Monthly Archives: July 2014

My iPod #334: Nine Black Alps – Every Photograph Steals Your Soul

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(Skip to about 6:10)

Now I always feel as if I have to be careful about what I say about Nine Black Alps songs. The band follows me on Twitter, you see, and I think it was because they read one of my posts. Whether they liked it or not is a mystery to me, but I guess they want to see more. I haven’t talked about a Nine Black Alps track in a while.

Well, here is one now. It’s “Every Photograph Steals Your Soul”, the third track from the band’s third album “Locked Out from the Inside” released way back in 2009. I first heard it when the album was exclusively put up onto we7.com. If anyone remembers that site, isn’t it a shame what happened to it? It started to change by becoming a radio only site in 2012, and then it changed companies altogether. A real shame, I liked that site.

But anyway, I was excited as fuck to be listening to that album. Was hyped from the day “Buy Nothing” was revealed a few months earlier, but when I heard the first strum on “Vampire in the Sun” I knew I was in for something special. Nine Black Alps were heavy again after “Love/Hate”, and were bringing back the noise.

The topic of the track is really all there in the title. The song is from the perspective of a photographer who is all about the money and stealing people’s innocence for their own personal gain. Well, I’m thinking that’s what the band intended to make out this person to be. There is low, sinister guitar playing during the verses which give me an image of some sleazy man taking pictures of somebody, and then the volume increases for the chorus; the guitars get loud and Sam Forrest yells the title phrase with a few ‘yeahs’ thrown in there for good measure.

Just throwing this in, but the part which gave me goosebumps on my first listen? The part where everything stops for a split second before a ear splitting “YEAH” brings everything back in again. That was when I realised that this album was the shit.

My iPod #333: Paul McCartney – Ever Present Past

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In 2007, Paul McCartney released his fourteenth solo album “Memory Almost Full“. Also at that time I was twelve years old almost finishing my first year of secondary school, and not caring that much about anything in particular.

I guess it is a big deal when Paul McCartney comes out with something new just because he is who he is, but thinking about it now I can’t remember that much being said about the album’s arrival. Although, most of the time I was watching MTV2 where McCartney’s videos were never played anyway. The first time I knew that his new album was coming was when the ‘exclusive premiere’ of the video for his new song “Dance Tonight” was shown on TV late at night.

I feel like I’m telling you my life story just reading this through. Basically, “Ever Present Past” was the second single from that album. Heard in on the car radio when my mum was taking me somewhere. Then it played on we7.com, and I started to really like it.

In the track Paul sings about feeling old, how life goes quickly and how he’s never able to quite get over his past because he’s constantly reminded about it, and because he thought it would last forever. It’s a good tune.

He dances in the music video, which may be cringing for some. Not me though, I don’t care.

My iPod #332: Supergrass – Evening of the Day

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While being a fantastic bass player, probably one of the most underrated during the Britpop era, Mick Quinn of Supergrass was also a decent singer. He did occasionally take on lead vocal duties on many Supergrass songs such as “You Can See Me” and “Sometimes I Make You Sad” from “In It for the Money“, “Beautiful People” and co-lead vocals on “Mary” from their self-titled album. But it is on the 2002 album “Life on Other Planets” where fans get to hear a lot more of his singing, as he takes on lead vocals on four of the twelve songs on there including today’s track “Evening of the Day”. I asked the man himself if he did take the lead on this one, thinking that he wouldn’t reply……. and to my surprise he did only a few hours later.

Positioned right in the middle of the album, “Evening” begins with some smooth bass and piano. Sounds really laidback, and cool. There’s a very lounge-y/jazzy tone about it all. Quinn enters with his lower register vocal (which is what got me confused about who was singing it in the first place) and goes on to sing about how, during the evening of the day, he waits somewhere (possibly a location of a high altitude) for a person who is very important to him. While he looks at the view, all he can think about is that person. The song’s chorus is a line from a Spinal Tap track “All the Way Home” which is as follows: “If she’s not on that 3:15, then I’m gonna know what sorrow means.”

It is at 3:15 of “Evening of the Day” when what I have described to you above finishes in a minor and rather messy fashion. I can’t tell whether it was supposed to be a different song altogether and the band decided combine it with the first three minutes or if it was all planned. But in this particular part, the band members sing about someone being stoned and not knowing what they’re talking about. Whether they’re referring to the ‘narrator’ of the first part of the song, I’m not sure, but it does bring a light and comedic end to a very good song.

My iPod #331: The Streets – The Escapist

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“The Escapist” was the first single released from The Streets’ fourth album “Everything Is Borrowed“, from 2008.

At that point in time, Mike Skinner hadn’t been heard from for about a year and a bit, so when that opening shot of the video came on MTV2 one day and the words “The Streets – The Escapist” appeared onscreen I was pleasantly surprised. What would the wordsmith from Birmingham pull out this time?

Well, what came next were five and a half minutes of wonder. This was like no other Streets track I’d heard before. This was something much more introspective and reflective. I’m very sure I watched the video without moving or blinking once. It isn’t even that interesting, it’s just Mike walking through France until he reaches a beach. But the music and lyrics were really something to admire and absorb. Makes you wanna think about life, how insignificant we are in the grand scheme of it all and how you just want to escape from it all sometimes.

Or maybe that’s just me.

My iPod #330: Does It Offend You, Yeah? – Epic Last Song

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I had a friend who like “Does If Offend You, Yeah?”. I don’t think he’d actually heard their songs before, he just liked the band’s name because of how confrontational and threatening it sounded. That phrase was actually chosen when the synth player and lead singer were watching The Office one day, and Ricky Gervais said it when they turned on the TV. Quite funny.

This was in 2007 when the group was considered to be one of the ‘next big things’ to come by NME. I didn’t know what to expect from the group because I had never their songs either. “We Are Rockstars” came out….. thought that was alright but it wasn’t anything amazing. NME made a big deal out of nothing, I feel. Never followed the group so much afterwards.

Still, my sister borrowed the album from a friend of hers just because she liked “We Are Rockstars”. I still haven’t listened to “You Have No Idea What You’re Getting Yourself Into” to this day. How can I talk about “Epic Last Song” if I didn’t bother to, you may ask. Well, it was released as a single. The video played on MTV2. I liked it. Here I am now.

If you weren’t able to guess, “Epic Last Song” is the final song from “You Have No Idea….” Whether it’s epic or not is for you to decide. It isn’t even the longest song on the album. But it is a very happy song, one about feeling lucky to have been in a relationship for a long time. And being surprised that they’ve stuck with you for that long.

My favourite part is the last minute or so when the singing finishes (not saying it’s bad), leaving the guitar and synthesizer playing in unison with some very heavy drums. Really hits you that it’s all gonna end soon at that point.