Monthly Archives: May 2021

#840: DJ Shadow – Midnight in a Perfect World

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Mood music at its finest. Took me a real long time to finally get this track. I’d had Entroducing….. in my library since 2014, and my initial reason for downloading it was because I needed some instrumentals for my uni radio show. Plus it’s regarded as one of the best instrumental hip hop albums of all time, so I thought it was worth the time. One – I don’t think I used any tracks from there on my show, and two – I sat through it once and as time went on I pretty much forgot all the stuff on there. I kept the album on the laptop though. It’s meant to be a classic, so maybe I would get it some day.

Fast forward to 2019, and I was going through my library deleting songs/albums that I really didn’t listen to. Needed to free up some space. Entroducing….. was next up, but I listened through it just to come to a final decision. And for whatever reason, maybe it was that I had gotten older and paid more attention to albums, I don’t know. But I definitely liked the album a lot more. ‘Midnight in a Perfect World’ was the clear standout. It’s so good that its keyboard/piano sample appears twice on the album, the first time in ‘Transmission 2’. ‘Midnight’ is so calming, so nocturnal and atmospheric. I had to add it to my phone immediately. And thus it saved the whole of Endtroducing….. from being deleted.

I went to Berlin with a few friends a couple months after that all happened. It was pouring rain from the moment we landed, and once we got to our accommodation and unpacked our things, we went to go around for a walk. Just to get a grasp of the new surroundings and stuff. The rain fell, the skies were grey, it was quiet too, barely any cars around and we weren’t talking so much. And suddenly that loop from ‘Midnight’ just started playing in my head over and over. Seemed to be the perfect music for that moment in time. I’ll always think of Berlin and its not so great weather when I hear this song.

#839: Hot Hot Heat – Middle of Nowhere

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So ‘Goodnight Goodnight’ was the first single from Hot Hot Heat’s Elevator back in 2005. And I thought it was okay then. Just okay though. I didn’t think it was as good as ‘Bandages’. That song still rules. I eventually grew to appreciate ‘Goodnight’ more too. But when the hype for ‘Goodnight’ was over, the video for ‘Middle of Nowhere’ started showing itself on television soon after. I thought it was much better. I wasn’t into Hot Hot Heat that much then. I think 2005 was my Green Day year. But the track was one of the reasons why I downloaded Elevator when I started to download random albums in around 2009 or something.

For me, this track goes into that pile of those that I’ve known for so long and sung along to but never thought about in much depth. The stop-starting groove’s very catchy and the vocal melody throughout is infectious, particularly during its choruses. Obviously those moments are when you want to have the memorable parts. I’ll listen to it and it’ll take me back to being a ten-year-old just watching new music on the television. For the sake of this post, I’ll share with you an interpretation I found. The song’s narrator is dealing with a lot of heavy stuff. They’re unable to sleep, think properly. The girl who is being sung about provides some relief from all these problems and frequently meets up with the narrator to see how they’re doing. The narrator gives her something to go on (nudge nudge) before continuing to do the same old same old.

Makes sense to me. Again, I wouldn’t think about it so much, but that’s just me. I’ll carry on listening to it the same way I did when I was younger. Enjoying it all the same. This song was on an episode of One Tree Hill, so this track may be familiar.

#838: The Beatles – Michelle

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Story goes that, in his younger days, Paul McCartney would go to parties, pretend he was French and perform a song with his acoustic guitar with a fake accent to woo the ladies. In his own words, his goal never came to fruition. But many years later when he was in the Beatles and recording Rubber Soul, John Lennon reminded him of that fake-French song and told him to work on it so it could be a new number for their album. The result is ‘Michelle’, a love song cherished by many and probably a reason why a lot of people out there have the same name.

For a long time, I mean a long time, I didn’t care about this track. Thought it was just a soppy love song, “I love you, I love you”, yeah, yeah, okay McCartney. Didn’t give it much thought. And it suffered from the terrible instruments-in-one-ear-vocals-in-the-other mix that the whole album had. Didn’t make the listening experience much better. Then I made my own mix using the Beatles Rock Band stems that you can find online with a quick google, and I suddenly liked it a lot more. I’m still not into the lyrics that much, but there’s a swing and coolness in its delivery that’s undeniable.

I find myself listening more to McCartney’s bass line that rings and climbs and falls and sometimes mirrors the ‘ooh-ooh’ backing vocals by Lennon and George Harrison. Those elements really add to the smoky nightclub feel which I think the track is going for. That smooth solo that comes in during the middle is pretty slick too. All of these aren’t really given their props in the album mix. Now if I could share my mix, you’d probably like the song a lot more. But that’d just be too long of a process. So I’ll share the mix from the Rock Band game instead.

#837: Franz Ferdinand – Michael

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Franz Ferdinand’s ‘Michael’ is a song about a guy wanting to make out with the titular character. The chorus gets quite descriptive about how he wants to do so. I could see why people could get turned off by it, because some people are just like that. They don’t like the gay. I’ve always enjoyed just because… I mean, it’s just a good song. It’s hard not to sing along to even knowing what it’s about. A lot of times for me the subject of the song is irrelevant initially, but the delivery always matters. And the delivery here is killer.

Those guitar lines that start the track straight away will grab anyone’s attention.Hook’s good, those verses are sweet. Great vocal take by Alex Kapranos, he’s got that sensual thing going at some points with a more direct approach during the choruses. And former guitarist Nick McCarthy sings this countermelody during those; I can’t tell what he’s singing. “Hey yooou/Heyy ???”. Still trying to figure it out to this day. More often than not, I sing along to that more than Kapranos’ bit.

Some time last year I found myself repeatedly watching its music video. I went on a little Franz Ferdinand binge for a bit after the band had a Twitter listening party for their first album. Now, I was alive and kicking when this track was released as a single back in 2004 and its video was being shown on MTV2 and stuff. But I was never as creeped out by it as I am now having properly watched it. Why does Michael have his arm yanked off near the end? Why do the band grow all these extra limbs? Which head of Nick McCarthy’s am I meant to be looking at? The one on the left looks lifeless, but for split seconds it raises its eyebrows and mimes the lyrics. A really random ending to a video that seemed quite harmless for the majority. It still manages to capture the manic delivery of the song’s ending itself, which is probably my favorite part. Kapranos goes crazy in that last minute.

#836: Taking Back Sunday – Miami

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Well, well. Taking Back Sunday. Maybe you were expecting it, maybe you weren’t. Maybe you didn’t really care. But here’s the first post I’ve done for the band. Back in 2006, ‘MakeDamnSure’ was a song that I always had to listen to/see when its video came on the television. My sister really liked that song too. So much so that I think she borrowed the Louder Now album from a friend when it was released in April of that year. As time went on, my own enjoyment of that song faded. It just reminds me of being a dumb 11-year old. But there are a few songs on there that get me going each time. ‘Miami’ is one of them.

Now I can’t front. I have no idea what this song is about. Fifteen years, I’ve never cared to take the time and find any interpretations. I don’t think I even liked the track that much when I first heard it. Guess it was a random day I heard it and it suddenly clicked. But the melodies are abundant. If a song has a great melody, it’s likely I’ll be into it – I’m not much of a lyrical person. And the guitar tones during the ‘Miami’ chorus stuck out just because of how unique they sounded compared to every other track on the album. So sleek and with a sheen. My own intepretation based on listening to it for so long… Well, I think it’s about a collection of things. Relationships. Being unable to capture a moment in the past when you were at your best. That’s just looking at the lyrics though.

I guess I would say Louder Now is my favourite Taking Back Sunday album. I’m not much of a TBS fan, but the album made me one for a bit. The back and forth between singer Adam Lazzara and then lead-guitarist Fred Mascherino on backing vocals made for some good listening. Each track on there had some sort of interplay between the two. Then Mascherino left to do his own thing. It took three years for another album by the band to see the light of day. Then I didn’t care that much anymore. Will still always have this album for the good old days.