Monthly Archives: February 2015

My iPod #449: Eels – Going to Your Funeral Part I

Leave a reply

Going to Your Funeral Part I is the second track on Electro-Shock Blues, the second album by the alternative band Eels. Recorded during a period in which several friends and members of frontman E’s family passed away, the album is regarded to be the band’s best work because of the brutal honesty and sincerity within each of the sixteen tracks on it.

Preceding this song is “Elizabeth on the Bathroom Floor“, a lullaby-like track with lyrics taken from E’s sister’s personal journal before she unfortunately ended her own life some time after. “Going to Your Funeral Part I” depicts the scene bluntly stated in the title after the tragic event. You’d think that coming right after it, it would only concern the funeral of his sister and that’s what we’re made to believe for the first and second verses, but it is only until the final verse which has E almost screaming into a megaphone about remembering an old friend he used to hang out with behind their old school.

Beginning with an ominous drone that pans from left to right and quickly fades out, the track then gets to a crawling start carried by an unsettling groove led by an intense but very slack bass line that oozes from one note to the other. E comes in with a light falsetto vocal after, but over the dark bass line and overall atmosphere still isn’t able to to make the track less dissonant than it already is. The style changes during the choruses where cute xylophones and backwards slide guitars enter the mix; those only appear for a short time before returning to the grungy sound again.

Only five minutes into the album, the listener is already provided with two tracks that sound the complete opposite to one another. Though the first hints at the unsettling feel with light music and heavy lyrics, “Going to Your Funeral Part I” really hits it home.

If you want to know why it’s specifically labelled as “Part I”, here is “Part II”.

My iPod #448: Supergrass – Going Out

1 Reply

“Going Out” was the one of the first songs recorded for Supergrass’ second album In It for the Money. It was released as the album’s first single, more than a year before, in 1996.

The track, sung in unison by Gaz Coombes and Mick Quinn who also switch between lower and higher harmonies at various points, is about the press and how, when we want to go out or find out the latest gossip, the newspapers are the first things we go to. The song also makes it clear that the papers aren’t so great, and that staying home is much better. Starting off with guitars at full volume during the verses, the song takes a pleasant turn for the instrumental break when those disappear and Rob Coombes’ piano and the casual horns begin to dominate the mix before returning to the guitars for the sweet last verse. With the concluding line of “Not me” (which is a clever tie in with the next song on the album) Coombes confirms that the news isn’t his thing, and the track fades out with rising horns and jubilant guitar playing.

The track showed a sense of growth from the material that displayed on their amazing debut; whilst the songs on that had a sense of urgency, grit and roughness to them in some parts, “Going Out” was the first sign of Supergrass’ growth as a group. The harsh guitars of “Lose It” and “Caught by the Fuzz” were now replaced by strolling pianos, inviting organs and triumphant horns, teasing a new expansive sound-scape that was to be used to its full capacity on the forthcoming album.

My iPod #447: The Who – Going Mobile

1 Reply

“Going Mobile” is the seventh track from The Who’s classic album Who’s Next from 1971. The track features only Pete Townshend, John Entwistle, and Keith Moon on their respective instruments. But don’t come to the conclusion that this track can’t be compared to the other eight just because it misses the presence of Roger Daltrey’s monstrous voice. In fact, the song rocks just as hard as them. Even if Pete does play the acoustic guitar for the majority of it, it is again the wonders of Moon and Entwistle that give the track its emphatic edge.

The track concerns the wonders of being on the road, on the move with no sign of stopping, just generally feeling free with the cool air blowing in the wind and not having a care in the world. And as much as the track is about continuously moving lyrically, it also gives this idea in it’s actual execution. Keith Moon particularly pulls off an incredibly energetic performance (as ever) on the drums, ending every single measure with thundering drum fills and generally playing them as if he has more than two arms. At one particular point, he turns the track into some sort of barn-dance before seamlessly transitioning back to the regular pattern. It’s crazy. John effortlessly keeps it all together with his fluid bass playing, and Pete can’t contain his excitement on the vocals, ad-libbing at any given opportunity.

Being on the same album as tracks such as “Baba O’Riley” and “Won’t Get Fooled Again“, “Going Mobile” tends not to get so much attention. But it should. It is honestly just as brilliant.

My iPod #446: Maxïmo Park – Going Missing

1 Reply

“Going Missing” is the fifth track on Maxïmo Park’s 2005 debut album A Certain Trigger. It was then released as a single in July of that year, getting to the time when my mum had organised a family holiday to Belgium. (I’m still not sure why she wanted to go there so much.) But I remember when I was there that I would spontaneously begin to sing it for no particular reason, other than that I thought I could relate to the title somehow. I mean, I was kinda missing from England, that’s where all my friends were. I was missing ’em. The link was probably weaker than I wanted it to be.

Knowing it pretty much since it first came out, I’ve never cared about what the track’s subject matter is or what could have happened to Paul Smith that made him want to the lyric. But someone on songmeanings.net gave an idea that it’s about a man who was in a casual relationship with a woman who wanted more. She left him. But then he starts to like her when she goes. He realises what he’s missed out on. He’s gone on his own to try and work things out for himself. Seems plausible to me.

Straight up, this is my favourite Maxïmo Park song. Known every single word to it for close to ten years now. Though it took me a while to finally get to listen to it. Every time I saw that first panning shot of lead singer Paul Smith looking miserable as anything on that brown sofa when the video showed up on MTV2, I always changed the channel. Why did he look so mad? The ten year old me didn’t want to see such an unhappy face at the start of a music video. Despite this, the video was aired every freaking day so there was no avoiding it anymore. Might as well watch it to get over it, you know? So I did. And I was captivated. It’s very intense. Smith angrily chucks things at walls, flings cutlery off tables and angrily jumps about in slow motion and further maddeningly mouths the words to the song wide-eyed into the camera as if he’s going out of his mind. It’s one of those videos where the images within it pop into your head even when you’re listening to it when you’re out or something. It’s just perfect. Ah, man.

My iPod #445: Blink-182 – Going Away to College

Leave a reply

Tom DeLonge is not a member of Blink-182 anymore. Seems strange just typing that sentence. I was confused as everyone else when the events leading up to his departure starting appearing on Twitter, and still am weeks later. Doesn’t seem right not having the three guys together. But that’s how it goes I guess.

Let’s go back to a more simple and happier time by discussing today’s track, “Going Away to College”. The song is track four on Blink’s breakthrough album Enema of the State from 1999. The notes at the end of “Aliens Exist” merge straight into the lone guitar by Tom which starts “College” off before the Mark and Travis join in. It is mainly written by Mark Hoppus, I assume as he takes the lead vocals on it, and is from the perspective of a guy who we’ll guess is going away to college soon and is having all these feelings about leaving his loved one behind. There’s nothing much else to it. It’s a very sweet three-minute pop punk love song. One of my favourites from that album. So much so that I added it to my version of their Greatest Hits compilation which I then went to upload on YouTube. You won’t find it. That account got terminated.

Just a note, you might want to listen to this and “What’s My Age Again?” together. Makes it a bit more complete if you ask me.