Monthly Archives: July 2015

My iPod #532: Brakes – Hold Me in the River

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The Brighton based band Brakes released their second album The Beatific Visions in 2006, one year and a few months after raising the roof with the impressive debut of Give Blood.  The Beatific Visions reinforced the rough rock ‘n’ roll delivered in songs under/just above two minutes that was established with Give Blood, albeit with crisper and cleaner production.

“Hold Me in the River” starts it all off and was released as the album’s first single. The track takes fourteen seconds to warm up before breaking into its riff which acts as the main instrumental refrain. Lacking a chorus, “Hold Me” consists only of two verses sung by an ever-eccentric Eamon Hamilton who sings about, what I can only guess, being ready to take on anything that comes his way.

A very confident opener, it is something to get you ‘settled’ in for the ten tracks that are to come.

My iPod #531: Green Day – Hitchin’ a Ride

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Green Day’s 1997 album Nimrod exhibited a change in the band’s musical direction. Differing vastly from the angst and rough punk rock sounds delivered two years prior on Insomniac, Billie Joe, Mike and Tré decided to branch out from their origins and make an album where they weren’t confined to one type of sound. This new sense of freedom resulted in a total of thirty songs being recorded before they were whittled down to create one of Green Day’s most eclectic record to date.

“Hitchin’ a Ride” was the first single to be released from Nimrod. Whilst not explicitly showing the experimentation that was to come in the album, one could tell that there was something different about the band. It is much different from the first single used to promote the previous album. A mysterious violin opens the song, before its chugging four note riff takes over. Remaining relatively calm for the majority of the beginning, bar the instrumental break where the riff is played with more venom, things don’t get very rowdy until halfway through. The chorus finally arrives for the first time and all hell breaks loose shortly after Armstrong yells “SHIT” from the pit of his stomach.

“Hitchin’ a Ride” manages to symbolise the change in style Green Day were going through at the time whilst also giving off the vibe that this was the same Green Day who had released “Basket Case” a few years earlier. It was a wise decision to use it as the first song to represent their new material. People would at least be a bit more prepared for what was to come.

My iPod #530: Pavement – Hit the Plane Down

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“Hit the Plane Down” is the track that doesn’t get much attention from a lot of listeners. The penultimate offering on Pavement’s second album Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain does suffer from being the odd one out amongst the other eleven that accompany it. Being the only one on there written by the band’s second guitarist Scott Kannberg AKA Spiral Stairs, it doesn’t have the same quality in terms of lyrics and musicality compared to the songs of Stephen Malkmus. However, its stomping drum pattern and messy guitars make it the heaviest-sounding song on the album, and makes for a good change from the slacker melodies that come before it.

Starting off with an emphatic drum roll from Steve West, the song proceeds to be led by a dissonant bassline made up of two notes while guitars blare out distorted chords and notes to create a disorderly mesh of noise. Kannberg sings through a filter to make him sound like his microphone isn’t working properly, and the track overall switches between the few verses and choruses it has before abruptly switching to a low quality recording of the band working on the track to bring it all to a close.

It is a mess. It doesn’t really go anywhere. But it is strangely entrancing to listen to.

My iPod #529: The Offspring – Hit That

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“Hit That” was the first single from The Offspring’s album Splinter, released in 2003. Some consider the album to be the beginning of the band’s downfall, others see it as their last great album before things went pear-shaped. I did want the album went it was first out because, at the age of eight, I thought “Hit That” was the best song around. And because I hardly ever saw its video on TV, I used to go to the band’s website and watch it endlessly.

To be honest the song hasn’t aged that well. It sounds like it was made for 2003, and that year only…. Maybe 2004 too. The keyboard line doesn’t have the same effect it did all those years ago. But nostalgia’s sake makes me listen to it. It does still get me singing along too.

Sleeping around with many people and not thinking about the consequences is the main subject of the track, and it differs from many other tracks on Splinter in that it is carried by slick bass groove rather than punk guitar chords. I’s not their best song, but don’t let that stop you from hearing it out.

My iPod #528: Jakobínarína – His Lyrics Are Disastrous

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Jakobínarína were an Icelandic indie-punk band that pretty much existed for a split second before disappearing and never being heard from again. After three singles came the album The First Crusade in the autumn of 2007. Unfortunately, that would be the only crusade they would embark on as the six members decided to part ways a few months later. What could have accomplished had they continued? Like Test Icicles and Larrikin Love – to name two good bands who never made it out of the 00s – we’ll never know. But we have the music, man. And that’s all that matters, surely?

“His Lyrics Are Disastrous” is the second song on The First Crusade, and is about a person who wishes to rob a bank with someone, leave the country and never return. That is pretty much it. The lyrics don’t expand much upon that situation. The title phrase doesn’t appear within the song itself; I think I remember reading somewhere that it was said by a critic/listener who was at one of their shows. The lyrics on show could appear as their own choruses in two different songs, so the title chosen is rather apt however jokingly self-deprecating it is.

Overall, it is a short and snappy to just get loose to. Nothing philosophical to dwell upon. Those types of songs can sometimes be the best ones.