Monthly Archives: February 2015

My iPod #429: D12 – Git Up

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“Git Up” is a song by Detroit rap group D12. Although it wasn’t a single it did receive its own music video, a portion of which was visible nearing the end of the music video for “How Come” before being drawn out to its full length. “Git Up” begins D12’s second album and what is still their ‘most recent’ one after more than ten years “D12 World“. Back in 2004 this was the group’s first album after a long awaited three years from “Devil’s Night“, and they needed a track to announce their return. “Git Up” is this track.

The track is four minutes of tongue-twisting lyrical onslaughts by Eminem, Swifty and Kuniva, with Bizarre taking a role has the hype man as the track nears its end. Eminem does take up about half of the duration. But his ability to spit out the verse and then lead straight into the chorus without seemingly taking a breath for a second makes it one of his best performances on record yet. In the lyrics a lot of guns and various arms are mentioned. Just what the three members what to do with them is clear. But whatever is stated in the verses don’t really mean anything. The thing that mattered the most was that D12 was back with a new album, and the group are intent on making you ‘motherfuckers listen’.

I’ll be fine if D12 never made an album again. I know they are still together. But if they were to I don’t think it could ever be the same. You know why.

My iPod #428: Maxïmo Park – Girls Who Play Guitars

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“Girls Who Play Guitars” is the opening song on “Our Earthly Pleasures“, Maxïmo Park’s second album, released in 2007. Despite its title, the track does not specifically mention female guitarists at any point. It is actually about a relationship of a man and a lady who are very good friends; the former wants something more, but the latter prefers to go out, get drunk and the ‘friends with benefits’ business.

I’ve always enjoyed this song. Like many of the songs I’ve written about before (and the many that are to come) it’s one of those where its music video was played continuously on MTV2 that I could never really forget the melody. But just like all the other Maxïmo Park singles, this didn’t let me down either. Overall it is a very exciting track to listen to.

My iPod #427: Good Charlotte – Girls & Boys

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I tell you now, there won’t be another Good Charlotte song in this whole “My iPod” thing. Never really liked them. They got big over in the UK in about 2002 and I knew their stuff then, but I didn’t care about them. Fast forward four years later when I’m starting secondary school and I make a friend who really likes their music, I try to listen to their stuff again. That’s when they released “Keep Your Hands off My Girl”. “No” I thought to myself. No speak/rap please. Whatever I ‘felt’ about Good Charlotte was gone. It is alright thinking about it now, but I can’t take it seriously.

“Girls & Boys” is the only song by them that I actually really enjoy. The song’s lyrics, to crudely put it, state that girls and boys are just as stupid as each other when it comes to the money and being materialistic or whatever. But the music isn’t half bad either. And although like the other singles the chorus has words in which a syllable is elongated and makes up about a third of it in the process (“LIFESTYYYYYYYLES OFTHERICHANDTHE FAY-MOOUUS“) (“YOOOUU, DON’TWANNABEJUSTLIKEYOOU“), it steers away from being too grating and whiny. “Girls & Boys” has great melodies from the vocals to the guitars, particularly during the instrumental break.

Is this a guilty pleasure? Maybe. Actually, no! This song is great, I don’t care. Good Charlotte on the other hand not so much.

My iPod #426: The Who – Girl’s Eyes

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“Girl’s Eyes” is a song recorded during the making of The Who’s third album The Who Sell Out, which went on to be released in 1967. The song did not make it onto the original album’s tracklist. Though it did appear in the extended tracklisting when the album was remastered and remixed years later in 1995. The track is one of the very few Who songs to be written by the ever-eccentric Keith Moon. He couldn’t sing very well, but you’re still able to hear him take lead vocals in the right channel with bassist John Entwistle singing along with him in the left.

After a false start in which someone blows over the top of an open bottle and Moon hurriedly says “Hello” to the listener (maybe to test the microphone or something), the track eventually gets going and is driven by a delightful piano and acoustic guitars, but Moon and Entwistle do their business on their respective instruments too. The track concerns a fangirl who Moon sees at every show the band perform at, but he clearly doesn’t care about her as much as she about them. He wonders if he could have the audacity of hurting this girl if they were ever to meet, though whether this actually happens is not revealed as the lyrics pretty much end there. I also think that Moon couldn’t think of a true ending to the song’s music, as the band improvise an ending where each member eventually gives up playing after a few reiterations of the song’s chord progression.

This song’s a-okay. Moon was always meant for the drums, of course, but this track shows that he could actually write a good tune as well too.

My iPod #425: Manic Street Preachers – The Girl Who Wanted to Be God

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“The Girl Who Wanted to Be God” is a track from Manic Street Preachers’ album “Everything Must Go“, released in 1996. This album was their first after the disappearance of lyricist and rhythm guitarist Richey Edwards (which happened twenty years ago yesterday, if you didn’t know) though some tracks on it included lyrics that Edwards had left over – today’s track is one of them, though Nicky Wire did contribute lyrics too. I’ve personally never looked into the lyrics much though the title is also the name of a poem by the late Sylvia Plath, whose work Edwards was known to study. Take from that what you will.

Admittedly the part of the track that got me straight away were the sensational strings that give the track this elating feeling of freedom. After seconds of a choppy guitar and a meddling rhythm section that start the track off, the strings suddenly appear to play the chorus melody and I’m launched into the air and find myself soaring through the sky, faster than the speed of sound. And then James Dean Bradfield reinforces that feeling by belting out the title phrase which makes up the song’s chorus. The verses are good; they have a good melody to them. But that chorus…. some days it will pop in my head, and I can be repeating it for minutes on end.

If I were lucky enough to be a member of Manic Street Preachers in 1996, I would definitely have wanted this to be a single. Could you imagine thousands of people singing back that chorus to you at concerts? Man. Better than “Kevin Carter“, I think. Though however glorious the strings and wailing guitar may be, it still reminds me of music that should be in the background of a flight advert or the theme music to a soap opera. I really don’t know why, I just get that vibe from it.