#1166: Noisettes – Scratch Your Name

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This post may just mark the biggest amount of time between two posts by the same artist/band. The last time I wrote about Noisettes was in 2013, the year this blog started, when I was initially using Blogspot/Blogger. At that point, a year had already passed since the band had released their last album. It’s now been 12, and it doesn’t look like they’ll be returning anytime soon. But the initial trio-turned duo made a mark in the UK at least. In the aforementioned post for the last Noisettes song I wrote about, ‘Bridge to Canada’ (it’s a good one), I dedicate a whole paragraph to ‘Scratch Your Name’ – today’s song. A lot of points I make in that old paragraph still stand though. But if you could refrain from reading it there so I can sort of reuse it here, that’d be great.

‘Scratch Your Name’ was indeed the very first song I heard by the band, and yes, it was through seeing its music video (above) on MTV2 one day. Unlike the smart-aleck 18-year-old I was back then, I don’t think the video is rubbish at all and I was probably just exaggerating to try and get a laugh or something. They did re-release the song as a single some time after though and got a fancier video in the process (below). But I do remember thinking it was very cool to see a Black lady lead singer in a band on the channel for once. Shingai Shoniwa had some soul in that voice, and she rocked too. The video showing up was probably the first time a Black woman-fronted indie rock band appeared on my screen in my experience of watching MTV2, and I’d been frequently visiting that place for at least two years by that time. Was 2006, started watching MTV2 in 2004, so that would make sense.

Like I also said in that old post, and agree with too, the track is a ‘proper rocker’. It starts off with one riff, plays another under the verses before exploding into the power chords for the choruses. Rinse and repeat, it’s a thumbs-up performance. I really like the harmonies between Shoniwa and guitarist Dan Smith as they sing the hook, ‘Scratch your name into the fabric of this world before you go/The skin will tear under the pressure, make it deep so it always shows.’ That’s an encouraging message if ever there was one. Make a name for yourself, make an impact in this world, with your life, in other people’s. It’s something to take on board. The track can be found as the second song on the band’s debut album, What’s the Time Mr. Wolf?, from 2007. I once had a physical copy of that album, but gave it away. There’ll be another song from it that I’ll be revisiting on here.

#1165: Coldplay – The Scientist

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I was sort of around when this song first came around. Aware of the things going on around me and all that goodness. Coldplay’s ‘The Scientist’ was a single from the band’s A Rush of Blood to the Head album, just over 20 years ago in 2002. That would mean I was seven at the time. I have a very, very vivid memory when it comes to this track. I remember being in the playground of my primary school and singing the song out loud. Not to anyone in particular, just for my own entertainment’s sake. Must have seen the video somewhere at some point and the melody got stuck in that young head of mine. It was time to go back inside for lessons, and as I was in the line going inside, singing “Noobody saaid it was eeaaasyyyyyy”, this other kid holding the door letting everyone through overheard me and spontaneously started singing along. Looked me dead in the eyes and everything. We became good friends throughout those primary school years. Haven’t seen him since I left, though. Just the way things go.

So, yeah, I’ve liked ‘The Scientist’ for the longest time. Even before I realised that the song had the title and wasn’t called ‘Going Back to the Start’ or any other lyrics that appears in the track. The song’s one that everyone knows exists somehow. Even if you haven’t really listened to it in full, you would have heard it somewhere or at least think you did. I’m sure, like a lot of other casual music listeners at the time, the music video for the track is what really brought round the song’s attention. The plot of the thing is backwards. Chris Martin had to learn how to sing the lyric backwards in order to get the desired effect, which apparently took a month to do. As we see, above, Martin starts off on a randomly placed mattress and wanders through the streets and other miscellaneous places, all on his lonesome. Then he gets into a car, with a lady lying next to it, and the viewers witnesses why he’s been by himself up to that point. Martin and the lady were involved in a car accident, and the latter flew through the windshield because she wasn’t wearing a seatbelt. For a song all about ‘going back to the start’, the video does very well to fulfill Martin’s wish.

All this time, I’ve never thought about what the song means. But without even having to look the lyrics up, it’s easy to understand that it’s possibly about a relationship ending, the regret that can come along with that situation and wanting to go back to the time when it all started and everything was coming up roses. Musically, ‘The Scientist’ is generally a really easy one to get into. Even if you’re not really paying attention to it, I think Chris Martin’s melody throughout does enough to have you singing along to it without realising. It’s very easy to remember, almost got a lullaby-like quality to it. Martin sings it really well. But I’d like to give a nod to those subtle string bends by Jonny Buckland in the guitar during the song’s outro too. There’s a slight intensity to that whole part which sweetly dissolves in the song’s last chord. It’s one of Coldplay’s most popular songs, and for very good reasons. It’s the last from A Rush of Blood to the Head you’ll see on hear, though. The singles are favourite songs on it.

#1164: Kanye West – School Spirit

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Hey, look, it’s another Kanye West song on here. I’m think in the today’s world, we can all come to agree there’s no saving the guy. He’s just needs to lay low for a while. He’s said and done some stuff over the past six/seven years that has definitely skewed the way I used to gauge with him as a listener. You’ll still have those dedicated followers, for sure. Me, I tend to look more from an uninvolved distance. But there was a time when I was excited for a new Kanye project, and things from his part were coming from a relatively good place. And where better to capture that than with a song from his first album. Been 20 years, you know.

The College Dropout came into my sister’s possession back in 2004. Got the feeling it was for her birthday or something. I have memories of just being around the house and hearing it play out loud on the speakers. Some songs stood out more than others to the nine-year-old boy I was, and I can distinctly remember ‘School Spirit’ being one of those, particularly its ‘Alpha step, Omega step…’ hook and the harmonised humming vocals that appear at points during its duration. But it probably wasn’t until a few years later, think about 2008, when I properly listened to it engaged rather than in passing. Had a YouTube channel where I just uploaded albums, and I needed to upload some content, so I got to know The College Dropout a lot more around that time. That YouTube channel doesn’t exist anymore, by the way.

Kanye details his disillusionment with the educational system in this one, pretty much giving the background behind why he became the titular college dropout in the first place. He was going to pursue his own dreams of becoming a world-famous artist, something he felt he couldn’t do in the time he wanted if he was sticking around in college, and leave behind the hangers-on who would still end up in a dead-end job even with the highest level of degree. It’s nothing cynical though, the whole track is delivered with a sense of humour. West flows over an old-school beat made by himself, sampling Aretha Franklin in the process. Franklin didn’t want Kanye swearing over her material, so any curse words that appear in the track are distorted and flipped around, almost to a comical level. Luckily, you can find the uncensored version of it online without much hassle.

#1163: Green Day – Scattered

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Feels like I only ever write about Green Day songs from Nimrod lately. Two of them did appear in the ‘R’ section, and sure that would have been months ago at this point. But the last song from another Green Day album I wrote about was ‘Pulling Teeth’, and that was over a year ago. Not that I want to sound like I’m complaining. That’s a tone I always aim to try and avoid when writing these things. Nimrod‘s up there in my favourite Green Day albums. It’s one of the first albums I downloaded to my old computer when I was properly getting into sitting down and listening to albums in about ’09. This is a story I’ve told before. But as a result, although it might not be the favourite Green Day album of mine, it does hold a special place for sure.

‘Scattered’ is fifth track on there, and is an example of the band being at their most power-poppest, for lack of a better adjective. It’s surprising to me that it wasn’t a single back in the Nimrod times, because it definitely could have been one. Though maybe it’s just a case that it was the obvious choice for a single that the band decided against it. If that makes sense. Being punk rock and all. But it ticks all the right boxes. There’s something about the song that makes it sound like it should have been existing way before the ’90s. Think it’s all down to the melody. Such an accessible one that you’d think it would have been used by any other songwriter to have existed before Billie Joe Armstrong and co. got the track down. But as far as I’m aware, there’s no song from the decades that preceded it whose melody was stolen, nabbed or tweaked in order to ‘Scattered’ the track it is.

The song is about a person who goes on a bit of an emotional trip after seeing a bunch of pictures ‘scattered’ on the floor, containing images of another person of interest who they miss tremendously. A wave of regret and despair comes crashing in, and the narrator wishes that they could be together again. Quite sad stuff that you maybe wouldn’t pick up on at first because of the track’s velocity and general catchiness. I’m gonna assume that the lyrics do come from a personal place. Billie Joe Armstrong at the point of Nimrod was already married and had had a child. Being the frontman of a band who was continuously on tour throughout ’94 to ’96 would have taken its toll. So I think the track’s a little love letter to his wife. Possibly. Anyone can tell me I’m wrong. But all in all, I enjoy this one a lot. Won’t get a skip from me.

#1162: Radiohead – Scatterbrain. (As Dead as Leaves.)

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Mmm-mmm, Hail to the Thief. You know what? I’ll always root for this Radiohead album, even if it’s the one that the band and resident producer Nigel Godrich agree could have been worked on a little bit more. They recorded the songs in two weeks, in free spirits in a sunny LA after the stressful Kid A/Amnesiac sessions. They didn’t want to bring up any more bad blood that came from tracklist arrangements and production choices, so they put some light touches on and put all of them out there on an almost hour-long record, the final one on their contract with EMI. There are some great songs on there. A couple I’ve written about already. A few more I will do in the future. Those great songs, I reckon, are some of the best in the group’s whole discography.

It’s been a ride and a half up to the point you get to the album’s penultimate track ‘Scatterbrain’, but when it starts you’re greeted with a very calming drum track and descending guitar line by Jonny Greenwood. It’s also a welcome change of pace, considering it comes after one of the more menacing, fuzzed out songs on the record in ‘Myxomatosis’. Yorke said this song is a very hard one to describe, but mentioned that it was influenced by his favourite type of weather and an incident where the roof of a next-door neighbor of his flew up into the sky in a Wizard of Oz type manner. The lyrics do bring up a lot of imagery concerned with that sort of scenery. What I think the track is mainly about, is wanting to find some peace of mind in a world that’s going mad. And in 2003, with the Iraq War and all of that great stuff happening, things were going crazy and off the deep end for a while.

Think it’s fair to say that Thom Yorke’s vocal is the real highlight of the entire thing. While Ed O’Brien and Jonny Greenwood’s guitars are twinkling away in the left and right channels, Yorke comes in with an earnest performance that reverberates into the distance. He’s really left out in the open here. But his voice will glitch out to add a little quirk to the very human aspect of it all. The track subtly builds as things progress. Greenwood comes in first on the guitar, O’Brien joins in at the start of the second verse. What I think is a Mellotron joins in for the second half of that verse, and then these parts drop out one-by-one at the song’s key change, where Yorke claims that there must be someplace out there where he isn’t in is head too much and can be in a state of content. The way the last guitar note trails off and the last rimshot echoes into silence leaves things a little unresolved, which I think works perfectly well, as that then leads into the final track and brings everything to a swift conclusion. But more about that song will be for another day.