Author Archives: The Music in My Ears (by Jamie Kyei)

About The Music in My Ears (by Jamie Kyei)

Just one man who's making his way through life one day at a time writing about the songs he has on his phone. And other things at some points.

#926: Blur – No Distance Left to Run

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Damon Albarn and former Elastica frontwoman Justine Frischmann were sometimes labelled the ‘King and Queen of Britpop’ during that time in the ’90s when that whole movement was happening. They were a couple through and through until they broke up in 1998, leaving Albarn traumatised and incredibly bummed out by the ordeal. The fallout of that, plus a dependence on heroin and straining relationships within Blur resulted in 13, the group’s most experimental album, possibly their most sonically adventurous too. It truly goes off the deep end about four songs in and onward. So when ‘No Distance Left to Run’ comes in as the record’s penultimate track, it enforces a sound of band that really has nothing left to give.

The song has to go down as one of the saddest in Blur’s catalogue. It’s about the dreadful realisation that a relationship’s over, one that a lot of years went into with a lot of heart, and tearfully wishing the other person all the best with someone else while you’re all alone and left wanting to die. I may have exaggerated a little bit on that last point. But it’s clear that Albarn wasn’t in the greatest of places while recording this. His trembling vocal take alongside Graham Coxon’s weeping guitar are the highlights throughout. In the band’s 2010 documentary, named after this track as a matter of fact, Coxon mentions that Albarn never told the bandmates what was going on, but it was quite obvious that things weren’t good. So he tried to make a riff and some chord progressions that would match whatever words Albarn wrote down. Fair to say he does them justice. I do particularly like the spacey instrumental in the middle, with those twinkling keys that pan from left to right alongside those smooth ‘ooh’ vocals. I thought it was a choir doing them, but I upon further research it seems they are done by Albarn and Coxon, or Albarn double-tracked. Whatever way, it’s good listening.

I wasn’t properly living around the time of this album’s release or thereafter. Would have been very young at the time. But looking back as a Blur fan and reading up on stuff, ‘No Distance Left to Run’ could very much have been the band’s last track on an album. One on which there’s singing anyway. Going into the new century, it seemed that the group wasn’t sure where to go, releasing a ‘Best Of’ compilation. Then Damon Albarn put more focus on Gorillaz, and forged a whole other path of success. But thankfully that wasn’t the case, and two more Blur albums were made. Let’s hope there’s another soon.

#925: Foxygen – No Destruction

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There was a time when I thought Foxygen was going to be my new favourite band. In 2013 I was looking for new music to hear and stumbled upon the Best New Music review for the duo’s Peace & Magic album. The logical thing to do was to listen to it, after reading the review it seemed like a good idea. And it started off well. Opener ‘In the Darkness’ had a nice invitational tone, the lead singer had this sigh-like delivery to his vocals, and the melodies were all on point. But it was only two minutes long. You could say that things properly get underway with the following track “No Destruction”, also released as the album’s third single.

And really it’s more of the same. The track flows at a much slower pace, but is led by these pleasant piano chords, a steady rhythm and possesses more of a country-rock sound. Vocalist Sam France continues his sigh-like approach to his vocal delivery, singing about forgetting someone who he used to be quite close with, seeing them with a new partner sometime down the line, and proceeding to shut them out of his life completely because they were never that great in the first place. He perceived their behaviour to be destructive, and now that they’re gone there’s no destruction. Everything’s at peace. Overall, the music has a great relaxed feel to it. One of those tracks that suit those moments where you’re looking out the window and watching the scene fly by. There is a moment when France pulls out his best Mick Jagger impression, watch out for that, it’s almost uncanny. And I think a big nod has to go to Richard Swift who produced the album and provided a lot of the instrumentation on it. He passed away in 2018. The whole record wouldn’t sound the same if not for him.

“So why didn’t Foxygen become your new favourite band,” I think you’re all asking. The answer is, I just didn’t feel so strongly about ’em. They released ‘How Can You Really’ in 2014, the comeback single to promote what was to be their new album. Thought it was okay, but that was about it. Then that new album turned out to be a double album. If I wasn’t that excited about the lead single, I probably wasn’t going to listen to 82 minutes of additional material. And so, the support faded away. Still think Peace & Magic is a good time.

#924: Pezz (Billy Talent) – Nita

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I’m waiting for the day when the band members of Billy Talent collectively say “Fuck it,” and make their very first album, Watoosh!, available for all to stream. Before they named themselves Billy Talent, they went by the name Pezz and made that record before another band with the same name complained and forced them to change the moniker. I’ve seen fans ask them to play Pezz songs live, and I believe an answer in response was along the lines of them being Pezz songs and not Billy Talent songs. Basically saying that they’d outgrown them and don’t hold them in any high regard. Though in my view, I’d say the album has aged really well. It doesn’t sound like it belongs to any particular time. The tracks are unlike anything the band would do after the name change, which I think adds to the charm. And it’s not as groan-inducing as much as other bands’ earlier material can be.

‘Nita’ is the third song on Watoosh!, featuring probably the most zaniest vocal performances that singer Benjamin Kowalewicz has laid down on tape. I remember being ten years old, laughing out loud when he abruptly goes into motor-mouth mode only a few seconds in, and having to pause it and repeat it because I thought it was so strange. Eventually I let the track continue, and it continued to draw me in. The verses are led by these jazzy progressions, Ian D’Sa pulling off these licks while Jon Gallant and Aaron Solowoniuk lay it down on the rhythm section, all while Kowalewicz performs a spoken-word verse where he details a meeting between himself and a lady – who I’ll assume is the ‘Nita’ in the title. The song moves into the pre-choruse where the track forcefully changes into a more punk-like performance, before exploding into the wordless chorus and falling back into the verses again. There are a lot of melodic changes within this track, too many that I could type paragraph and paragraph about each one. It’s only right that you hear them because the way I write wouldn’t do them justice.

The song is a real us against the world type of song. Guy meets girl, they talk about the strangest things but like each other more because they feel comfortable doing so. They’ll laugh at the people walking to their jobs thinking “suckers” while they sit on the curb and talk rubbish. Sounds like a very carefree affair. What seems to get to the guy the most is the little things she says that stick with him, all of which are listed throughout the majority of the track. But then we reach the song’s ending where the line “You swore you’d never leave my side” is repeated, implying that it’s all coming from a point where the relationship has ended. A bit of a bittersweet one after all, but the fond memories remain. You see? There’s genuine emotion in this song. Free Watoosh!, Billy Talent. Get it out there.