Category Archives: Music

#679: Enter Shikari – Juggernauts

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2009. That definitely feels like eleven years ago. I was in my third year of secondary school going through the motions. In the midst of all the education was happening, Enter Shikari announced their second album Common Dreads was to be released. ‘Juggernauts’ was the first single.

It was a long time ago that I wouldn’t be able to detail everything I remember when hearing the track for the first time. Think I recall noting the difference in the tone of Rou Reynolds’ voice – there was something of a heftiness to it that wasn’t so much there on Take to the Skies – and he looked much different than he did two years prior. Aging does do that naturally so that shouldn’t be much a surprise but to fourteen-year-old me I thought he looked like a totally different person. The music video would be able to provide evidence for my reaction back then, but it’s been blocked worldwide. Well, at least in my country.

Right out the gate though, ‘Juggernauts’ lives up to its name with an introduction that charges forward with a hectic synthesizer riff and pummeling drums. From there Reynolds, with added backing vocals from bassist Chris Batten, addresses in his words ‘the theme of corporate power, the brute force they have and the ability they have to do literally anything they want’. He said that in a track-by-track commentary of the album which I may as well embed below.

The first verse Reynolds doesn’t so much sing but speak which saw various publications instantly compare the vocal delivery to Mike Skinner of The Streets. The band weren’t too pleased about this. But you can’t really blame the media for pointing it out. I don’t think I was a big fan of it initially. I grew to like it in the end. I much more a fan of the singing parts though. They possess a very strident melody which I can get into every time I hear it.

#678: They Might Be Giants – Judy Is Your Viet Nam

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They Might Be Giants’ 2011 album Join Us turns 10 next year and, to me, it was the group’s best record they released in the last decade. I like a lot more songs on there than on say, Nanobots or Glean. It was released during a time when I was quite happy with the way things were going in life. As much as things can go when you’re 16. Either way I can’t believe that time has gone by so quickly. It’s still one of my favourite albums by They, and this song is a great offering from it.

‘Judy Is Your Viet Nam’ is the 11th track on Join Us. Sung by John Flansburgh, ‘Judy’ originated as something of a Christmas song. Lyrics from that initial idea can be heard in the background during the “Who knew she could be so reckless?” verse. Somewhere along the line the song’s intentions changed, transforming into a rowdy rocker led by a Keith Moon-esque drum performance by Marty Beller.

It tells the story of ‘Judy’ who was something of a free spirit in the 90s before time eventually caught up with her and life changes had to be made as a result. It’s a weird one to describe because the narrative is in the second-person, so Flansburgh sings as if you knew Judy yourself. We probably do know a few Judy’s as depicted here, honestly.

I think this song’s great. Really enjoy it. Enough to satisfy in the 80 seconds it lasts for.

#677: Blur – Jubilee

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I guess I took a bit of an unplanned break. It was the holidays, and plus I had a lot of stuff going in my life that I had to sort out. But that’s all done, for now anyway, and it’s 2020. That is a big number. Happy new year. Hope all goes well for you.

The first post of the new decade goes to Blur’s song ‘Jubilee’, a song from their iconic Parklife album from 1994. Coming towards the end of that particular record, the track is essentially another of Damon Albarn’s third-person narratives – this time based on a boy ‘Jubilee’ who does nothing all day but watch television, play video games, and generally make no effort to get out of the house. This is something I can relate with as I’m sure many others can as well.

I’ll say this is really the last proper hectic track on the album. Following it comes ‘This Is a Low’, the emotional climax to the entire thing. Before that ‘Jubilee’ is a bit of a wild one. Snotty backing vocals appear at points, squirty synthesizers and some trumpets are thrown in there too. It’s a charging ball of energy. Because of its place in the tracklist, I feel like only those are really into Blur will know this song at all. They performed quite a lot back in the day though, so I assume the band themselves were quite fond of it.

#676: Gay Dad – Joy!

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Gay Dad’s ‘Joy!’ was a single from the band’s album Leisure Noise, released in 1999. I’ve never listened to anything else by the band. I couldn’t tell you much else about them that isn’t on their Wikipedia page. This song was on FIFA 2000, albeit heavily edited so it ran under three minutes. When that game was released I was four years old. I can’t remember playing the game when I was that young. I may have done though I always try to give you the facts on here. There was a point when I was about nine that I remember spending hours on the thing. As a result, this song and a few others ingrained themselves into my memory.

‘Joy!’ stood out for a few reasons. Its main guitar riff is a killer. The verses are led by a smooth groove by its bassline and lead singer Cliff Jones’ calmly delivered vocals. But really it’s all about that build up to the chorus that ends in an emphatic cry of the song’s title. Because I had been listening to the FIFA 2000 edit for most of my life, it was a small surprise to find that the track went on for another two minutes ending with a section where the singer calls: “Goodbye, my darling, I’m ready to die”. It’s a bit of a strange shift from what goes on in the minutes before it but all-in-all doesn’t change the song’s momentum too much.

The track has a music video which I’ll embed below. Never knew it had one. I don’t think it’s too great. I’ll leave that for you to decide.

#675: Blink-182 – Josie

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Was sometime in 2005 when I first came across ‘Josie’. Blink-182 had quite recently split up, and the video for ‘Not Now’ was usually on the tele. That video played as a sort of clipshow of all the music videos the band had done up to that point. Some of them I hadn’t seen before. So I guess that stirred my curiosity and I went to check out the band’s older stuff.

Seeing the videos for ‘Dammit’ and ‘Josie’ I thought they were the most hilarious things I’d seen in my life. I was ten years old at the time. Even so, the humour in both clips hold up to this day. Mark Hoppus and Tom DeLonge ham up their acting performances just perfectly in the story aspects of the two promos. I’ve talked about ‘Dammit’ before though, so what about ‘Josie’?

Well, ‘Josie’ was released as a single from the band’s second album Dude Ranch in 1997. This was the last LP of the band’s featuring original drummer Scott Raynor, who was dismissed from the band the following years for reasons that no one knows for sure but is widely agreed that alcoholism was involved. The drumming on this particular track is just as frenetic and thunderous as the stuff Travis Barker would do from Enema onwards. Though Barker is definitely the better drummer, Raynor fills the role fine propelling the power-chord led track’s rhythm further and further with snare rolls and cymbal crashes.

The track is about having a girlfriend and the benefits that arise from the situation. Mark Hoppus wonders how he got this girl in the first place and how she hasn’t left him for another man already. But he takes great pleasure in the small things she does, and when he gets home late from work and she’s there – well, he’s happy to be alive. I do enjoy watching the video along with the music. It’s one of those that just makes the song sound better. Though it is a fantastic track by itself.