Monthly Archives: September 2017

#569: Chris Bell – I Don’t Know

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You might remember that the title track of Chris Bell’s posthumous album I Am the Cosmos</em> started of the ‘I’ section of this ongoing song series. Well, here is Mr. Bell again with another song from that album – the tenth one on there – entitled ‘I Don’t Know’.

Earlier this year I had a phase of listening to Big Star, after really enjoying the band’s first LP #1 Record and ended up reading about the band’s history and watching a documentary detailing the group’s career which is a good watch and one I would recommend to anybody interested. Just doing the general stuff you do when you really get into an artist you’ve properly listened to for the first time.

Making a long story short Chris Bell left Big Star after their first album release, disillusioned with the lack of its success and being in a band in general, and embarked on solo endeavours. His material wasn’t released in album form until 1992, over a decade after his tragic death. Listening to I Am the Cosmos and then hearing Radio City, the album Big Star made after Bell’s departure, it becomes apparent who may have been behind the band’s large, clean and anthemic sound that made #1 Record such a bold effort.

‘I Don’t Know’ explodes right out of the gate with a soaring intro of jangling guitars, crashing cymbals and powerful drums that segue into Bell’s vocals. The track sees the man in a state of confusion as to why he’s sticking around in a relationship that he doesn’t really want to be in, but still finds himself very much attracted to his lady. It’s a song of contradiction and inner conflict, themes that appear throughout the entire album, but it’s a blast to listen to – an energetic and cathartic three and a half minute wonder.

Another strange thing to note is that this song actually appears twice on the album, appearing with a slower tempo and completely different arrangement under the name ‘Get Away’. Now why Bell chose to do this no one will ever know. Isn’t that cheating in some kind of way? Then again… he wasn’t around to pick what songs went on his album. As a result, the deluxe version of the I Am the Cosmos album contains four takes of what are essentially the same song.

Obviously, the vibes are different between the two but maybe the lyrics are to be taken differently even though their completely the same in both songs. I don’t know. Just a guess.

#568: Fall Out Boy – I Don’t Care

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A lot of Fall Out Boy’s stuff I don’t care for anymore, though there was a time (as I’m sure there were for many going through their teenage years) when I thought all of their songs were great. I had friends in secondary school and we would talk about their stuff, casual sing-alongs here and there when we should have been listening to the teacher. Now I can say that some songs of theirs have aged much better than others. ‘Dance, Dance‘, ‘Sugar, We’re Goin’ Down‘, and ‘This Ain’t a Scene, It’s an Arms Race‘ are three in particular which I just can’t listen to anymore. The majority of From Under the Cork Tree and some of Infinity on High I haven’t listened to in years.

Folie à Deux, however…. Man. That album still holds up today. I think it’s the band’s best one, though fans seemed to hate it when it was released in 2008. I haven’t listened to it in full for ages either, but I feel as if it was the album that the band had always wanted to make at that point in time. It has great production, the songs just flow right into each other, Patrick Stump is singing melodies all over and Wentz’s lyrics aren’t so angsty. They are actually quite funny in some places. Unfortunately they burned themselves out creatively and personally, which resulted in a break-up the following year. They returned in 2013 with a new sound and single, but by then I was listening to other stuff. Though along with My Chemical Romance and Linkin Park, Fall Out Boy will always be a source of nostalgia.

Oh yeah, the song.

So ‘I Don’t Care’ is the second song on Folie à Deux, and was released as the album’s first single. Being a thirteen year-old then, I felt the video was amazing. The band members acting like pricks and cameos from Mark Hoppus and Pharrell? Get outta here. That stuff was funny. Doesn’t really match the song which is essentially about someone who shares no compassion for other people and thinks they’re the shit. But still, the band actually looked cool and sounded slick. It marked a somewhat darker era for the group which I kinda wish they could have gone further down, but hey those are the brokes.

One thing I have against the track is that the whole call-response ‘I Don’t Care’ bridge goes on for a bit too long, but it’s worth it just for that drop into that final chorus with the ending guitar solo.

#567: The Strokes – I Can’t Win

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I am in that small group of people who prefer The Strokes’ sophomore album Room on Fire to their widely-loved debut Is This It. The latter gathers all the acclaim from fans and critics alike because it arrived at a time when the mainstream was dominated by boy bands and nu-metal, and ushered in a new wave of indie/garage-rock bands in the early 2000s. Also, it has the tunes to back it up. The title track? Great. ‘Hard to Explain’? Awesome. ‘Take It or Leave It’? Very nice, indeed.

However, it’s rough-around-the-edges style of production has always been something that’s stopped me from liking it as much as I probably could. On Room on Fire every track sounds slicker, more precise and tighter in execution; if Is This It had that sound I would probably like it a lot more. But what can you do? Also I just like more songs on Room than on their debut which would sway my stance on the matter.

And so the album closes with today’s song, ‘I Can’t Win’, a two and a half minute package of catchy guitar riffs, a steady rhythm section and signature crooning by Julian Casablancas. Very much like the rest of the songs on the album, his vocals are low in the mix allowing an emphasis on the instrumentation provided by the other four members. The song addresses the feeling when someone with low motivation attempts to try something out but often gives up or is told that they’re not good enough. Something relatable for many a person. I’ve also thought that it’s a sneaky self-conscious commentary by Casablancas on fans and critics who wouldn’t accept the music they were doing, and in that respect he couldn’t win.

“Yeah, I wait for something
Cool it, we won’t take that shit
Good try, we don’t like it
Hold on, yes, I’ll be right back”

The Strokes wouldn’t be back for two and a bit years. Then ‘Juicebox’ came around. That’s for another day.