Daily Archives: April 14, 2014

My iPod #280: Fall Out Boy – Disloyal Order of Water Buffaloes

Fall Out Boy time. I listened to “Save Rock and Roll“. Wasn’t too great. And it was their first one after a four year hiatus. Disappointing. Everything sounded so manufactured and poppy, ironically. For me, “Folie à Deux” is the band’s best album. It’s their worst-selling one, which I don’t understand. If you haven’t listened to it, I suggest you should.

The album opens with this track “Disloyal Order of Water Buffaloes”, a song about imperfection with a title that is a reference to The Flintstones. I don’t get it either, but a lot of Fall Out Boy song titles are weird in that way. I’m not liking the way I’m sounding, I’ll get serious from now on.

The song is another great album opener out of all the ones I have on my iPod. It does use the same chord progression as “Baba O’Riley” albeit in a different key – that’s a random point I chose to throw in there. What I like about the track is how it never slows down or takes a breather for a bit. The track mostly revolves around the drums, played by Andy Hurley, changing in dynamics at various points like in the second pre-chorus where Patrick Stump continues to sing with sporadic multi-tracked vocals along with a noodling electric guitar, or near the ending when the “detox just to retox” refrain is chanted continuously. Plus, Patrick Stump absolutely kills it on the vocals. It seems like all the singing on the previous ones were all leading up to this particular one because here he is at his peak on every track.

“Water Buffaloes” is hard to describe if you couldn’t tell from my convoluted ‘summary’. It’s one of those that I knew was good on first listen. You can’t listen to it by itself though, it doesn’t have a proper ending. Listen to it along with the twelve other tracks that follow. That’s the best way to hear it.

My iPod #279: The Who – The Dirty Jobs


Maybe I should have tweeted that there wasn’t going to be a post yesterday. It would save time in having to explain why. I was out, and for anyone that was desperately waiting for that usual update in their Twitter feed…. I am sorry. Dreadfully sorry. But it’s here now, and will be followed by another one soon.

Here’s one random question I want to ask….. Is it wrong to be young and really like The Who? This randomly came up as a thought when I was listening to The Who on shuffle, when I was on the train back to university from Liverpool. I think The Who are amazing (or were); “My Generation” through to “Who Are You” speak for themselves. But I’ve never met in person or seen on the internet anyone my age who feels the same way. I feel as if The Who’s the kind of band who are only listened to by middle-aged men trying to make their name in the rock music business or something. You see, hear or research about new bands who say that they are influenced by The Beatles…. or material that the members went on to produce in their solo careers. But you never really see any new and talented vocalist say they are inspired by Roger Daltrey, or a bass player inspired by John Entwistle. I stress that this is new bands that I’m talking about here. There are loads of bands I listen to who admire each and every member. But…. I don’t know. Maybe it’s a generation thing….. That pun wasn’t intentional.

That’s something you guys can think upon.

But enough of that. Today’s track is “The Dirty Jobs”, a song from the band’s second ‘rock opera’ “Quadrophenia“. At this point in the album’s ‘plot’, the narrator has left home and meets these workers who do ‘the dirty jobs’, such as looking after pigs and driving the miner bus. The narrator criticises them for not sticking the middle finger up to ‘the man’. That sums the song up lyrically.

It’s astonishing how though in this song – hell, through the whole album – it is the four members of The Who who play every instrument you hear. Except for the piano part that’s played a session musician. I brick-walled the track using Audacity (something I still have polarizing feelings about now). It’s very loud, mostly thanks to the constant cymbal thrashing and drum pounding from Keith Moon, but I can’t listen to it any other way. Just everything about the song is brilliant. Awesome. Great. Fantastic. Can’t think of superlatives to emphasise how good the track is.

Actually, just listen to “Quadrophenia”. You must. You won’t forgive yourself if you don’t. Arguably The Who’s creative peak as a group.