Monthly Archives: January 2015

My iPod #418: OutKast – Ghetto Musick

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Today’s track begins the first disc out of legendary Atlanta hip-hop duo OutKast’s double album “Speakerboxxx/The Love Below” from 2003, or what can be considered to be two solo albums by Big Boi and André 3000 released together as a single package.

After the final bark on Speakerboxxx’s “Intro”, “Ghetto Musick” gets shit popping straight away with an erratic synthesizer line and with André playing the crazy hype man, preparing for you for the tiring onslaught that’s coming at you for the next four minutes or so. Despite Speakerboxxx being pretty much a Big Boi solo album to show off the man’s rapping abilities, André 3000 features heavily on “Ghetto Musick” providing vocals for the aforementioned intro, for a short verse, the pre-chorus and the main chorus. In fact, Big Boi contributes only one verse in the whole song but in it still makes his message clear: OutKast were back on some new shit; no one can fuck with them. The track is also notable for its slow bridge featuring a Patti LaBelle, and the high-pitched “Feeling great, feeling good, how are yooooooou’ lyrics before immediately switching up the tempo that is established from the start.

I remember watching the video for the track in 2004. My sister loved the track. I already had the album. But at this point, “Hey Ya!”, “Roses”, and “The Way You Move” to some extent had already got the duo the attention they deserved for the new album. “Ghetto Musick” fell a bit short unfortunately. But that doesn’t matter. “Ghetto Musick” is a track to get rowdy to, and then get close to a loved one for a few seconds before forcefully throwing them down and getting down on the floor again. The track is a train that cannot be stopped, however much you feel it should or want it to. Well, that is until it eventually ends on a pulsating beat.

My iPod #417: The Beatles – Getting Better

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My favourite “Sgt. Pepper” song. No doubt. It’s so cheerful and upbeat. Everything about it sounds so happy. The bouncy, walking bassline. The skipping drum pattern in the verses. The playful switching between Paul’s lead vocal and the child-like backing vocals. Despite the obvious lyrical references to domestic abuse in the bridge, it’s all switched around in the next few lines where the narrator reveals that they’re not that type of person anymore and they are changing their ways. In general it’s a very enjoyable song with a very positive message, and there’s nothing wrong with having tunes like that in your life.

The first time I heard the song, it was not actually The Beatles’ original but a cover by the band Kaiser Chiefs which was done for the album’s 40th anniversary back in 2007. It’s okay. It can’t compare to how The Beatles did it though.

So if you want to be in a good mood, put this track on. You’ll have a smile on your face in no time.

My iPod #416: Weezer – Getchoo

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Just as final notes of “Tired of Sex” begin to fade to silence on Weezer’s second album “Pinkerton“, the chainsaw-like buzzing rises from out of nowhere to bring “Getchoo” to a raucous start. Much like “The World Has Turned and Left Me Here” is the sister track to “No One Else” on the band’s debut, so is “Getchoo” to “Tired of Sex”. In this case, the narrator has fallen in love with one of the many women he has had meaningless sex with…. but only after she’s gone and will probably not be likely to be seen again. The frustration is real. And this track really delivers on getting those feelings across.

I remember not liking “Tired of Sex” when I first listened to “Pinkerton” years ago. Obviously this changed over time. But back then it was always fine because “Getchoo” was the next track after skipping it, and I was never disappointed. It’s very noisy, guitars are harsh and rough sounding, Matt Sharp does a madness on the bass and Pat Wilson bangs on the drums like there’s no tomorrow. Bar “Butterfly”, those descriptions apply for every other track “Pinkerton” possesses.

My particular favourite moment of the song? The rising guitar leading to the climactic finish as the background vocals cry “This is begiiining to huuuuurt“. And the chorus too.

My iPod #415: The Darkness – Get Your Hands off My Woman

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I was eight years old when I received “Permission to Land” as a gift from my cousin. Around the time I thought “I Believe in a Thing Called Love” was one of the best songs to exist, and is probably one of the reasons I started listening to rock music. Some people start with Nirvana; I start with The Darkness.

To this day, I remember my sister asking for the album’s booklet containing the liner notes and lyrics and so on. She then told me that I shouldn’t look in it. Straight up. I asked her, “Why not?” She replied, “Just don’t.” Of course I went on to when she wasn’t looking. I saw the swear words in “Black Shuck” and this song, and saw why she was so suddenly stern about it.

Even though I don’t think as highly of the track/album as I did then, it still brings a laugh whenever I hear it. This track as serious as hell though just like all of the others on “Permission to Land”, I just get the feeling that people wouldn’t have liked them because they were too much of a spoof or a mimic of dramatic heavy metal bands from the 70s or something. But when you have a track like this where the words “motherfucker” and “cunt” are shrieked at a frighteningly high pitch I can’t help but smile at it all. Justin Hawkins is a crazy singer with an astounding vocal range, and “Get Your Hands Off” is just one out of the many where it is shown to its full potential.

My iPod #414: Nine Black Alps – Get Your Guns

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I know mostly all of the lyrics…. I could hum every tune, note and screech the guitar feedback if you indeed wanted me to recite all of “Everything Is” to you. “Everything Is” being the first album by Nine Black Alps, which was released in 2005. I know that album like the back of my hand. IT’S TOO GOOD. Even today, I still feel the same excitement and thrill as I did when I opened that case, inserted the disc and heard that crunching guitar introduction for the very first time.

“Get Your Guns” is the track of which that introduction belongs to, and it is after a commanding cymbal count-in that the song erupts like a dog at the races with a bellowing atmosphere of bending guitar strings and a powerful rhythm section. From then on, the album never lets up. It is track after track of aggressive rock music. No momentum is lost. That is until you get to the first acoustic based track six songs in.

A song to punch a wall, scream in someone’s face, and generally get pumped to, “Get Your Guns” does the perfect job of establishing the tone which the rest of the album follows which any worthy album opener should do. Just because I like the song that much I’ve never pondered in depth about what it’s meaning is; if it’s good, I don’t see a reason too. Though there was a point that I did think “Everything Is” was a concept album about a war and various relationships between people while this war is happening. It probably isn’t. Though actually witnessing the lyrics might make you see why I got that idea.

So, yeah. Have a listen to it. Has a line from a Radiohead song in there too. That’s besides the point. If this doesn’t float your boat… you have no soul. But that’s just my opinion.