Monthly Archives: February 2024

#1098: Kanye West ft. Ty Dolla $ign – Real Friends

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So it actually has been eight years since Kanye West initially released The Life of Pablo, before making some fixes to the mixes some of the songs, adding a few new ones too, and then released it again a few months after. That was a hectic time to be a Kanye West fan. When is it not, really? This new record that eventually became TLOP was constantly being renovated and shaped up even in the lead up to its unveiling. It could have been released in 2014 as So Help Me God, which fans will still say is West’s best unused album title. It was going to be called SWISH for the longest time, up until a week before the release West announced on Twitter that it would indeed be named The Life of Pablo. Think there was meant to be a prize for any Twitter use who guessed what the “new” title would be after West announced that “TLOP” were the initials of the album’s official name. Wonder if that person ever got their prize.

Yeah, I was there when it was all happening. Was a hectic time. I was in my year out of university doing work at Songlines magazine, August 2015 – July 2016. A month before that February ’16 release of Pablo, even though I can’t remember this specific part myself but it’s what Wikipedia says, Kim Kardashian announced that the GOOD Fridays weekly music release that West had previously utilised in the run up to Dark Twisted Fantasy was back. The song that marked its return was today’s subject, ‘Real Friends’. Now, I have a vivid memory of loading up the exclusive page dedicated to the song on Kanye’s official website and playing it at least three times on repeat. Thought it was the best thing he’d done since anything on Dark Fantasy. Yeezus has never done much for me. And the standalone singles from 2014/15 were okay. This really felt like the Kanye return I had been waiting for for years.

This is a sad, sad song. The sample loop that continues throughout set the icy tone from the very beginning, but the sense of desolation is only reinforced by Kanye’s lyrics concerning his own failures in being a less than awesome friend and family relative, something that fans were quick to jump on when thinking about great being in the family sounded when exploring that theme on ‘Family Business’, and his inability to trust anyone he may come across knowing that at any moment they could take advantage of him. Singer Ty Dolla Sign comes in in various places, lending his heartfelt vocals to the proceedings, particularly to the choruses in which West jokingly states that he deserves all the hate and bad treatment he gets because of… well, everything he’s done that gets people talking. This and ‘FML’, a track that I would have written about too had the stars aligned, are the one-two punch of sincerity in what was the tail-end of the original album before the “bonus” tracks were added on (“Wolves” was meant to be the true album closer, but things changed), and both hit me right in the gut every time I hear them both. Kanye would get sad on records that followed, but there’s something about them that can truly make a heart sink on one of those days.

#1097: Arcade Fire – Ready to Start

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Whoa, whoa, wow. I haven’t written about a song from this album since December 2013, when I covered ‘City with No Children’. One of those instances where I can’t say time’s flown, because I can’t remember writing that post at all. Didn’t write so much about the song on there from what I can see, but more about what it meant to me and all that melodramatic stuff. Well, I can try and change it up on this occasion. Also… I’m not the most massive fan of Arcade Fire all that much, so there’s not a lot of stuff of theirs on this site anyway. I’ll tell you now, there’s only one song left from The Suburbs I’ll be writing about in the future, and then that’s it for Arcade Fire on here. I’ll leave it to you to guess what that song is.

I’m thinking back to 2010, and I’m quite sure that ‘Ready to Start’ was the first song I heard from The Suburbs. It was a massive coincidence, however, because I wasn’t even aware that Arcade Fire was releasing a new album at the time, so I had no idea who this song was by, but I know it sounded good. I want to say that the song was playing in an advert for a TV show on E4 (that’s a channel over here in the UK), which was repeated almost every day and in the same time slot too. I also want to say that the TV show in question was Skins. A Google search by my 15-year-old self showed that this was indeed a new Arcade Fire song, and I downloaded The Suburbs not too long afterwards. Strange how these things work out.

I do like ‘Ready to Start’ a bunch, though. The finishing chord from the previous track on the album segue right into the ticking snare hits of the track’s introduction, which in turn transform into the driving rhythm that ultimately carry the song for the rest of its duration with a strike of those crash cymbals. ‘Ready to Start’ is a song about self-determination, forging your own path in life and finding the strength to do so amidst pressures from various outside forces. Contributors on Genius say it’s about the band’s indie credibility being questioned by their peers as they were signing onto a major label and shaking hands with those suit-wearing cigar smoking big wigs. I guess that could be right too. What I know is, the music sounds dramatic as anything. Almost hypnotizing during those choruses. And it comes to a climactic moment when it goes into half-time for the outro before returning to its regular tempo. Oh, and I was right, it was Skins that ‘Ready to Start’ was appearing in the trailer for. See? Look at it down there. Takes me right back, it does.

#1096: The Killers – Read My Mind

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So I think this might be the greatest song The Killers have ever done. Forget ‘Mr. Brightside’ or ‘All These Things That I’ve Done’. Nah, it’s ‘Read My Mind’ from the band’s Sam’s Town album, their sophomore effort released back in 2006. I remember that era of the band quite well. That album came around when I was just starting my first year of secondary school. ‘When You Were Young’ arrived as the triumphant first single, Brandon Flowers had the moustache. ‘Bones’ followed as the next single. Their first Christmas single followed. That’s a good one. And then came ‘Read My Mind’ as the third single.

Now, to me, The Killers have always been a band that you can always count on for great singles. They always seem to be the best songs on every album they make. And when it came to Sam’s Town, each one that followed after the next continued that winning streak the band had established ever the first release of ‘Mr. Brightside’ years before. Now, eleven-year-old me would see the ‘Read My Mind’ video frequently on MTV2 when it was time for its release, and I thought the song was cool, you know? The group were riding around on bikes and getting up to all sorts of antics in Tokyo, and the music matched the uplifting mood of the visuals. But a closer listen to the song in proper headphones throughout the years revealed just how hooky and infectious the entire track is, from the those ghostly backing vocals to the guitar fills after each iteration of the ‘read my mind’ title phrase in the verses. There are a lot more melodic tidbits to latch on to, but those are just a couple I can highlight.

I don’t know what the song’s about. Brandon Flowers has never really given much away in terms of the meaning either. What he has said before is that it’s one of his favourite Killers songs, it started out as a completely different song and that it means a lot to people because when they play it live at concerts the crowd goes crazy. It must be important to the band in some way, as their latest singles compilation is named after a lyric from the song. From what I’ve gathered, looking back at this period in the Killers history, they were very much on their Springsteen/U2 tip and the lyrics seem to be very much in the vein of the former, written from the perspective of a self-determined man who’s looking to get out of town with this lady he’s interested in. There’s a ‘Born to Run’ feeling about it all, but Brandon Flowers and co. deliver it all in a way that make it distinctly Killers. Also, gotta give huge props to the solo on this track. Huge feeling of release when it cascades into the bridge.

#1095: Gorillaz – Re-Hash

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Well, I don’t have so much of a personal connection with Gorillaz’s first album as I do with, say, Plastic Beach. That debut album was released back in 2001, when I would have been five, but I do remember seeing the videos for ‘Clint Eastwood’ and ’19-2000′ at the time and being confused by the former and sort of more aware of what was going on with the latter. I didn’t come round to hearing Gorillaz in full until 2010 or so. Plastic Beach was, then, the new album, and everyone knew about Demon Days – think I got that for my birthday that same year – so it only made sense to complete the trilogy by downloading it off the random mp3 sites that you could go to in those days and hearing where it all started.

‘Re-Hash’ is the opener. Where it all started. Commercially, at least, I think I read somewhere that the very first song made under the Gorillaz name was ‘Ghost Train’. Though you all understand where I’m coming from. I feel like I read somewhere that the song is meant to be a veiled criticism of the simplicity and repetitiveness of the general music scene that was going on around 2001, when people like Britney Spears and N*Sync and other manufactured pop groups were existing. This was something that irked Damon Albarn, and was one of the main reasons that he and Jamie Hewlett created Gorillaz in the first place, and so it only made sense that he mimicked the thing that was so “hot” at the time. Hence why ‘Re-Hash”s dub bassline and drum pattern barely changes throughout the song, or why the lyrics in the second are the same as the first. And the chorus is made up of only one line, “It’s the money or stop”, another phrase that is repeated to high heaven. But in that is where the meaning lies. It’s all for the money.

It’s songs like this that make me miss the Gorillaz of old times. I’m sure I’ve said this before in the previous Gorillaz album-related post many moons ago, but this clean pop direction that Albarn’s taken the project to in recent times is one that I couldn’t care less about. You could expect something different from each upcoming Gorillaz album 15-20 years ago, which somehow immediately worked, but since coming back in 2017, things haven’t clicked with me as immediately as they once did. The trip-hop, dubby era of Gorillaz is one that I have a lot of heart for, even if people will die by the sword and say Demon Days is the certified classic. I mean it’s all right, I do like it myself. But I really like this.

#1094: The Strokes – Razorblade

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Been a while since I wrote about a song from The Strokes’ First Impressions of Earth on here. Last time was 2019, goodness, that feels like a lifetime ago. Having listened to that album a few times over the years, I’ve come to the conclusion that the particular album has some of the band’s best songs of their catalogue on there. It also suffers from having the dullest 11/12 minutes on there out of all the records they’ve made. The stretch of ‘Killing Lies’, ‘Fear of Sleep’ and ’15 Minutes’ is, in my eyes, not so great. I can never remember how those songs go after hearing them. That’s not the case for ‘Razorblade’ though, no, no. That’s one of for the best songs category.

Now, I remember the release of First Impressions pretty well. I was in my final year of primary school, 10 going on 11. The video for ‘Juicebox’ appeared on the TV and was shown very regularly during the day despite how racy it got. I dug the track. Now, not so much, but that’s going in another direction. My sister was going through a Strokes phase herself, and a school friend of hers lent her a First Impressions CD, which she immediately ripped onto Windows Media Player and returned to that friend not too long after. And even with that nice origin story, it took me years until I actually listened to ‘Razorblade’ in full and appreciated how good it was. Being that young an age, I don’t think I had the patience to sit through albums and mainly listened for the singles. It definitely could have been a single, though. If I was 17 years older, in the band and had my way, I would have made an argument for it.

The song’s this somewhat upbeat sounding song about emotional manipulation. I say upbeat because I hear that opening guitar riff by Nick Valensi in the left channel, those fiddly guitar lines he does during the verses, or Albert Hammond Jr’s solid rhythm guitar work all throughout, and I can’t help but think there’s something summery about the sound of it all. Like all this relationship turbulence is happening at the beach. Julian Casablancas is not singing about an actual razorblade here. The razorblade is a metaphor for love, as he states in the first line of the track, and he places this razorblade as the central component within this relationship of a couple who sound like they can’t stand each other, but, deep down, care for each deeply. Casablanca’s melody choices and delivery, that chorus reminds me of one of those old schoolchildren taunts from back in the day, make it sound like the whole affair’s pretty trivial and a bit silly. But love can be that way, I guess.