there’s a person, and they like this other person, and here’s all the things that they want to do with that person. But what I really love about it, is some of the lyrics are really weird, and kinda wacky. I’ll give an example of some of my favorites.

I want to hurt your pride
I want to slap your face
I want to paint your nails

I want to write you books
I want to turn you on
I want to make you come
200 times a day

That one never fails to crack me up. I mean, just the idea of cumming 200 times a day? Totally outrageous. Even if that was physically possible (Which I highly doubt it is) It would be so incredibley draining, that you might actually fuck someone to death.

There’s not really much else, that I wanted to say about this one. Mostly how much I like the lyrics. And how they are kinda nonstandard for this kind of song.

-James Out

Another artist that you can thank Sam for introducing me to. It’s really very impossible for you to not like this song. It’s catchy, up beat, and infectious. Driving drums, bass line, and guitar part start off strong, and keep us rolling through out the whole song. Ida’s voice is straining and cracks in some spots, giving us the impression that she’s really yelling, face first into the mic.  And then there’s the title, which I love.

For the most part, the lyrics aren’t really that different. They stay pretty constant, but are effective. The first verse starts us off

Oh the clever
things I should say to you
They got stuck somewhere
Stuck between me and you
Oh I’m nervous
I don’t know what to do
Light a cigarette
I only smoke when I’m with you

“Light a cigarette, I only smoke when I’m with you” is a really great line. Then we move on to the prechorus, where there are great little vocal “Whoooaaaas” That give the song a peppy rock feel. And then, the chorus it’s self, which is

‘Cuz I like you so much better when you’re naked
I like me so much better when you’re naked
I like you so much better when you’re naked
I like me so much better when you’re naked.Yeah!

In my opinion it’s really the best part of the whole song. Pounding drums, crashing guitars, male backing vocals, and Ida belting it out. I can confess, without any shame, that whenever this song comes up on my MP3 player, or stereo, I yell it out too. This has made me the victim of many a strange glance from passers-by, or people in my house.

From here on out, the song continues pretty much in a similar manner. Listen to this song once, and you’re like, “Oh yeah, this is pretty cool” By the second time, I guarantee that you’ll be belting the lyrics out too. I promise. The combination of Ida’s ernest singing style (slightly reminiscent of Feist or Ragina Spektor), backed by powerful drum, bass, and guitar, makes this song a real winner in my book.

-James Out

Say what you will about 90’s music. I think that, as a child of the 90’s, it will always hold a special nostalgic place in my heart. Especially music from the late 90’s. I’m sure that you know a few Savage Garden songs. If you listened to the radio at all, it seems almost impossible that you didn’t hear Truly Madly Deeply, and I Want You (both appearing on their self-titled album). And while these were certainly the tracks that got the most air time, they are by no means the best. Which brings us to our current song.

It starts out with pretty dancy drum loop and a bit of a guitar part. I’m going to warn you right now, the song really doesn’t get any more complex from here on out. It changes a bit for the chorus, maybe adding in a little bit of string synth. The real genius, in my opinion, lies in the lyrics of this song. Lets take a look at the first verse.

And we stare each other down like victims in the grind
Probing all the weakness and hurt still left behind and we cry
The tears of pearls
We do it. Oh we do it.

Now if that’s not an epic lyric, then I don’t know what is! Intensity is brewing. I especially like “victims in the grind” It reminds me of the opening video for Final Fantasy 8. Then we move on to someone questioning another person views.

Is love really the tragedy the way you might describe?
Or would a thousand lovers still leave you cold inside?
Make you cry…
These tears of pearls

Man these lyrics are good. Questions about feeling scorn about relationships. Is love as bad as you say? Or is it just because of your mindset? Then we move on to the chorus. I’d like to take this opportunity to say that when I first listened to this song, all those many years ago, I used to think they were saying “Stone man Pearls” not “Stolen Pearls” Listen closely, I think you’ll see why I was confused.

All these mixed emotions we keep locked away like stolen pearls
Stolen pearl devotions we keep locked away from all the world

For some reason, the metaphor of mixed emotions being like stolen pearls is really cool to me. Very nice imagery. Moving on to the next verse, we hear a bit more of the story. The girl tried to live, but always had a bad experience. This guy tried to be the one to open up her heart, but ended up with tears of pearls.

Your kisses are like pearls, so different and so rare
But anger stole the jewels away and love has left you bare,
Made you cry…
These tears of pearls
Well I could be the tired joker pour my heart to get you in
Sacrifice my happiness just so I could win
Maybe cry…
These tears of pearls

Then, the music starts to diversify a little as we go into the bridge. Some more lyrics that are more imagery then anything else. We get through the bridge in time for a little solo, and a electric organ part that sounds like it would be more at home in a 70’s funk song. After that, we return  to the chorus a few more times.

Now see? Wasn’t that a good song? You know it was. I would encourage you to look up the rest of songs on that album. Except for Truly Madly Deeply, which really, isn’t that god of a song.

-James Out

I’ve been agonizing over weather to do this song or not. I mean, as it is, I’m not sure I really have a lot to say about it. Not because it’s a bad song. But more that it’s all built around layering, repeating sections over and over, and building on them. Similar to what we heard in David Gray’s Please Forgive Me. Only, instead of being fairly simple stuff being added, this is awash with arpeggios, synthesizers, and fun little drum parts.

But actually what I really wanted to point out is the lyrics. After hearing it once (or maybe you’re listening to it right now?) I think you’ll see that it’s really easy to just get caught up in the music and energy of the song, without really paying attention to the lyrics. When I first started listening, all I could really pick out of it, is the bridge/break which goes:

I don’t mean to seem like I care about material things like a social stats

Let me just pause to say, on it’s own, that’s a pretty great line. There’s another part after that, but I could never really make it out. Luckily for us, the internets provide us with the answer. However, we’ll address that later. Anyway,what does it all mean? How does it fit into the rest of the song? Well dear readers, that’s what we’re going to talk about today. So, let’s look at the first verse, which gets repeated bunch.

There isn’t much that I feel I need
A solid soul and the blood I bleed
With a little girl, and by my spouse
I only want a proper house

Oh. Okay. So he’s talking about wanting a house for his wife and kid. That makes sense! Wouldn’t really catch that from the song. After that it moves on to what can be considered the chorus part.

I don’t care for fancy things
Or to take part in a precious race
And children cry for the one who has
A real big heart and a father’s grace

So he’s telling us that really all he wants to be, is a good father! Man, what a sweet guy. Okay, now remember the bridge/break part?

I don’t mean to seem like I care about material things like a social status
I just want four walls and adobe slabs for my girls

Ahhhh. He’s reassuring us that it’s not actually the possession of the house that he’s worried about. More the fact that he wants a place for his wife and kids to live. Who saw that coming?

Anyway, the fact that this song is so… emersive, that you can totally lose track of what the lyrics are, is a real credit to the amazing songwriting ability of Animal Collective. I strongly encourage you all to check out the rest of the songs on this album, as they are equally as good.

-James out

I’m sure that you’ve heard Babylon, arguably David Gray’s most famous song. If you ever listen to the radio in the late 90’s, it’s bound to pop up. But that’s not the song we’re going to talk about. Today, we converse about the first track off of the White Ladder album, Please Forgive Me.

The thing that I love about this song, is the simplicity. It starts out with really basic progressions, and just builds on it.

It starts out with a run-of-the mill drum loop. Some simple string synths and a piano with a bit of reverb. Then bit picks up, repetitive high-hat hits, with a backing bass part. Then we get a little high string synth part. Then, at the sort of, apex, if you will of the lyrics, a little guitar part is added. After that, simple hand claps! Then we back down to just piano and strings, as we return to the first verse again. Then we get pulled back in, with a little drum breakdown part, and fade out.

All of that, is pretty text book song writing, in my opinion. But there’s something about it, that doesn’t really seem to be annoying, or really repetitive. Which is impressive, in my opinion, because, like I said, he’s really just taking the same chord progression over and over and over, and building more and more and more on it.

But, the real triumph  of this song, I think, is the really good lyrics that are hidden in the song. To take it at face value, it’s just your run of the mill love song. This guy is really in love with this girl, ect ect. But if we look closely, just in the first verse, he’s breaking out very… descriptive lyrics.

Feels like lightning running through my veins
Everytime I look at you

“Lightning running through my veins”! Very very nice. Also the last verse, the sort of climax of the song, really hits it home for me. There’s something about his voice, perhaps maybe the way he sings it. I don’t know but the last verse:

I got half a mind to scream out loud
I got half a mind to die
So I wont ever have to lose you girl
Wont ever have to say goodbye
I wont ever have to lie
Wont ever have to say goodbye

is very powerfully and movingly delivered. I must also confess, myself being a hopeless romantic, I have experienced the sentiments expressed in this song, and David Gray does an excellent job describing them. All in all, a good listen. Really, I would encourage you to check out the rest of the album. It’s got some pretty good tracks on it.

-James out

I’ve been a big fan of TV on the Radio, for a really long time. Well, maybe about 2 years now. Ever since their album Return to Cookie Mountain was released, I’ve really enjoyed their music.

As a general rule, I tend to find songs that are about sex to be a bit obnoxious. Usually they are just terribly graphic and almost awkward to listen to. I mean, Prince is great, but come on, there music be other things to write songs about.

That being said, Lover’s Day (which is most certainly about sex) is an amazing song. It might even be my favorite off the album (Dear, Science) And the reason is this: the format of the song is relevant to the subject matter.

It starts out slow, simple, like foreplay. Just a little bit of tambourine, drums, and singing. The the percussion picks up, and we get some strings. Then backing vocals, and flutes. Then it gets bigger, reverbed crash cymbols, and some horns are added. Then it backs off, not wanting to blow it’s load too soon (Sorry if that was a bit of a graphic metaphor. But again, relevant) Then it picks up again. Building more and more and more, getting to the climax finally! And then it falls, backs down, finishing with a nice saxaphone solo, some symphonic style snare drum and flute that continues on and fades out.

Not only that, but the lyrics also get more and more intense as the song goes on. Starting out, once again, simply. Talking about, obvious, A guy that really wants to get with his girl. Or, maybe excluding gender distinctions, someone that wants to have sex with someone else.

Oh but the longing is terrible,
A wanton heart under attack.
I wanna love you,
All the way off,
I wanna break your back.

Then the drums and music starts to pick up, and builds a bit more. So we move on lyrically.

We could build and engine,
Out of all your rising stars.
Tear apart the apart,
We seem to think we are.
Call of work let’s lay!
Call it lovers Day!
Call it lovers Day!

Then it backs off a little.  Talking more about wanting, and longing. Reassuring the other person, that there is pure inventions. Well, pure, sexually that is.

I’m not gonna tear it apart.
I’m gonna keep you week in the knees,
Try to unlock your heart.
You’re gonna turn me animal,
You’re gonna turn me dumb.
Your kiss in the night,
Bringing the light,
You’re like the rising sun

Then it builds a little more, getting more intense. Building and building, till we gert to this verse, which is really intense. The climax if you will. Notice again, as the music gets more intense, so too the lyrics.

Ball so hard,
We’ll smash the walls,
Break the bed,
And crash the floors, don’t!
Stop! Laugh and scream!
And have the neighbors call the cops!
’till all the eyes that they’ve seen our fire play!!
Can’t forget,
Mark it down,
Call it lovers Day!!

Now if that’s not some serious sex he’s talking about, then I don’t know what is. The song climaxes, and then receeds back to,

Yes here of course there are miracles.
Under your sighs and moans.
I’m gonna take you,
I’m gonna take you home.

And we move into the nice instrumental section, complete with the aforementioned saxophone solo, flutes, choral part, and almost march-styled snare drum part.

All in all, an amazing song, and possibly the best ending track, EVER.

-James out

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:

I like Rammstein a lot, and there’ll probably me more tracks by them here eventually, but Zwitter is one of my favorites right off the top of my head.

Things start off nicely – guitar riff phased back, nice blippy little techno beat, serious rock drums, and then the same riff, this time front-and-center. “Zwitter, zwitter!” You get the idea.

Next, the first verse, over a momentarily placid version of the guitar, moved back to the back burner as a bassline. The guitar comes back during the second half of the verse, building back up the chorus, which we’ve already become familiar with.

The second verse features another higher synth line, which helps keep things fresh, while the lyrics grind onwards – but we’re coming to the best part of the song. It’s the transition that first happens at 1:47 – bam, we jump up to the bridge, higher vocals, a neat phased effect, and an overall epic ‘peak’.

Things drop back down, of course, for another verse, and then another chorus. There isn’t much more to the song musically.

However, there’s some interesting lyrics to be examined, in particular, the bridge. The song’s title and chorus line, ‘zwitter’ means ‘hermaphrodie’ in German, and here’s the bridge and (supposed) translation:

 

Eins für mich (One for me)
Eins für dich (One for you)
Gibt es nicht (Is there not one or ‘is not how it is‘)
Für mich (For me)

Eins für mich (One for me)
Eins für dich (One for you)
Eins und eins (One and one)
Das bin ich (That’s me)

I love how the words fit together in german – ‘me’ and ‘you’ rhyme, and a few other phonetic similarities (‘für’ and ‘for’, ‘mich’ and ‘me’, ‘es’ and ‘is’, ‘ich’ and ‘I’) make it almost possible to understand the words if you know the context.

And of course there’s the (roughly translated) line:

I am not even downhearted then
When one tells me “fuck yourself”

As I’ve mentioned before, as much as I like The Decemberists’ singing, playing, and portland-local-band status, it’s easy for me to pick out my favorite track from each album, and Yankee Bayonet (also known as ‘I Will Be Home Then’) is the one I like the most from The Crane Wife.

This song tells a story – and while I hate to disregard the music, that story is so attractive to me that I almost don’t care what they’re playing behind it.

Heart-carved tree trunk, Yankee bayonet
A sweetheart left behind
Far from the hills of the sea-swelled Carolinas
That’s where my true love lies

So the stage has been set – civil-war era Carolina, a girl pining after her soldier love who has gone off to war after carving their names in a heart on a tree. The first two lines describe the scene of this screenplay, and the third and forth are lines of dialog from the sweetheart.

The next two lines begin a conversation between the dead soldier and the sweetheart – delineated by Colin Meloy and Laura Veirs

Look for me when the sun-bright swallow
Sings upon the birch bough high
But you are in the ground with the voles and the weevils
All a’chew upon your bones so dry

She’s remembering his promise to her – that he’ll be back when the birds are singing, in the spring time, when the sun comes out, but she’s lamenting that he’s dead, and rotting under the dirt.

But when the sun breaks
To no more bullets in Battle Creek
Then will you make a grave
For I will be home then

I want ‘battle creek’ to be ‘battlecry’, pronounced like ‘mimicry’, as in, the art or practice of battle. But apparently that’s not what the real words are.

When I was a girl how the hills of Oconee
Made a seam to hem me in
There at the fair when our eyes caught, careless
Got my heart right pierced by a pin

The story of how they met – she lived isolated in her community, and met a boy on the fairgrounds. Also, check out the consistency of metaphor in the second line – ’seam’ and ‘hem’ are both sewing terms, it could’ve just as easily been to ‘keep’ her in, or a ‘fence’ instead of a ’seam’, but since girls were expected to sew, that’s what’s used for this verse.

But oh, did you see all the dead of Manassas
All the bellies and the bones and the bile
No, I lingered here with the blankets barren
And my own belly big with child

Manassas, Virginia was where one of the first big battles of the civil war took place – and it was fought mostly by young unexperienced soldiers – the first two lines reflect the soldier’s horror of the situation. The girl reveals helplessly that while she wasn’t watching her friends die around her on the battlefield, she was at home, pregnant with the soldier’s child. The blankets are barren – they devote a whole line to that statement, and it emphasizes the physical component of her longing for him. Also, the first two lines deal with death amongst others, while the second two deal with life alone.

Stems and bones and stone walls too
Could keep me from you
Skein of skin is all too few
To keep me from you

Even though he’s dead, and she knows it, they can’t bear to apart…

But oh my love, though our bodies may be parted
Though our skin may not touch skin
Look for me with the sun-bright sparrow
I will come on the breath of the wind

So she can’t help feeling that his spirit returns to her in the spring, even though his body has died – and perhaps his body literally comes back, to be buried, as suggested by ‘then will you make a grave?’ in the chorus – although it could as easily be an empty grave, a hero’s grave, a nameless white cross in a field of identical monuments.

Basicly, this song is incredibly sad, lonely, and heartbreaking, but it’s also a song about love. This stuff always gets me.