Category Archives: Music

#920: The Beatles – The Night Before

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‘The Night Before’ was one of the first few tracks of the Beatles where I heard it and thought, “Wow, these Beatles people aren’t actually too bad.” It was 2009. Earlier that year I downloaded Sgt. Pepper just to see how it was the greatest album ever as I had read in a lot of places. I thought the songs were just all right. The mixing didn’t do them much justice. So I kind of left the Beatles aside and pursued other things. But later that year their whole catalogue was released alongside The Beatles: Rock Band, all on the same day, and VH1 Classic was showing a “Beatlemania” slot that dedicated about 30 minutes of air time to Beatles music videos. Seeing those pretty much sent me down a bit of a spiral. I haven’t stopped being a Beatles fan since then.

Representing ‘The Night Before’ was its little section cut out from the Help! movie. The closest I can get to showing you that clip is via the video below, which uses alternative audio and switches some camera shots around. But seeing the four members actually ‘playing’ together, seeing how happy they were alongside the general catchiness and upbeat tone of the music was a bit of a revelation. Before then I’d only ever properly heard of the Beatles through the news and “Oh, how great they were” and all that, so the usual reaction would be “Well, how good could they have been really?” And with ‘The Night Before’ I was swayed to the other side that little bit. Then in that “Beatlemania” slot, ‘Penny Lane’ played and that was that. Went to search for those songs on YouTube on the daily.

You could definitely argue that it’s very difficult for a Beatles track to be considered ‘under the radar’, but I think in this case this song might just go under that category. There’s not a lot of people out there who you could say “Ah, man, “The Night Before”, that’s song’s great,” and expect a reciprocated response from. Except Beatles fans, and even then they might not listen to anything before Rubber Soul. I’ll always hold it dear though. For that sentimental value as described above, and because it’s just a good song. Paul McCartney belts out his lines, George Harrison and John Lennon harmonise in response. There’s an electric piano which makes it sound a lot smoother. Ringo Starr’s banging away on the drums. I think there’s meant to be a sense of sadness to the song, but I can’t help but feel good when it’s on.

#919: 747s – Night & Day

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I know. You’ve seen the title and you’re probably thinking “What?” and “By who?” I couldn’t blame you. 747s are one of those bands left in that huge pile of those who arrived during that big UK indie-rock movement of the mid-2000s and either disappeared or were forgotten about not too soon afterwards. This is one of two songs that I know by the band, and I only know those two because those were the ones that were shown on TV. Otherwise, there’s a great chance I wouldn’t have an idea this band existed. Luckily I caught this one sometime during a morning, and it’s stuck with me ever since. I’ll guess it would have been 2006 or so, because that’s when Wikipedia says the track was released as a single.

‘Night & Day’ is the opening track on the band’s only album Zampano. Was the band’s first ever single too. And to be fair, I would say it has everything you want in a piece of music that you would want to introduce yourself to the masses to. Great opening guitar line to set the mood, it comes back here and there throughout, and the bass guitar mirrors it to emphasise its melody. Those guitars have some fantastic tones to ’em too. The rhythm’s kind of buried in the left channel, which opens up the space to the lead guitar in the right that really carries the song’s momentum. Gotta give a shout-out to the chorus to, where the chord progression rises and builds some intensity alongside these backing ‘aah-aah’ vocals. There’s something about this track that also makes me think of those showtime tunes. A lot of jazz hand thrown about. I think there are a lot of seventh chords being used, maybe that’s why. Then again, I’m not even sure about that, so someone’d have to tell me. But around 2006, it was much different to a lot of the bands who were pretty much Arctic Monkey wannabes.

The track is about a seemingly fleeting relationship in which the narrator wants to make their partner happy and follow their own free will, while coming to the point that at some point they’ll split and go their separate ways. Doesn’t sound like there’s any ill will that’s meant or anything. You know you can get those songs that are a bit off-putting that way. But it’s one where the message is along the lines of “Well, these things happen and it’ll be okay,” which I’m all for. Of course I didn’t know this when I was 11, but 15 and a bit years gives you time to think about this stuff. But that’s as far as it goes with me and 747s. That other song by them that I know, I’m very sure played just the once on MTV2, and they were never heard from again. Didn’t have much of an effect as this one.

#918: Green Day – Nice Guys Finish Last

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Green Day’s Nimrod goes down as the album of the band’s where Billie Joe Armstrong, Mike Dirnt and Tré Cool decided to experiment a little bit. Steering away from the harsh, pessimistic tone of Insomniac a couple years before, the three pursued in writing material that covered different styles of rock music and utilising a wider range of instrumentation. Outside of Dookie and American Idiot, it’s probably the record that’s loved the most amongst Green Day fans. But before all the experimentation starts, it all kicks off with a nice traditional punk-rock track in the form of ‘Nice Guys Finish Last’.

The song isn’t really about anything in particular. A lot of the lyrics are just common sayings and phrases from everyday life – case in point, the title – that Armstrong puts some sarcastic and joking twists on. Not to scoff at anyone who has found some level of meaning or a story in the words, but I truly feel there’s nothing that the listener is supposed to latch onto. That doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy it because you definitely can. What helps the track is the band’s overall performance and the great melodies throughout. What normally gets me pumped throughout is Tré Cool’s drumming. It’s fair to say he’s never been the weak point in Green Day song, but in this particular one it seems like he doesn’t have any moment to breathe. One moment he’s rapidly tapping away on the hi-hat before switching to the ride cymbal and throwing in all those fills in between. There’s a moment where Armstrong does this grunt thing before the last instrumental section of the track that’ll caught me surprise upon first listen, but feels very appropriate within the context the more times you hear it.

On a personal level, it took me a while to warm up to this track. I’d known it since about 2005 when I was really into Green Day. It was probably the second band I properly geeked out on after The Darkness. The music video (as you can see above) was on the band’s website. I thought the track was all right and nothing much, but I was nine/ten at the time and didn’t know much better. Probably because compared to ‘Hitchin’ a Ride’, it sounded too normal. Now I listen to ‘Nice Guys’ more than I do ‘Hitchin”. It just does the job.

#917: Radiohead – (Nice Dream)

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A very good Radiohead track, this one. Roaming around the internet I’ve come to find that the opinion on The Bends is that it’s great, but Radiohead didn’t become the almighty greatness they are until the next album they did. Something along those lines anyway. When it comes to me, there are plenty of times when I probably prefer to listen to The Bends over their experimental, thinking-man’s work. The record’s cathartic in a variety of ways. You get the slow burners, you get the full-on rock bangers, and then there are the pretty ones that float along and wow you with their beauty. ‘(Nice Dream)’ covers that last category quite aptly.

I’m a sucker for a song in 6/8 time. I believe I wrote about another track in that timing only a few days ago. And here’s another. Actually, like ‘New Test Leper’, ‘(Nice Dream)’ is very much acoustic-led. The guitars that start ‘Dream’ off and pretty much stay in the mix throughout were played by all five bandmembers in a garden somewhere. You can hear an electric guitar chugging away in the verses way in the back, but the spotlight really falls on those acoustics and Thom Yorke’s soft vocal that’s very upfront. Gotta give a shout out to those beautiful strings during the choruses too. Really pull on your heartstrings, they do. The time when things really get a bit edgy is in the bridge where Jonny Greenwood pulls out one of his solos where he sounds like he’s strangling the guitar and pushing it to its limits. When that intense bridge ends, it softly lands into the outro, more reminiscent of the quieter verses, that fades out with these strange, surreal “whale songs” as neatly described by bassist Colin Greenwood.

Radiohead never regularly play much of their pre-OK Computer material live. There are those that that statement doesn’t count for like ‘Fake Plastic Trees’, ‘My Iron Lung’, even ‘Creep’ at this point. So when they pull a deeper cut from out of the hat, it’s usually met with a reception of shock and excitement. During the second half of their tour for In Rainbows, they played ‘(Nice Dream)’ for the first time in five years. Sometimes I get the feeling Thom Yorke doesn’t like playing those deep-cut Bends-era songs that much. He started to write more in the third-person for OK Computer and beyond because he was tired of writing about himself all the time. But when he smiles right at the end of the performance, I think what am I talking about. He probably does. It’s a great live take.

#916: Mobile – New York Minute

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This track goes in the long list of those that I have to thank EA Sports for. FIFA 2003 to about FIFA 11/12 were the golden years in which their games had the most memorable soundtracks, each filled with songs of various styles from all over the world, which helped mould my music tastes as I got older. ‘New York Minute’ by Canadian band Mobile was on FIFA 07, then released in September 2006 and a time when I was precisely in my very first month of secondary school. Eleven years of age going on 12, how about that.

On a soundtrack that also featured Muse, Keane, The Feeling, and the theme song from The Inbetweeners, ‘New York Minute’ stood out for many a reason. One mainly being that its chorus was an absolute belter. “Hey now” is a small phrase that’s very much universal, and even if you didn’t know what the singer was saying in between the repetitions of it, you can guarantee that at least that part would get stuck in your head. The riff that propels the verses onward was very decent too. I found that the guitars were playing separate melodies during those sections when I hadn’t fully plugged in the audio cable for my PlayStation 2 one day, so I was essentially hearing one speaker and hearing one guitar following that riff while one another day I heard the other playing something completely different. Sounds a lot better with some good headphones on. Plus, after a while it was a track where I got the lyrics down just from hearing it over and over. The FIFA songs that had that effect were usually the best ones.

Despite all that, I never really took the time to listen to any Mobile music. There was a lot of school work to be done, you know how it is. Also, it wasn’t as easy to just find an album by any artist you wanted and play it like it is today. But maybe it’s for the best. That’s actually how it’s been for a lot of songs I’ve grown to like from these games. The artists might be one of those where that’s the only good song they have, you know? Wouldn’t want to put myself through that disappointment. It appears that the band were only around for six years, and were in the middle of working on their third album before deciding to call it quits. Which is a shame, as it is for any band that feel they can’t go on. Nevertheless, they’ll always be that band who made that great song that appeared in a game that one time and a small kid that little bit happier in those days.