#1331: Panda Bear – Take Pills

Leave a reply

After downloading Panda Bear’s Person Pitch in late 2013, it sat dormant in my old iTunes library for a considerable amount of time. It was then that I was a real Pitchfork-head and going through what are considered to be the indie classics. And plus I was the host of a show for my university’s radio station, so I was just downloading whatever album I could get, and whatever songs that stuck out were keepers. ‘Comfy in Nautica’ and ‘Ponytail’ were the two tracks on the album that I decided were the best. And that was how my judgement stayed until I revisited the album in 2016. I was working at a music magazine at the time. There was a lot of time I could spend on Spotify without being judged. And I remember that being a time when I was going through the albums I had at home that I hadn’t listened to for a long time. Animal Collective had either just released Painting With or it was on the horizon. Person Pitch had the obvious association. I ran through it again. And it’s amazing what being 21 compared to 18 can do because the whole album was an immediate click. Maybe I just didn’t have all the cells in 2013.

After the kind of chanting, call-to-action introduction of ‘Comfy in Nautica’, ‘Take Pills’ arrives next and marks the first instance of the production trick Noah Lennox utilises to great effect for a few numbers on the LP, which is merging a sample from one song into another from a totally different number over a carefully thought-out period of time. In this case, he uses the opening of Scott Walker’s ‘Always Coming Back to You’ for the first section – which I think he in turn times that with what sounds like a skateboard on the sidewalk – before that slowly transitions into the next section from 2:30 based on a sample of ‘Popeye Twist’ by the Tornados. The song as a whole is inspired by the state of Lennox’s family and his own wellbeing, after the tragic passing of his father. The first half depicts the grieving process of his mom, who passes on the advice that things eventually get better after the loss. And despite initial impressions you may have from the the song title, the second half is call not to resort to drugs in order to handle that struggle during those sad, sad situations. Because we’re stronger and we don’t need them. A very wholesome message.

There are plenty of songs out there in the sphere made by combining pieces of unrelated musical ideas together. You’ve got ‘The Chain’, ‘A Day in the Life’, ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’, ‘Paranoid Android’… Could go on for days listing them. And ‘Take Pills’ is very much in that category. But what makes it so unique is how its two sections are blended so seamlessly into one another – a gradual fade-out/fade-in with a huge reliance on samples – that shouldn’t work as well as it does, though somehow manages to make sense once that Lennox begins the “Take one day at a time” refrain. Gets the shoulders shimmying. I like the little aside Panda Bear in saying that it’s not bad to take pills. I can think of a song of his where he sings about wanting to get stoned and walk in the rain. He likes to get high every once in a while too. But just don’t rely on the stuff. That’s where things can get a little out of hand. So this is where the road ends for Person Pitch on here. Not so much for Panda Bear. If only I’d liked ‘Bros’ as much back in the day as I do now. That would have been an ordeal to write about. But if you haven’t heard of the album before now, I’d say you’ve got nothing to lose if you listened to the thing right now.

#1330: Franz Ferdinand – Take Me Out

Leave a reply

It’s tea time. That’s right. Back at it again for the ‘T’ section on a random Saturday evening (where I am, it could be morning for you somewhere or late night somewhere else). And it starts off strongly, I’d say. ‘Take Me Out’, I think, was the first song I ever heard by Franz Ferdinand. I think that might be the same for a lot of people. I have a memory of being slumped in a chair, guess I must have been either eight or nine, watching MTV2, and the “I know I won’t be leaving here’ section of the song was playing alongside the repeating visuals of the music video near its end. It left an impression. The band name showed up, ‘Franz Ferdinand’. Thought it sounded pretty cool. ‘Matinée’, the next single, was where I really became interested in them. ‘Darts of Pleasure’ was the band’s first single officially. But with ‘Take Me Out’, the band became a household name in that British post-punk revival scene in the ’00s and the track became one of the biggest indie dancefloor anthems.

And, I think again like many others, when I heard the song in full for the first time, I was wondering how its beginning worked its way into sounding like it did at the end. Because the track begins in a totally different direction. Well, according to singer Alex Kapranos, he and fellow guitarist/bandmember/songwriter Nick McCarthy, who isn’t in the band anymore, were working on the song for sometime. They were trying to work out the structure and found that the verse/chorus/verse type structure wasn’t working. They would have to change tempos when going from one section to the next, which just didn’t sound right. Eventually they decided to lump all the faster verses at the beginning and put the slower choruses at the end, transitioning them together with that gradual slowing down in tempo around 50 seconds in. Or rallentando for you music theorists out there. That’s probably the best part of the song there. That tempo decrease marks that build in anticipation for what comes next.

What comes next is hook after hook after hook, as I sort of said earlier, usually accompanied by that widely recognisable guitar riff. They play it live, everyone sings the riff. It’s just how it goes. As to the lyrics and what it’s about, well, there’s a nice little podcast where Kapranos and bass guitarist Bob Hardy discuss these topics. I listened to it a while back, so I can’t remember exactly what was said. But I seem to remember Kapranos saying he took inspiration from a film of some kind, or a certain type of film made by a certain director. You’d better listen to the thing yourself. But just on the surface, without going too deep, you hear the words ‘Take Me Out’, I’d say you’d either there’s a romantic sentiment or a violent one. Like an assassination or something. And that would be neat with the band being called Franz Ferdinand and everything. I think it’s a little bit of both.

#1329: The Rolling Stones – Sympathy for the Devil

Leave a reply

Years and years ago, back when I was going to secondary school, I’d be getting changed into my uniform with the TV going on in the background. It’d usually be on Channel 4. Whatever years that channel had the TV show According to Jim in the mornings was when I became aware of the subject of today’s post, completely by accident. In the episode, there was a scene where Jim (played by Jim Belushi, younger brother of John) is visited by an apparition of the devil, played by some actor who I think also played his friend in the show, I can’t remember, it wasn’t A-grade TV. The devil-person appears and says to Jim, “Please allow me to introduce myself…” Jim interrupts and says, “Let me guess, you’re a man of wealth and taste.” Canned audience laughter cues. And I thought, “That must be in some kind of song or something.” The line sounded very familiar. I think I Googled it, just to make sure I wasn’t making things up in my head. Surely it wasn’t an original thing the writers of that show came up with.

And the Google results proved me right. The line is the very first lyric in ‘Sympathy for the Devil’ by the Rolling Stones, the opening track on the band’s 1968 album Beggars Banquet. That particular LP marked a return to a back-to-basics blues rock approach by the band after their psychedelic turn on Their Satanic Majesties Request the previous year and began a run of studio albums up to 1972’s Exile on Main Street that many a fan see as the band at the peak of their powers. On ‘Sympathy…’, Mick Jagger sings from the point of view of Lucifer, Satan, Beelzebub, however you prefer to address the Devil, noting how he’s been around for a lot of bad things that have happened in the world up to the time the song was written. Where the ‘sympathy’ part comes in is where, you know, people will say it’s because of evil forces that these atrocities and murders and the like happen. But it’s us as humans who do it. It doesn’t happen for no reason other than human decision. I’d think this was quite the shocking song to put out there, especially in ’68. From what I’ve read, that year was a rough time.

You know, I think most listeners would point to Jagger as the highlight of the whole track just for the showy, very spirited vocal that gradually ramps up in intensity as the track goes on. I’d like to make a note on the piano in the right ear played by the most dependable session player, Nicky Hopkins. Those piano chords behind Jagger’s vocals in the opening moments are very tasty. That climbing scale behind the “man of wealth and taste” line is exquisite. And just like Jagger, he heightens that intensity when he starts thundering on the keys at the beginning of the second verse. Those train whistle-like “woo-woos” come in for the third verse, staying there for the remainder of the song and that’s when the whole track becomes a party. You just want to form a conga line to the samba atmosphere of it all, even if it’s from the perspective of the fallen angel. It’s a fine way to start the album. I’d say it doesn’t get much better than it from that point onward. But it’s always good to have a bold statement from the jump, and ‘Sympathy for the Devil’ isn’t anything but that.

Ahhhh, and that’s it. The ‘S’ section is done. That’s definitely the longest one I’ve done so far. Spent a whole year on it. I’ll be back on the ‘T’ journey sometime soon. But I need a break. I’m sure you guys understand. So take care of yourselves. Catch you on the flipside.

#1328: Billy Talent – Sympathy

Leave a reply

‘Sympathy’ is the second-last song on Billy Talent’s second album, from 2006. I’ve liked this one for as long as I can remember. I gave a whole spiel about my experience with that record in the last post for a song I did from it. There are still two more off the LP left for me to write about. What I’ll say for now is, I still enjoy their sophomore album a lot even almost 20 years on. There was a lot of music similar to Billy Talent’s made by many bands in those early 2000s that people have forgotten about or couldn’t listen to because the material hasn’t aged all that well sonically. “It’s not a phase, mum” music. But I’ll put my cent of support in and say the same can’t be said for those first two Billy Talent albums. I’ll play those back-to-back today, no problem. Almost every song on both of them gets two thumbs up from me.

And ‘Sympathy’ falls under that category too. There doesn’t appear to be a website of any kind containing any context on how the song was written or what it’s about. But I vividly remember reading an official band-related thing that stated the song concerned a specific smarmy Canadian politician man/congressperson who singer Ben Kowalewicz and guitarist Ian D’Sa were completely disappointed by. The name was explicitly stated too, but I can’t remember that. But you read the lyrics to the track and it all makes sense. The politician would be giving condolences on a subject, and Kowalewicz would think it was all a crock of shit. So ‘Sympathy’ was written as a full disclosure of his displeasure with the guy. Just so happens that this displeasure is incredibly infectious when it’s written within a song.

Like many a Billy Talent number, a lot of the melody is provided by Ian D’Sa’s fine guitar work. He doesn’t do the distinct simultaneous lead/rhythm guitar style of playing he’s known for as much on ‘Sympathy’. It’s all very much rhythm, chord-based on here. But even then, the vocal melody almost mirrors whatever chord progression D’Sa plays throughout. It’s still very essential within the song’s proceedings. Oh, Jesus, the solo, though. Very unique for a Billy Talent track, a big highlight in this one. I really enjoy Kowalewicz’s vocal here too. Billy Talent II was made as a bit of a conscious effort to move away from the aggression and ferocity displayed on its predecessor. So there was a tad less screaming, more of a focus on melody. And there’s nothing but melody on ‘Sympathy’. I read comments online complaining about how Kowalewicz’s voice can be grating or shrill. I’ve never had a problem, even if I could see where those people come from. I couldn’t say it’s any of those things on this track. The way he sings those ‘Breaking me down’ lines, especially the last one, makes me feel a way inside. Like I can feel his pain, or whatever. Just a solid, solid tune.

#1327: Adrianne Lenker – symbol

Leave a reply

Counting down the days until the new Big Thief album arrives. Double Infinity. I’m very excited. ‘Incomprehensible’ came out in June. I liked it. I’m writing this post in June too, so another song might have been released as a single in the past couple months. I don’t know. I’m sure that one was good too. It’s funny to me how I probably wouldn’t have a clue who Big Thief or Adrianne Lenker were, or at least come to like their work as much as I do now, if I hadn’t been out-of-my-mind bored and unemployed in 2019. I found Abysskiss on an Indieheads thread on Reddit. Dug it, I think, almost immediately. And luckily enough that year, Big Thief decided to release two albums. The ball just continued to roll from there. The group are most likely one of my favourite bands out of the 2010s. Adrianne Lenker’s always got an interesting song up her sleeve. Her solo material’s just as wealthy in its quality. Abysskiss is still my favourite of hers, and ‘symbol’ has always been a highlight from there.

A lot of good things about ‘symbol’ I can relay to you. I think what first got to me about the track, trying to think six years ahead, was how Nick Drake-ish/Pink Moon-y the guitar picking sounded. And I’m a big fan of those two things, so I was a sucker for it already. Sort of reminded me of ‘Go to Sleep’ by Radiohead too. There’s an ominous tone to Lenker’s acoustic guitar, reinforced by the droning one-note melody she adopts for the verses. But then the key changes to a lighter note for the choruses. The weight is lifted, she sings about feeling good after seeing someone smile, and her vocal skips along the light percussion that pans all over the soundscape. It’s a little rinse-and-repeat. The lyrics of the second verse are the same as the first. But there are thousands of other songs that do the same. And it works well here too. Very well. As I write this, it’s become clear that Lenker does have something for the concept of ‘infinity’, as it’s mentioned in this song too. And then there’s ‘Spud Infinity’ from Dragon New Warm Mountain…. Cool to see. I also find it humorous that she snuck the term “FaceTime” into the song. I feel it must have been intentional in some way. I get a little kick out of it.

And as much as like the song, I still really don’t know what it’s about. I’m sure it’s about a bundle of different things. On the surface level, there’s love, there’s the passing of time and a connection between the two. Very vague on my part. Might even be completely wrong. Thankfully, Genius contains a quote from Lenker that makes things much more clearer. “Writing it helped me articulate the recognition of a very deep sense of home contained within the warmth of my loved ones and friends made visible in something as simple as a smile.” That’s sweet. And that’s not meant to sound condescending in any way. I feel that warmth all over in the song. I could sink into a bed listening to it. Or watch a sun going down. Either scenarios are favourable. And I like the video for the track too. Lenker walks down the boardwalk of Coney Island singing the track. There are cuts to families and randomers enjoying their day out. And everything finishes with a slo-mo firework display. Fantastic, heartwarming visuals. Just perfect for the music it accompanies.