Category Archives: Music

#909: Muse – New Born

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Muse’s ‘New Born’ starts off the band’s 2001 album Origin of Symmetry. I’ve always seen it as something of a “Welcome to the 21st century” moment, and I believe that’s meant to be reflected in the way that it transitions from the soft piano-based into the mega-crunchy guitar riff properly introduces the track and the overall sound of the rest of the tracks that follow. The riffs throughout this six minute wonder are quite spectacular. There’s the aforementioned riff that gets things going, there’s Chris Wolstenholme’s bass riff that occurs throughout the verses… Matt Bellamy’s guitar solo’s pretty out there too. On a whole the band are firing on all cylinders, it’s a huge ball of energy.

Matthew Bellamy’s vocal style is one that’s lost if effect on me as the years have gone on, but there are still some Muse tracks where it just suits perfectly with all the melodies and rhythms that are happening around it. ‘New Born’ is another one of them, in my opinion. How he changes it around to match the tone of each respective section… It subtly builds and builds from the verse up to that final line in the chorus with the falsetto, and it’s extremely effective when that falsetto turns into a scream and segues into the track’s closing instrumental section. Goosebumps every time that happens. Some could be cynical and say something like the whole “technology is taking over and humanity is suffering because of it” subject was already done by Radiohead a few years earlier, arguably in a better way, but whatever it’s just another take on it from another band at the end of the day.

Last year the band released a remixed and remastered version of Origin of Symmetry to coincide with the 20th anniversary of its release. The new mix of ‘New Born’ revealed some details that were really buried in that original 2001 mix. Like those ‘aah-aah’ backing vocals during the choruses? Did you know those were there, because I certainly didn’t. It also generally took away a lot of the compression present in the original mix, so it sounds very open and somewhat wider in comparison. If that makes any sense. I may still prefer the original release though. But I’ll link the new mix below, so you can make up your own mind.

#908: The Velvet Underground – New Age

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This is a very recent addition to the phone playlist. The Velvet Underground’s Loaded has been on my laptop’s iTunes library since about 2013. It’s not my favourite album of the band’s, but moments from tracks on there like ‘Who Loves the Sun’, ‘Sweet Jane’ and ‘Oh! Sweet Nuthin” have always popped in my head from time to time. But sometime around September/October time, something inside was telling me to revisit ‘New Age’. And so I did. And apart from the glorious ending, I still wasn’t very interested. Clearly that opinion changed. It’s now the song I most go to from that record.

Like all the other songs on Loaded, ‘New Age’ was written by Lou Reed. But it’s also one of the four on there sung by fellow band member Doug Yule, who would be encouraged by Reed to take the lead vocal from time to time. Something interesting about Reed’s writing here is how he shifts the narrative perspective from verse to the next. The first sees him recounting a conversation between a “fat blonde actress” and her fan with a mix of third and first person point of view. The next has him saying “You’re over the hill and you’re looking for love”. Who’s you? The listener? Maybe he’s writing about himself. And the ‘I’ll come running to you…’ sections cover the first person straight up. Alongside his writing, the chord changes progress in a way that they never quite resolve fully. They rise and fall, climb and then lose a step, so you’re waiting for that moment when that big release happens. And it does with the almighty ‘It’s the beginning of a new age’ chorus that’s repeated until a guitar solo comes in and closes the song out. Listening to it on vinyl, it’s the last song on the first side before you’d have to turn the record over. It’s a great way to go out.

Doug Yule does a fine job on the vocals here. He’s not the greatest singer, but like on the aforementioned ‘Who Loves the Sun’ or ‘Candy Says’ from the previous album he does well enough that I couldn’t imagine how Lou Reed would sound if he sung them himself. The rhyming of ‘Robert Mitchum’ and ‘catch him’ isn’t too great to my ears, but that’s by no means his fault. He just had to sing what was written down. For whatever reason, the ending was somewhat butchered on the official 1970 release. It was edited in a way that backing vocals come in early, repeat, cymbals come in where they shouldn’t… You can hear out kind of awkward it is. Quite strange that it’s labelled as the “Full Length Version” when it really isn’t. Luckily, a re-release of the album back in 2015 included the track at its fullest, which I hope you would have heard by now ’cause it’s only up there.

#907: Sum 41 – Never Wake Up

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‘Never Wake Up’ is the third song on Sum 41’s All Killer No Filler album. Hard to come up with a thorough, deep post about it. Reasons being that it’s only 50 seconds long, and I don’t think that its lyrics that you see online are even correct. Well, except for the “I plan on never waking up” lines, that’s clearly what he’s singing there. Despite those things, the track always scratches an itch when it comes on on shuffle or something. There’ll be all these mid-tempo, complex songs playing and this one rolls in with pummeling force from the first second.

From the lyrics that are available online, I’m making a guess that the track is about trying to find the motivation to get out of bed in the morning and failing to do so. It’s a subject that’s touched upon later in the album, arguably in a more fleshed out form. But what this song has going for it is sheer energy and speed. It’s a track to just freak out and lose control to for a short moment before you have to adjust yourself back to reality. I like those guitar chord jumps that happen after each ‘never waking up’ repetition. They didn’t have to be included, but they add that extra kick to the proceedings. And although I don’t have a clue what Deryck Whibley is saying for the majority, it’s always a good effort to try and sing along anyways. The track may make up a small small part of the album’s runtime, but it’s definitely lives up to the killer aspect of its name.

#906: Soundgarden – Never Named

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I wrote a post a while ago about Soundgarden’s Down on the Upside explaining why I thought it was so great and how it deserved to be appreciated just as much the albums that came before in Badmotorfinger and Superunknown. I may have been suffering from a bout of depression during that time. Upside was the soundtrack album to that period of time. Three and a bit years on and in a better state, I feel the same way about it – still my favourite Soundgarden record. I think I made something of a deal on how the songs co-written by Chris Cornell and Ben Shepherd were some my personal highlights on there. Here I am to talk about one of them.

‘Never Named’ is the eighth track on the album. Comes slap bang in the middle of the hour and five minutes it runs on for. Coming after what could be argued to be the two best songs of ‘Blow Up the Outside World’ and ‘Burden in My Hand’ with its irregular time changes and punk-like approach, ‘Never Named’ may seem like a bit of a “wtf” moment in the album’s running. Maybe its placement hinders its accessibility a bit, just a theory. Though as a track by itself, there’s certainly a thrill you can get out of it. Once you get those time changes down and get a feel of how drummer Matt Cameron pulls the track along with his fills, it all falls into place. There a lot of melodic guitar lines that catch your ear and lots of riffage to chew onto, all with Chris Cornell’s trademark vocals in between. Can’t be beat.

And what’s Cornell singing about here? Well, he starts with his old dog in the first verse. When he was young, his dog loved him like a God. But now he’s a big man in this successful rock music group yet he feels small and insignificant, like an insect or a small spot on the ground. That’s really the main message of the song. Being a full grown person, but still feeling like a small child inside. And Cornell takes it further in the choruses by referring to being a baby who looks like a boy. He sings it all very well. As to why it’s called ‘Never Named’, I’m not sure. I want to say the band couldn’t think of a proper name for the track, but instead of calling it ‘Untitled’ they put another spin on it. Probably wrong though, just my thought.

#905: Good Shoes – Never Meant to Hurt You

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Here’s another track by Good Shoes, one that like countless others throughout this series I got to know just by watching MTV2 in the morning. I’ve given something of a backstory as to how I came know the band’s music in the previous post I did concerning them, which greatly decreases the amount of words I’d have to write on here. Also allows me to talk more about the song. I’m by no means a professional, but I’ll try my best.

The track is the tale of a relationship where a girl is infatuated with the man she’s with while he just doesn’t feel the same. The narrator’s remorseful about the way things ended, wishing that things had been different, and trying to maintain the fact that with all that happened no harm was ever meant to be caused. It’s a sad subject. But together with the cutesy stop-motion music video and its general catchiness and urgent melodies, the melancholy tends to float under the radar a little. You can definitely sense a tinge of sadness though. That changes however when after that final instrumental break, the song ends with a joyous repetition of the title.

One thing I’ve noticed about Good Shoes is that there’s barely any bass in their songs, and as a result their tracks can sound very light and easy on the ears, and it also lets those little guitar licks stick out more too. That certain style suits this track perfectly, especially during those instrumental breaks that separates the choruses and verses. I also like singer Rhys Jones’ vocals on this. He pronounces and enunciates words in ways which I don’t think I’ve heard before. He’s not the greatest singer by any means, but there’s a lot of feeling behind it. That’s all you want really. Below’s the album version, which isn’t any different from the video above except that it has the word ‘fuck’ in it.