#1432: Blur – Turn It Up

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Here it is, one of the worst Blur songs the band ever did. Or so you may have been led to believe. Allegedly, when it comes to ‘Turn It Up’, the second-last song on Modern Life Is Rubbish, the one thing agreed amongst Damon Albarn, Graham Coxon, Alex James and Dave Rowntree is the hate they have for it. There’s no interview confirming this consensus (that I can find). But you can at least find an one with Albarn in which he says, “[Young and Lovely] should have been on the LP. But it didn’t get on there and fucking ‘Turn It Up’ did.” I’ve got a good grasp of the English language to know that any noun prefaced by an intensifier of ‘fucking’ is not being referred to in a good way. ‘Turn It Up’ is a bit of an odd one on Modern Life… It doesn’t fit with the British social commentary theme that runs through the LP. It does feel a little like something that would have been a shoo-in on the previous, debut album Leisure. Judging by the following linked performance, it was one of the first new songs written after that album’s release. But I want to assure you, as a fan of music of all kinds, but predominantly rock as you could tell from everything else on this blog, ‘Turn It Up’ is a great, great time.

In terms of the lyrical content, ‘Turn It Up’ doesn’t really go anywhere and it doesn’t mean anything. “Kazoo, kazoo, you are mine / Kazoo, kazoo, every time”, “Kazoo, kazoo, your reply / Why do you turn your back on me?”. All a bunch of nonsense. Probably an added reason as to why Albarn in particular does not care for the track in any way. Despite this, he sings every lyric within very nicely, alongside Coxon on the higher harmonies. There are great melodies throughout. And the production behind it all is absolutely massive. Mega. There’s an explosiveness to the band’s performance than there has any right to be on a song like this. I’d had Modern Life Is Rubbish in the iTunes library since 2013, but it was a revisit a couple years later that really turned me on to ‘Turn It Up’. The revisit made me pay more attention to the chord changes, the track’s different sections and the various guitar licks Graham Coxon was pulling off throughout. It pricked my ear towards the thunderous drum work by Dave Rowntree, he’s going all over the place, rapid-fire snare rolls and tom-tom strikes abound. Just made me gain a general appreciation for the track I didn’t have before. Even as a “lesser” track, it’s one of the reasons Modern Life… is my favourite of the three “Life” albums Blur did in the mid-’90s.

Graham Coxon once broke down Modern Life…, listening to each individual track and picking out elements a little harder to hear than the average listener may want to. The flickering guitar at the beginning was created by Coxon leaning his guitar against an amp and feeding it through a tremolo pedal. There’s a rattling triangle somewhere in the mix. I think it’s the high frequency of that which adds the trance-inducing quality in the “Kazoo, kazoo” pre-choruses. And the little guitar run he executes before the first pre-chorus is filtered through a wah-wah pedal. The breakdown is a good watch. I’ve kind of run out of things to say here. Sure, ‘Turn It Up’ doesn’t have anything of huge consequence in terms of a narrative, nor in terms of its placement on the album. It’s stuck in that slot in the track list when you’re gearing up for the ending and waiting in anticipation to see how the package finishes. It feels like it’s one of those “we wrote this and our label really likes it, but we don’t” kind of songs. A lot of side-eyeing in this track’s direction. But what it lacks for in importance, it more than makes up for in its intense energy and forceful performance.

#1431: Death from Above 1979 – Turn It Out

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I remember being really excited for the release of The Physical World when that was to be the new, long-awaited second album by Death from Above 1979, back in 2014. Looking back, it was a bit of a bandwagon move. I didn’t follow the band during their original run together between 2001 and 2006, although I recall my sister singing ‘Black History Month’ a whole bunch. It was a single, she must have heard it somewhere. Years later I sort of fell into the sort of myth-like quality behind the duo. Sebastien Grainger and Jesse F. Keeler made and released You’re a Woman, I’m a Machine in 2004, eventually fell out with each other and split up a couple years later. That album was their only album for a long time, looked like it would only ever be their sole LP. Along the way, a band like Royal Blood – another duo made of a bass guitarist and drummer – showed up, and even though I never properly listened to them, I’d still think, “Death from Above did it first.” So when The Physical World was announced, it was like, “Yeah, now time to show ’em all how it’s done.” I had to do some learning. I did some homework via listening to You’re a Woman… in the lead-up to The Physical World‘s release.

‘Turn It Out’ starts the album off, and damn, what an opener. Soon as Keeler’s bass guitar comes thundering in, squeals and all in between, alongside Grainger’s drums, my face is scrunched up and my head is banging. If ever I’m walking down the street and the song comes on in the headphones, I need people to get out of the way – while this song is on, my head is down and I’m charging to where I need to get to. I think that’s helped by the fact that “I’m on the move, mother” is the lyric for what I guess is the chorus. Guessing, because it’s a very short one. There aren’t a lot of words in this song in general, looking at it. Maybe seven lines delivered by a wailing Grainger, all to do with a “I’d like to sit and chat, but time’s of the essence and I’ve got somewhere I need to go” feeling. But what it lacks in lyrical content is made up for by the bass guitar riffage and pummeling rhythms delivered in the two-and-a-half-minute length. The bass line sharply switches between low and high notes. Grainger’s pounding on the tom-toms. Those climbing bass runs during the “chorus” are killer. Everything’s an onslaught, with no time to relax until both members strike their respective instruments at the song’s end. The cymbals are left sizzling. It’s a spicy opening track.

Some songs on You’re a Woman… I’d come across already before digging into it. The video for ‘Romantic Rights’ would pop up now and again on MTV2. I once watched the video for ‘Blood on Your Hands’ out of the corner of my eye. It got to the part where the music stops and the little waiting-room-ish interlude begins after. I didn’t know what was going on. But a few listens to the whole song in the album’s context secured it as a strong, strong favourite of mine. And I owned Saints Row 2. ‘Sexy Results’ was on the game’s soundtrack. As a whole, I enjoyed the album quite a bit, hearing it that first time in the summer of 2014. It’s not one I return to all that often now. I think I have to be in the mood to hear some songs about get-togethers, relationships and the like set to thick bass lines. I don’t find myself in that kind of mood all that often. I’d say You’re a Woman… is something of a young man’s album. It’s all in the name too. I’m not the machine this album is probably aimed for. These things I just have to come to terms with.

#1430: Animal Collective – Turn into Something

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Ah, Feels. Feels. Animal Collective’s Feels. I do have to listen to the album in full again one of these days. Back in 2014, I downloaded it more or less to round out the four albums marking the group’s “classic period” having already added Merriweather Post Pavilion, Strawberry Jam and Sung Tongs to the iTunes library. I think, in that order too. Might have even downloaded Centipede Hz before I got to Feels. Though when I did, ‘Did You See the Words’ jumped out immediately. Probably helped it was the album’s first song, but you know what I mean. ‘Grass’ took a little while longer to settle in. Once it did, it became a playlist mainstay. ‘Banshee Beat’ and ‘The Purple Bottle’ are meant to be two of AnCo’s most beloved songs, but in 2014, they just sounded all right to me. And after those ‘Turn into Something’ seemed like the other really obvious highlight. Which is why I say I need to listen through the entire LP again. It’d be a wonder to see what 12 years difference would do. And with the somewhat recent 20th anniversary reissue, I can get some more Feels-era tuneage.

‘Turn into Something’ closes Feels out, bringing everything back home after the lullaby-like ‘Loch Raven’. Looking at Spotify, it’s the second-least played track on the album, which surprises me at least because it’s such a euphoric resolution to everything that’s come before. The intro guitar, which also continues almost throughout, bouncing one from note to the other alongside those thundering tom-toms and snare hits… Those were enough to hook me in. Those were enough, because just listening to the song and not looking at the lyrics won’t clue me in to what Avey Tare’s was singing in any shape or form. Except for the “Oh, that’s the goodness” choruses and the refrains in which the title is sung, it’s very hard to make the words out. I have always appreciated the delivery and the clear energy he puts behind it. But reading the lyrics for this post’s sake, Tare describes his surroundings with a childlike wonder, experiencing a new scene in each verse. There’s an exploration of dealing with fleeting happiness or “goodness” as Tare puts it and a message to be something more, that you have the potential to change. At least, this is how I’ve come to see it. And it’s nice, a real optimistic point to end the album on.

And after Tare sings ‘You should turn into something’ for the last time, the song in turn changes into a completely different mood, becoming a droning, ambient piece with Tare-Panda Bear vocalizations over the top for two-and-a-half-minutes. Really something to space out to. I don’t know if Animal Collective are the type of people to lay out what’s to come next in terms of their music in the last songs of their albums. I’ve read around in places that some artists like to do that. But hearing ‘Turn into Something’ the first time, I did think I could hear bits of Strawberry Jam in there, particularly in those parts in the break between the first chorus and second verse where it sounds like you’re being dunked and pulled out of a vortex. The closing, mind-altering soundscape the tune closes with too, it’s like a precursor to the end of ‘Chores’ or the drones in ‘For Reverend Green’. It’s maybe all a big coincidence, though. It must have been nice being a fan of Animal Collective in 2005. Hearing all four bandmembers were back together again after Sung Tongs, and then they give you a song like this in return? Reckon it couldn’t have been better.

#1429: They Might Be Giants – Turn Around

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At some point, on this blog, things will always come back around to They Might Be Giants. Unlike two days ago’s post, the songs of TMBG have probably been in every letter series on this place. I’d have to check, but it’s probably a safe bet. There’s still a few left to go on here on their part, but it’s the last time a song, specifically from the band’s fourth album Apollo 18, will be appearing. Those first four albums where Johns Linnell and Flansburgh performed exclusively as a duo mark a little golden era in the band’s history. Apollo 18 was the last of that tetralogy. The two Johns self-produced it. Kinda sees them testing the waters of what it would sound like to be a real, full-sound, rock band ensemble, with their usual synthetic rhythm section sounding at its most authentic here, boosting the energy and atmosphere on songs like ‘Dig My Grave’ and ‘See the Constellation’. But of course, you still get those numbers in between that remind you you’re still listening to a They album. And I think it’s fair to say ‘Turn Around’ counts as one of them.

My own experience with the tune starts at a very simple place. Behind the old family Vista computer, sometime in 2010, when listening through Apollo 18 for the first time. And I don’t think it was a revisit on another day that got me thinking, “Hmm. This ‘Turn Around’ song is actually pretty good.” I think I understood it there and then on the first go. Though that might just be me wanting to sensationalize things and make a good story. I’m fairly certain that’s how it went down. If you hear the song, it’s pretty understandable as to why it would be a first-time listen, “Oh, yeah” moment. It’s really easy to sing along to/memorise. Once you get down the melodies of the first verse and chorus, you’re pretty much set for the rest of the song’s duration. John Linnell takes the lead vocal, safe to assume he wrote the thing. On ‘Turn Around’, he addresses a theme that’s a popular one in a stream of TMBG songs. The theme of death. Each verse sees an unsuspecting narrator confronted by a spectre, who then tell the respective narrators to “turn around” and look at an actual human skull on the ground behind them. Now, imagine if that happened to you in real life. You’d be reasonably spooked. But the spookiness depicted in the song is very much undermined by the swinging, jaunty tempo and the generally chipper way the music is delivered.

This is a big aside, but lately I’ve been wondering… did John Linnell hear Bonnie Tyler’s ‘Total Eclipse of the Heart’ one day, maybe laugh, have a little joke about it and then proceed to write his own song based around it? ‘Cause the way the “turn arounds” are sung in both numbers are very, very similar. I think a key’s difference. Maybe I’m just a loony. Whatever the origin of inspiration, it doesn’t stop the fact that They Might Be Giants’ ‘Turn Around’ is an earworm-and-a-half. An early recording of the track is just made of the chorus looping endlessly. Say we lived in a world where Apollo 18’s ‘Turn Around’ didn’t exist and there was just a vacant melody to hum to yourself while you’re busy doing other things. That chorus alone would do me fine, could probably sing that for the rest of the day. I am glad that it was further worked on and became the song it is. I can’t imagine it without that plinking guitar line Flansburgh executes during the choruses or the dramatic entry of the extra Linnell harmonies and blasting saxophone for the last verse and chorus. They all take the track to that little upper level. Plus, I don’t think I would have ever known of the word ‘obsequious’ if it wasn’t for its use in the lyrics.

#1428: Travis – Turn

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We’re very deep into this series, but it’s nice that, even at this point, there will still be some entries that come from out of nowhere or will maybe only show up once before never appearing again. Case in point, Travis. Don’t think I’ve ever mentioned the band’s name on here once. Never had a reason to. But then here comes ‘Turn’. I’ll get it to it in a second. Thinking about Travis, they were definitely a band that was around when I was growing up in the early, early 2000s. I more remember the time when ‘Sing’ was the band’s new single, with its video showing on The Box, and when they went on Top of the Pops and took the food fight from the video onto the stage. And that would have been in 2001. By then, the band were already a household name in the UK anyway. ‘Why Does It Always Rain on Me?’ Need I say more. That had established itself as the band’s signature song, and it was on their second album, The Man Who, released in 1999. Which brings us back round to the subject of today’s post.

‘Turn’ is on The Man Who too, and like ‘Why Does It Always…’ was released as a single from that album – the final one as the new millennium was slowly coming over the horizon. I didn’t know the song existed until years and years later. Which one exactly, I wish I could recall, but I must have been in the teenage range. I do remember just watching TV, think it was the Q music channel, and the video for ‘Turn’ came on. It’s an interesting one. In it, a bet is made by the bandmembers for frontman Fran Healy to do pushups for the whole day. The story doesn’t have anything to do with what the song’s about. But seeing those closeups of Healy straining with each push, his arms violently shaking while he lip-syncs “I want to live, I will survive” even made me want to pat him on the back and tell him he could do it. All goes down to good acting. He wins the bet, and just has he does his last push-up, a stranger is confronted and assaulted by a group of men. Healy has no strength left to get up of the floor and help the stranger. That’s where the video ends, and I was left with the classic “That can’t be where it finishes!” feeling. To the presumable teenager I was, it was a captivating watch, and the song sounded very nice too.

But what is ‘Turn’ about? Essentially, it’s Fran Healy’s statement of intent. He bluntly states what he wants to do in his life, and hopefully he can do it in a world that learns to turn. I’m thinking that means a world where everyone’s able to just get along with one another, but that’s not a very catchy or emphatic way of capturing the notion in song. Although it was released in 1999, the song had been around as early as 1993. Take into account that Healy would have been 19-20 years of age that year, the song is very much one from the point of view of a young man who has his dreams and the future way ahead of him. ‘Turn’ is the list of what Healy wants to happen. The best part of the whole song? Healy’s vocal. The intensity increases from verse to pre-chorus to those big, big choruses, and those climaxes are so hard to sing. He does let bass guitarist Dougie Payne take lead vocal on the second verse whenever they do it live. But on the studio take, it’s all Healy. I don’t know how he does it. So much power and passion behind the delivery, really tugs at the heartstrings.