Monthly Archives: March 2020

#698: Neutral Milk Hotel – The King of Carrot Flowers, Pt. 1

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While I may not see In the Aeroplane Over the Sea as the classic, iconic indie album as a lot of people do – it’s not my go-to when I want something to listen to – I can still appreciate the musicianship and all those elements that make good songs.

‘The King of Carrot Flowers, Pt 1.’ is more or less the introduction to the record, detailing an abusive relationship between two adults while a young boy falls in love with a girl. I would say it’s actually my favourite song on the whole thing. You may find that strange; I won’t argue with you. It just provides a homely and warm vibe straight away from the busy acoustic guitar riff that starts things off. The repetitive melody within the verses become so familiar after numerous listens. I’ve also always liked how the track builds as it goes on, with an accordion added in for the second verse before everything climaxes with those rising horns. It’s beautiful stuff.

It carries on into Parts 2 and 3 where everything takes a left turn. The whole band joins in for a raucous and messy performance. I don’t like it as much. Not because of its rough style. Could never just get into it….. But it’s down there for you.

#697: The Band – King Harvest (Has Surely Come)

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‘King Harvest (Has Surely Come)’ is probably the best song on The Band’s self-titled album from 1969. Some may argue ‘The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down’ trumps it. It’s definitely a classic. ‘Whispering Pines’? I hear you, that’s not too bad (it’s definitely not my favourite, but I won’t hold anything against you if it is). Nah, it’s ‘King Harvest’. The final track on The Band, it has all five original members of the group in lock with one another’s groove – totally in sync with one another and playing just the suitable amount of notes and chords when needed.

It’s a tale of a farmer who has had their fair share of misfortune in their time. Their crops won’t grow because of a lack of rain, the barn went up in flames the preceding years, and a horse was driven to madness. It’s nothing that I can relate to. But it’s a fantastic set of descriptive lyrics. And what makes them greater is Richard Manuel’s vocal take when singing them. It’s one out of the many times Manuel sings his heart out on the album, and it’s here that he utilises the higher register in his voice to give off a real pained feeling from the subject matter. Drummer Levon Helm joins in during the chorus, providing a fine contrast with his lower tone.

The whole album is grounded by a theme of America, its history, culture, and agriculture. That all comes to a head on ‘King Harvest’. Even though it doesn’t have a great tone of finality to it, the band’s perfect performance makes it a worthy closer for any album.

#696: Eminem – Kill You

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In 2009, I was fourteen and going through those weird motions as you do at those early teenage years. That year saw Eminem return to music with Relapse. My friend and I thought that Eminem was the greatest rapper of all time. Thought all of his music was great. I hadn’t actually listened to any of his albums in full though, only his singles. So I decided to download The Marshall Mathers LP one day to up my game when it came to Eminem knowledge.

‘Kill You’ is the second track on the album, following the opening intro. Can’t say I had too many strong feelings about it 11 years ago. I thought the hook was good, the beat too, but I wasn’t really taking in what he was actually talking about. For that reason, I didn’t listen to it for a very long time. Gave the album a replay many years later…. and it became very clear that Eminem was saying some very fucked up shit on here.

It actually starts off quite normally. Eminem tells the listener about his less than pleasant relationship with his mother before voicing his acknowledgment of those who wondered what he would rap about now that he was rich from the success of The Slim Shady LP. And then he suddenly starts exclaiming about choking women until they can’t breathe. And then from then on it’s just one outrageous lyric after another with imagery of him raping his mother, dismemberment with a chainsaw, and basically being a psychopath and having no regard for any human life. He describes it so vividly and with such energy in his voice though, that it’s just enjoyable to listen to. Everything in here is so off the wall that you obviously shouldn’t take anything he says in it seriously. 20 years ago people didn’t understand this, and so protested and demonstrated against Eminem for his awful, hateful messages. Actually, he probably wouldn’t get away with releasing this in this age if he tried to.

This track is fantastic. It’s got all the clever wordplay, assonance, internal rhyming, metaphors, similes, imagery that you want from a hip-hop song and were the usual standard for an every Eminem song back in those days. He does the same thing now…. the songs just don’t sound as good. I’ll leave it at that.

#695: The Wombats – Kill the Director

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Haven’t written about The Wombats in a while. Last time I did was in 2014. ‘Backfire at the Disco’ was a track I did a blog on here too, talking about how much I like it, why that is and so on and so forth. Some time between then and now I grew tired of it and it is now off the phone. That was The Wombats’ first single, I believe, and I remember seeing its video on MTV2 most of the time. It was all right. But it was the next single that got me thinking ‘This band might be onto something here’. Or something to that equivalent when I was 12 years old.

‘Kill the Director’ is the first ‘proper’ song from the band’s debut album, apparently inspired by the rom-com film The Holiday from 2006. It’s basically about the feeling of futility that one can feel when it comes to dating, trying to put on an act to try and impress a girl and failing in the process. The message is all in the song’s main refrain – “If this is a rom-com, kill the director”, roughly bows down to – if this is what love is meant to be like then end it now because it’s not worth it.

It works great as the opener, coming through with these alternating bass and guitar chords alongside Dan Haggis’ busy drumming. It’s fast, fast, fast stuff, exploding into the song’s chorus each time with the ‘ooh-ooh’ backing vocals that are a staple throughout the album. The ‘This is no/Bridget Jones’ coda gets a bit stale after a while for me, it doesn’t have to be repeated that many times or the line could have started just a few measures later, but as a whole the track doesn’t disappoint in delivering a hook upon hook in just under three minutes.

#694: The Who – The Kids Are Alright

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During the summer of 2010 I began listening to The Who. I was fifteen, heading into my proper GCSE year in secondary school, and thinking that things from that point weren’t going to be the same. I had to get my shit together. I think it was a random choice that I just started searching for The Who songs on YouTube one day, and that just sent me into a spiral. The Beatles had been my new discovery for year 10. In year 11, it was all about The Who.

The video for ‘The Kids Are Alright’ was on YouTube all those years ago. Roger Daltrey, Pete Townshend, John Entwistle, and Keith Moon are in a park somewhere miming to the song and don’t particularly look like they’re having the greatest of times. Despite this, the song itself sounds very bright and quite cheerful. One of the best melodies that Pete Townshend wrote in the group I think, and its enhanced by the three part vocal harmonies that are present throughout the track.

The lyrics however tell a different story. All this time I thought it was commentary on the hip young groovers of the 60s and somehow saying that the older generation have no need to worry because ‘the kids are alright’. But after actually doing some research, it may be about a man who wants to pursue his dreams and leave his wife at home with the children. She can see other guys and he’ll go crazy if he doesn’t get away, but it doesn’t matter because at least the kids will be okay. That situation does make a lot more sense.

In the end, the interpretation doesn’t alter the way I feel about the music. It’s a great jangle-pop classic. From about 1968 onward, the band didn’t care to make these types of power pop singles again so it’s always great to see and hear how they started out.