Category Archives: Music

My iPod #317: Radiohead – Electioneering

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I haven’t listened to this song for a long time. Not because I don’t want to, but only because it hardly ever comes on when I put my iPod on shuffle.

Honestly, I can’t say much about the track. I do like it. I like it a lot. Hasn’t had an impact on my life so much. Just added it because of its sound. It’s a really bouncy 12/8 rock tune, with great playing by the members all around. The jangly, out of tune introduction by Thom (or Ed, not quite sure), the piercing lead guitar work provided by Jonny and the solid rhythm section by Phil and Colin all come together to produce one of the rougher, hard hitting tracks on “OK Computer”. Everything is relentlessly delivered from Thom’s vocals to the overall instrumentation, leaving no room to breathe and even when that chance arises when everyone stops playing for a few seconds, a thunderous drum roll brings everyone back in again.

Yeah. A fine track. From a very good album.

My iPod #316: The Beatles – Eleanor Rigby

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I don’t like “Eleanor Rigby” that much. I feel like it should grip me somehow with its dramatic strings and depressing lyrics, but it never does. Is there something wrong with me? Because from what I’ve read and researched, this track is one of the most popular by The Beatles and definitely one of the most loved on the band’s album “Revolver”. But I have to be that guy who prefers “I Want to Tell You” and “Doctor Robert”.

The song is the second one on “Revolver”, and the first time Paul takes lead vocal on the album. It’s not one to listen to if you’re in a good mood. The lyrics focus on two lonely characters, Eleanor Rigby and Father MacKenzie. The former wishes to be married and the latter writes sermons that apparently no one will hear. At the end of the track, the former character has died and the latter conducts her funeral. The irony.

I may not like it that much. But this track was a sign of many exhibiting the band’s evolution from the mop-top pop group that amazed everyone in the 60s to the experimental group that maintained that admiration.

My iPod #315: Weezer – El Scorcho

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I think it was some time in 2008 when I heard “El Scorcho” for the first time. It was either that year or 2007. Whichever year it was, the track was the one which persuaded me to ask for “Pinkerton” for my thirteenth birthday. A good decision, I know.

I had owned the band’s first self-titled blue album for about a year and a bit, but for some reason in that time listening to anything from “Pinkerton” never crossed my mind. Possibly because I had heard shit about it being named the worst album in 1996 by some music magazine. Eventually I thought I should listen to at least one track from it at some point, and where better to start than the album’s first single? What could go wrong? Nothing apparently, because it was very good and still is.

I have to admit, I was a bit confused at the start of it. Actually, I might have listened to it and then skipped it thinking the rest of the track wasn’t worth the time. The gargle and the loose guitar riff may bring up a few ‘wtf is this’ reactions. But as the track carried on I gradually found myself getting into it. The backing vocals sound improvised and are delivered with a ‘don’t give a fuck’ feel, so many times you will hear a random ad-lib here and there courtesy of former bassist Matt Sharp. But this does lead to the chorus sounding like a bunch of drunk guys at a karaoke night. If that is the thing you’re into, you might just be in luck.

Actually, a lot of first time listeners might find the track confusing. It’s slow for the majority, speeds up and gets very loud in the middle, has a guitar solo that sounds like it’s being made up on the spot and generally sounds like it could fall apart at any moment. But you might like it, so why not listen to it before making a decision for yourself?

My iPod #314: Gorillaz – El Mañana

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“El Mañana” was the last single released from Gorillaz’s second album “Demon Days”. It was a double-A single released alongside the other song “Kids with Guns“, which I don’t have on my iPod because I don’t care for it that much.

I’ve always thought “Demon Days” was some sort of concept album detailing a story of the final days on Earth before the apocalypse. “El Mañana” coming from the perspective of a person who has actually witnessed ‘the end’ (in their mind, obviously) and has been reduced to a shivering mess because of it.

I first heard the song on the Yahoo Internet radio thing that I’ve mentioned in a lot of posts before. I thought it was alright. Didn’t really matter that much because I was just absorbing what I was listening to. I would go on to find out that it is probably the most emotional song on the whole album. But still, at that point, it was just a track. Three minutes and a half of Damon Albarn singing.

Then its official music video came out a few months later….. that’s when it really hit home. The dramatic music set up against helicopters shooting down Noodle’s peaceful windmill island out of the sky….. I know it is only a cartoon, but it is very difficult to contain the feels when watching that music video. Then all Gorillaz fans wondered if she had died, and if so what would happen to the group. All of this takes up about half of the page on the song’s Wikipedia article, so you can read about it all there.

Long story short: Noodle didn’t die. But listening to “El Mañana” takes me back when most Gorillaz fans thought “wh-what the fuck is happening?” Including myself.

My iPod #313: They Might Be Giants – The Edison Museum

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“The Edison Museum” is They Might Be Giants’ “endearing” tribute to the Thomas Edison National Historical Park, which is actually in New Jersey. I put endearing in quotation marks because the the track is quite the opposite. The lyrics and music make it out to be one of the creepiest and mysterious places to exist on the face of the Earth. The track even uses a line from the original Charlie and the Chocolate Factory film, which I only just realised and makes this track a bit more comedic than I thought it was.

The use of only horns, a keyboard and a vibraband mimicking the sound of a sped up voice recording give the track a very eerie and spooky atmosphere. That’s also emphasised by radio DJ Nick Hill’s vocal. He sang  “I Hear the Wind Blow” in the “Fingertips” track on “Apollo 18”, if you didn’t know. His low voice guides the listener through the dusty corridors of the haunted building, which is apparently used as a threat to children if they don’t stop arguing and yet is still a wondrous place which amazes the many people that lay their eyes on it.

This track may be hard to talk about. It’s not one that would be regularly requested for the band to play at their shows that’s for sure. But it is still an interesting one to listen to nonetheless. It’s the last song on the band’s album “Long Tall Weekend“. It brings a very abrupt end to it; I can remember listening through the album for the first time when this song finished expecting something to follow it up. The last line is sung, and then it just stops – that is the end of the album. But that’s due to the fact that the track was originally much longer, but was cut down to the final version that was released.

It is unusual. But that’s what They Might Be Giants do occasionally.