Monthly Archives: June 2020

#724: Fleetwood Mac – The Ledge

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To cut the long story short, Lindsey Buckingham didn’t want to make a second Rumours – an album that was absolutely huge in 1977 and considered a classic in rock history. He cut his hair and went on to follow some unorthodox methods of making songs, recording his vocals in a push-up position and sometimes just playing all the instruments by himself at his home.

A lot of these home-studio recordings ended up on Fleetwood Mac’s double album Tusk, the record that eventually followed Rumours and took a few people by surprise just because of how strange it could get in places. ‘The Ledge’, written by Buckingham, features the guitarist taking on the percussion, bass, and vocals here – and is yet another that is surely directed at bandmate and ex Stevie Nicks, minus the gloss and production value that threaded throughout its predecessor.

The track has this country do-si-do twang to it aided by its 2/4 time signature and the dry timbre of the guitars and drums. While all this make the song an upbeat composition to dance to, one can’t dismiss the bitterness of Buckingham’s lyrics that tease a former lover, telling her that she’ll never find anyone as good as him. There were obviously a lot of strong feelings that carried over from their previous project. Even so, as the second track on Tusk, it acted as a clear statement that this wasn’t going to be a typical Fleetwood Mac album if you hadn’t already guessed by the wealth of material that was on it.

#723: Razorlight – Leave Me Alone

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There was one day when I was going through my iTunes library when I realised I didn’t really like a lot of Razorlight songs as much as I used to. I’ve written about them many times in the past. Bar ‘Before I Fall to Pieces’ and ‘America’, two of the band’s songs which I still enjoy now, a lot from debut album Up All Night I took off my iPod/Phone years ago. ‘Golden Touch’, ‘Fall, Fall, Fall’, and ‘Dalston’ all get a resounding meh from me now. They just haven’t dated very well, I think. I could go back and delete the posts I wrote when I did like those songs. But I won’t. It’s good to see a younger me in time when I actually thought those songs were worth listening to.

Saying that, I still really like Up All Night‘s opener ‘Leave Me Alone’. It’s basically made from two chords saving some moments in the song’s chorus and a short instrumental bridge, and I’m very sure that the band couldn’t make a true ending for the track so they just faded it out and put some organ and ‘aah-aah’ vocals over it. There’s something about it that makes it sound unfinished. But it’s still undeniably catchy. Frontman Johnny Borrell has this sing-talking thing going through the verses which changes to a more melodic tone during the choruses. The band’s original drummer Christian Smith-Pancorvo plays a good rhythm, switching it up when he goes into double-time at various points… In fact, I think Smith really carries the band performance in this one. Good drums roll that you can slap your knees too.

Razorlight fell off by the wayside quite hard. They released Slipway Fires in 2009 and just disappeared. And the thing was no one really cared that they had gone. The band is together still, but are merely a husk of what they used to be.

#722: Arctic Monkeys – Leave Before the Lights Come On

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I don’t think there wasn’t a time in 2006 when Arctic Monkeys weren’t on everyone’s lips. The band released Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not in January of that year after months of online hype, remarkable live performances and two #1 singles to their name. It became the fastest selling debut album in UK chart history. Everyone loved them. They released an EP a few months later which didn’t chart but included some songs that they had recorded in the meantime. Then their original bassist Andy Nicholson left and was replaced by Nick O’Malley who still plays with them today.

Their first single with O’Malley on board was ‘Leave Before the Lights Come On’, a track recorded way after the band’s debut album was done but one that Alex Turner stated could have been on the record because it followed similar themes that many of the album tracks had. I was eleven years old when this track was released. 2006 was one of the greatest times of my life. World Cup ’06, last year of primary school, it was a good summer. I remember ‘Leave Before the Lights” video making its rounds on MTV2 UK on the daily. That’s how I got to know the song. A woman gets a man’s attention by looking like she’s about to jump off a building. The man ‘saves’ her, she gets a bit too attached to him, he gets angry at her, and then she runs back to the building where she sees drummer Matt Helders walking past. The cycle continues. It’s more a little film accompanying the music than your standard band performance.

Very similar to the songs on Whatever People Say, particularly ‘From Ritz to the Rubble’, ‘Leave Before the Lights’ is the song that exploring the mix of feelings that may arise the morning after a one night stand. “How did I get here?” “She didn’t look like that last night…” “I should probably get out of here quickly.” Among others. It’s classic Alex Turner observational lyricism that he was especially good at in that early era of the band. I also feel it’s one of the group’s best musical performances from that time too. Both Turner and Jamie Cook’s guitars interlock with one another, Turner will play some guitar fills while Cook plays rhythm and vice versa, Matt Helders keeps a strong hold on the drums and O’Malley fits into the group dynamic like a glove straight away. The song’s ending instrumental breakdown is one of the best musical moments by the band in their discography, I think.

It was the first single of theirs that didn’t get to #1 in the UK charts. It peaked at #4. And for a song that doesn’t appear on an album of theirs, I think it still holds up very well today.

#721: R.E.M. – Leave

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An absolute mammoth of a track, ‘Leave’ can be found on R.E.M.’s New Adventures in Hi-Fi album released back in 1996. The song is the longest composition the band ever committed to tape and is placed bang in the middle of their longest album. I see it as the record’s centrepiece, delivered with a ferocity and sense of urgency that makes me just a bit anxious when listening to it. That siren synthesizer that blares throughout doesn’t help alleviate that tension much either. There’s something very cinematic about it that I really like though. Sounds like the end credits track to a bleak action film. At least that’s how I feel.

The track is recognised as being of the last noteworthy songwriting contributions by original drummer Bill Berry before he left the group in 1997 to become a farmer. He came up with the five note riff that the whole track depends on and plays the acoustic guitar in the introduction. It’s after that intro that the song proper begins with a booming thwack of the snare and the aforementioned siren. I feel it’s worth mentioning that the track is essentially a live performance recorded at a soundcheck during their Monster tour so you can properly hear the reverberations of each instrument and Michael Stipe’s vocals around the room. Peter Buck messes up the lick for a brief moment near the end, the band comes in a bit late when coming close to the finish, and for a split second you can hear someone yell ‘wow’ at the performance right in the last second – and it’s all these little rough moments that show just how much effort and energy each member was putting in.

Michael Stipe reportedly didn’t like the way his voice sounded on the final release so this alternate/remix version (below) was made at some point and made available on the bonus disc for the band’s In Time compilation. I’ll stick with the version from Hi-Fi.

Just speaking on Hi-Fi for a brief moment, I would say it’s my third(?) favourite of R.E.M.’s. I’ve come to really like songs from that album well after I started this blog; unfortunately I can’t write about ‘Electrolite’, ‘Be Mine’, ‘E-Bow the Letter’, or ‘How the West Was Won and Where It Got Us’. There’s a lot of content that could’ve been. The post on ‘New Test Leper’ should be good though.

#720: Foo Fighters – Learn to Fly

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I don’t have as much an emotional connection or a real personal link to this song that I could properly get into. Not saying that it couldn’t have one for any of you reading. Never read the lyrics, but have always been attracted to the sound and the melodies ‘n’ all. It’s very nice. ‘Nice’ is normally considered to be the worst adjective to describe anything. That’s what it is though, a really nice song. And apparently Dave Grohl didn’t think it had any potential as a single when they completed the track.

The video for ‘Learn to Fly’ would show up on TV every once in a while, and it was through those viewings that I got into the song. It’s one of those music videos that I feel enhance the listening experience. It’s hilarious too. The guys from Tenacious D sneak some sleeping powder onto an airplane which gets mixed up with the pilot’s coffee supply and the Foo Fighter members take over the flight and save the day. It’s much better when you actually see it though.

Foo Fighters aren’t one of my favourite bands; their debut album is my go-to whenever I want a full playthrough experience. I don’t know what that says about me. They undeniably have some great songs, this being one of them. ‘Learn to Fly’ is from their third There Is Nothing Left to Lose from 1999.