Posts Tagged ‘harpsichord’

Men Without Hats – Jenny Wore Black (Pop Goes the World, 1987)

Sunday, September 27th, 2009
Another amazing gem from Men Without Hats. This song comes to us from their amazing, possibly rock opera, if not then at least, concept album Pop Goes the World. Which details the lives of fictitious rock superstars, Jenny and Johnny, who are in the band The Human Race.
Get the Flash Player to see the wordTube Media Player.
We start off with some solid Harpsichord, bass guitar, drum, and synth horns. Also, take care to listen to the cool call and response parts.

Jenny wore black
jenny wore white - WHITE!
and jenny was real
but almost not quite
and jenny was here
she was almost inside


and jenny was real
but jenny was frightened by the way
we looked at her
and jenny could see
she was only a child




The choruse contains some tasteful female backing vocals, and more cool harpsichord.


jenny concealed all but her smile
and when she smiled we said hey HEY!
you'll never see clear with tears in your face hey!
you'll never see clearly anyway
I said I loved you blindly, and I do
we're only two strangers in ways




The next verse is the same as the last. Take note of the cool voice agumentation on the "la la la"s




jenny wore black
jenny wore white, WHITE!
and jenny was real but almost not quite (la la la la la la)
and jenny was here she was almost on time
and jenny was real
but jenny was frightened by the way
we looked at her
and jenny could see within us for a while
jenny revealed all but her smile
and when she smiled we said hey HEY!
you'll never see clear with tears in your face hey!
you'll never see clearly anyway
I said I loved you blindly, and I do
we're only two strangers in ways
we should say




Finally we come to possibly my favorite part of this whole song. The bridge.


you always caught my eyes where
the dreams peter in
and I can't remember
wherever I've been
there's still holes for my eyes
where the dreams peter through
all I can remember
is when I was with you



Does this remind you of anything? Because to me it sounds like an allusion to the Beatles "Fixing a hole" And making musical allusions to the Beatles, is a really amazing feat, in my book.

The rest of the song pretty much continues like before. Another chorus then the end. Pretty much an amazing song.

Tags: , , , , , ,
Posted in 80's rock, dance, electronic, epic | No Comments »

Passion Pit – Better Things (2008, Chunk of Change)

Friday, July 10th, 2009

Sorry it’s taken me so long to get around to this other post. So this is my favorite song off of the Passion Pit EP, Chunk of Change, that was mentioned in the previous post.

Get the Flash Player to see the wordTube Media Player.

I think you’ll notice right off, that this song is a little bit more… low-fi, shall we say. Not as polished as Little Secrets. It starts out with a strange little voice clip and we are taken right into the song. Syth guitar and pads back up the song, as we get the chorus

you’re gonna drive me crazy
you’re gonna drive me mad
you got an angel on your shoulder
makin hairpins outta glass

The backing track drops back a little, there’s a cool little breakdown, then we get the verse.

i believe in believing
the things that we don’t see
and the skin violin is where the neighbors wont read meals
and the family heirloom jewelery
with sets and heaps of thieves
will cast down things
that you’ve never even seen

Suddenly the song starts building in intensity, adding a little bit of harpsichord in the background. Keep an ear out for the doubled ‘oh no’ in this part too.

ike the gods
like the glory like the stories
that your fathers set before you
ride the tiger round the kingdom
oh no (oh no)
oh no there’s a meeting in the canyons
oh no! (oh no) this is rising to the clouds

Very nicely exicuted Passion Pit. I can just imagine them members punching the air at every “oh no!” I know that I do. The chorus comes back with a little bit of electric guitar to accent it, and move directly into the next verse.

i’m shooting off the cannons
of the clouds begin to flow
and the baskets weave with your mother’s teeth but the ones we’ll never keep
just pretend that things are mobile and will never stay put
and the way we were the day we climbed to the top of the
steeple with its people spewing angels out their mouths and letting tables turn to charcoal in the lipstick and the lipstick in the evening(oh no)
oh no we were waving like the trees
oh no then they moved us to the sky

I really only take time to show you all of the lyrics, because I think they are really genious, and again, kinda easy to miss, if you don’t actually look at them. Anyway, on to the bridge. We get a little zilaphone part, and the drums back off a bit.

two or three times the bell will ring but when when we look for the better things we search for this we have not build i feel it crash upon your skin

The the drums start to come back in, and we get building hand claps,

i find it hard to believe there more
of these things behind the door
do you miss me like i miss you
do i miss you like you miss me

Then we’re thrown back into the chorus and secondary chorus for a few more times. Then it kinda fades away with a little organ part and wailing guitar.

All in all I think this is a fantastic song. It’s upbeat happy feeling, plus good us of synth, and shouting chorus parts, combined with really cool lyrics, makes it a definite winner. Anyone who enjoyed this one, I encourage you to check out the EP, and their album too (Manners)

-James out

Tags: , , , , , ,
Posted in dance, electronic, epic, modern rock, rock, synthpop | No Comments »