Category Archives: Music

#1052: Panda Bear – Ponytail

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According to my post on ‘Comfy in Nautica’, some time in December 2013 was when which I listened through Panda Bear’s Person Pitch for the very first time. Although I couldn’t have said that it was one of my favourite albums from that initial point, I recall ‘Comfy’ and the closer ‘Ponytail’ being the two tracks from there that struck an immediate chord with me. The album as a whole didn’t properly click until I revisited it in 2016. For whatever reason, could put it down to aging and probably a better appreciation of patience as a result, nearly every song on them became an instant hit. ‘Ponytail’ always felt like a good way to close out the album, but with this new sense of familiarity with the album, why it was chosen to be the statement to cap it off became much more clearer.

The very large majority of Person Pitch is sample-heavy. Not in the way that’s so egregious and obvious like you’ll get in too many examples to list, but much more tastefully. Like how in ‘Comfy in Nautica’, the chanting is a split second slice of the vocals from a song from the Thin Red Line film or the use of the ‘Tonight’s the night that I’m going to ask her’ lyric from The Equals’ ‘Rub a Dub Dub’ in ‘Bros’. In the instrumental track that precedes ‘Ponytail’, Panda Bear’s vocal is fed through a synthesizer and manipulated so that it cuts out and comes back in at unexpected moments, giving it a tape skipping effect. ‘Ponytail’ is the only track on the album that has no samples in sight. No warped-out vocal effects either. Nope. Here is just a reverb-drenched keyboard and pulsing, heartbeat-like kick drum, over which Lennox sings about wanting to fulfill his potential and never becoming too complacent.

There’s a great sense of innocence that I always feel when I hear this track. The keys have a bit of a toy-like tone to them, and whether or not it’s intentional, Panda Bear has a timbre in his vocal here that makes him sound much younger than the age he would have been when making the song. Quite ironic though because very much unlike a child, Lennox is sure of what he wants to do in his life. He makes that clear earlier with ‘Bros’, and he’s also a source of good advice via ‘Take Pills’ and ‘Comfy in Nautica’. In ‘Ponytail’ though he seems to plainly tell the listener his mission statement of life, which is to never feel settled, to keep exploring and to keep on caring for everything and everyone without become so jaded. With this message and its sweet, subtle delivery, it had to be the closer to this huge psychedelic pop experience.

#1051: Radiohead – Polyethylene (Parts 1 & 2)

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A long, long time ago, wanna say 2009, I listened to parts 1 and 2 of Radiohead’s ‘Polyethylene’. The track itself is a B-side that was originally released on the ‘Paranoid Android’ single in 1997. But in 2009, it was made available again on the new “Collector’s Edition” of OK Computer. These editions, also made for Pablo Honey up to Hail to the Thief, were considered to be something of a cash-grab devised by the band’s former EMI label and have since been rubbished by the band and many fans too. I listened to the track that one time, so it was like virtually hearing the song for the first time when it was then released again on 20th OK Computer anniversary, OKNOTOK release that came around in 2017.

Like its A-side counterpart, ‘Polyethylene (Parts 1 and 2)’ is also formed by apparently taking two seemingly separate pieces of music and putting them together to make one whole thing. But in this case, ‘Polyethylene’ starts off as a quiet acoustic number before faking the listener out and turning into a energized and emphatic full-on band performance. For the first 40 seconds, Thom Yorke calms us with some sweet dulcet tones and a sole acoustic take. What he’s singing about here is debatable, the lyrics in this section aren’t too decipherable either. Nothing new when it comes to Yorke’s enunciation in certain songs. Yorke abruptly stops, and a descending electric guitar run opens up the second part of the track with the rest of the band falling in not too long after. That guitar line acts as the main riff for the remainder of the song, and after each repetition of it comes the huge impact of the electric guitars and crash cymbals coming in together. A huge release of energy every time.

Here, Yorke’s vocals are a lot more clearer, though the lyrics read off like a list of items and slogans that he may have observed and taken a note of, rather than displaying a narrative or having a coherent theme throughout. That doesn’t matter all that much though, ’cause there’s a ton of feeling in the delivery. Also, during the first few measures of the verses, Yorke is singing and playing the guitar in 3/4 while the drums continue in 4/4 to have this polyrhythmic effect going on. I want to believe that’s a nod to the Beatles’ ‘Happiness Is a Warm Gun’ which also utilises the same feature for a moment or two. It’s known that that song was an influence on ‘Paranoid Android’, so why not this one too? I’ve come to really like ‘Polyethylene’ over the years, probably more than songs that made it onto their respective albums. Why it didn’t make it onto OK Computer, only the band will know, but with its B-side status the track lies low in the shadows, which makes it all the more special for those who go on to discover it.

#1050: Ween – Polka Dot Tail

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If you were to go on Spotify and search up Ween’s The Mollusk, you’ll see that ‘Polka Dot Tail’ is the least played track out of the album’s first seven songs. Just about though, only 124 less than the next track and that one is the vaudeville/showtime-esque opening number. Actually, that’s at the time that this post is being written. That may well have changed since then. Even so, I feel like the least-played scenario has been the case for this song for quite a while. Well, I guess one song has to be listened to the least. But if it were up to me, the track would much, much higher. It’s been one of my favourite songs from that album ever since listening to it for that first time in 2014.

The fluttering keyboard from the preceding title track has just about finished fading away into the distant silence before the disorienting synths of ‘Polka’ fill the soundscape once more. The track is something of a slow, psychedelic waltz. Waltzes are usually in 3/4 time, right? On every one count is a huge kick drum whose bass hits with a massive force, while an acoustic guitar lays out the chord progression on the left channel and a synthesizer playing the root notes in the right. A double-tracked Gene Ween harmonises with himself, his voice sounding a little pitched-down due to the process of recording at a faster pace and slowing the tape down, something which was well-known feature in a lot of Ween songs. And what he sings about, whales with polka dot tails, taking flans and squishing them in hands and the rhyme schemes he adopts are very much based on the children’s song ‘Down by the Bay’. In fact, here’s a performance of that particular song by children’s music singer Raffi in which he says that lyric outright.

At points after Gene Ween sings “Tell me it ain’t so”, the synths drone on, building tension, leaving the listener to wonder what turn this track might just take next. At one of these moments Gene says ‘Billy’, which came across as random to me, as it probably would to any listener, when I first heard it. Once I found out that the bending, echoing guitar solo that follows that utterance was played by Bill Fowler, a good friend of the band’s, then it made a lot more sense. And I guess the ‘help me’ that’s said before the final solo is a call to Fowler to bring things home. I really enjoy this track. It’s woozy, pushes you from side to side. Like I said earlier, the bass kicks have an almighty weight behind them and hit real hard each time they arrive. With all the talk about whales and imagery of puppies flying and shrinking like ice cubes in the sink, the musical/lyrical combination establishes a psychedelic energy to the proceedings while also reinforcing the nautical theme that runs throughout the album. If ‘The Mollusk was the warm inviting moment, ‘Polka Dot Tail’ is the moment where the doors open and you begin to realise the party might just be a bit weirder than you thought it would be.

#1049: Super Furry Animals – Play It Cool

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Here’s another one by Welsh band Super Furry Animals and yet another one from their sophomore album Radiator, released back in 1997. I only wrote about the second track on that record the other day, so you can get a bit of background on my experience with it. Unlike ‘The Placid Casual’, I don’t recall ‘Play It Cool’ having much of an effect on me during that first listen through Radiator. I had a mission of listening through SFA’s whole discography in 2014 which had to come to a halt because of second year studies at university. I eventually got round to doing so in 2018 during work hours in my first job after those studies finished. It was a very lax workplace, so I could get away with listening to albums on Spotify for nearly the whole day. It’s all a bit hazy, but I want to say it was around then that ‘Play It Cool’ clicked and went on to become one of my favourite Furry songs.

Essentially the track is made up of little riffs, hooks and catchy scales, all delivered with an earwormy melody that when assembled altogether create such a fun three-minute pop-rock sensation. I mean, that’s essentially what all songs are. But in this case, ‘Play It Cool’ begins with its three-chord riff followed by that sweet ascending keyboard riff which arrives after the opening drum roll. The vocals announce themselves into the mix with a “Buh-bah-buh-baah-baah”, falling to harmonies on the last wordless syllable while an electric guitar plays a downward-scale string bending riff that cascades into Gruff Rhys lead vocal, which also mirrors the initial acoustic guitar riff at the very beginning. All done within the first 19 seconds. It’s a very inviting and warming way to start things off, just sounds nice to the ears in general. Quality and melody abound. All of which carries on for the next three minutes.

Someone please write in and tell me I’m wrong, I’m not the biggest SFA follower and don’t want to make any rash statements on how they would write their songs – but I think this track – a bit like my thoughts on ‘The Placid Casual’, really – was a result of the music and arrangements coming first, with the lyrics being written afterward to fit. And not that the lyrics are bad or are rushed. They truly aren’t. It’s just that the lyrics, particularly in the verses, don’t link to each in other in any type of cohesive narrative, nor do they tell a sort of story from one verse to the next. They are incredibly pleasant to sing along to though. Really, the main message comes in the choruses where Rhys tells the listener that whatever you want to do, do it now and reap the consequences later. And also to be cool instead of acting like a fool. Which to me, is pretty sound advice. I also have a preference to the original mix of the track that was released on the album (below) rather than the remix that was released as the single and used in the music video (above). The former pushes Rhys’s vocals into the back, while the single version does the opposite and adds a few new elements here and there. Which one floats your boat?

#1048: Meat Puppets – Plateau

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So, I wrote about Meat Puppets’ song ‘Lake of Fire’ a few years back. Mentioned how that song came to be a lot more well-known when it was covered by Nirvana in their ’93 MTV Unplugged in New York performance, and how people seem to prefer the cover much more than the original because of how Kurt Cobain sings it compared to original vocalist Curt Kirkwood. I also went on to assume that I possess the more contrarian take of preferring the original to that Nirvana performance. Well, I may as well copy and paste that whole post and switch a few words around, because the same applies here too.

I’ve heard that Nirvana performance many a time and can’t help but think that it was performed in a key that higher than Cobain’s capacity. He really strains on those choruses. Just don’t like the sound of his voice on it all that much to be quite frank. Don’t know what it is. Not to say that Kirkwood sings it all that much better. His voice also breaks on those “book about biiirds” lines, but the whole vocal performance has much less of a twang on it and sort of delivered with a softness that I take more of a liking to. I also appreciate that the bass guitar appears to be double-tracked and placed in the left and right speakers, with Kirkwood’s vocal, acoustic guitar and the drums placed in the center. Places a lot more emphasis on the rhythm, but you can hear that acoustic guitar work piercing through.

I’ve come to think of the song as one about the search for the meaning of life, with the plateau seemingly being this place where it can be found, but in the end there’s nothing there but a few mundane and unremarkable items. By the end of the track, people wonder where the next plateau can be found. Others say it lays right where they stand. Maybe that’s saying that life is what you make of it in the here and now, and not something that you have to tirelessly search for? Perhaps. The answer’s left unknown, and with that the track ends with a mesmerizing flange(?)-effected electric guitar outro, from out of nowhere, adding a hazy, mystical dimension to the soundscape. The whole song’s worth the listen just for that closing moment alone. Again, not to say that Nirvana’s cover isn’t great. But I’ll take the Meat Puppets over it any day.