#1096: The Killers – Read My Mind

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So I think this might be the greatest song The Killers have ever done. Forget ‘Mr. Brightside’ or ‘All These Things That I’ve Done’. Nah, it’s ‘Read My Mind’ from the band’s Sam’s Town album, their sophomore effort released back in 2006. I remember that era of the band quite well. That album came around when I was just starting my first year of secondary school. ‘When You Were Young’ arrived as the triumphant first single, Brandon Flowers had the moustache. ‘Bones’ followed as the next single. Their first Christmas single followed. That’s a good one. And then came ‘Read My Mind’ as the third single.

Now, to me, The Killers have always been a band that you can always count on for great singles. They always seem to be the best songs on every album they make. And when it came to Sam’s Town, each one that followed after the next continued that winning streak the band had established ever the first release of ‘Mr. Brightside’ years before. Now, eleven-year-old me would see the ‘Read My Mind’ video frequently on MTV2 when it was time for its release, and I thought the song was cool, you know? The group were riding around on bikes and getting up to all sorts of antics in Tokyo, and the music matched the uplifting mood of the visuals. But a closer listen to the song in proper headphones throughout the years revealed just how hooky and infectious the entire track is, from the those ghostly backing vocals to the guitar fills after each iteration of the ‘read my mind’ title phrase in the verses. There are a lot more melodic tidbits to latch on to, but those are just a couple I can highlight.

I don’t know what the song’s about. Brandon Flowers has never really given much away in terms of the meaning either. What he has said before is that it’s one of his favourite Killers songs, it started out as a completely different song and that it means a lot to people because when they play it live at concerts the crowd goes crazy. It must be important to the band in some way, as their latest singles compilation is named after a lyric from the song. From what I’ve gathered, looking back at this period in the Killers history, they were very much on their Springsteen/U2 tip and the lyrics seem to be very much in the vein of the former, written from the perspective of a self-determined man who’s looking to get out of town with this lady he’s interested in. There’s a ‘Born to Run’ feeling about it all, but Brandon Flowers and co. deliver it all in a way that make it distinctly Killers. Also, gotta give huge props to the solo on this track. Huge feeling of release when it cascades into the bridge.

#1095: Gorillaz – Re-Hash

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Well, I don’t have so much of a personal connection with Gorillaz’s first album as I do with, say, Plastic Beach. That debut album was released back in 2001, when I would have been five, but I do remember seeing the videos for ‘Clint Eastwood’ and ’19-2000′ at the time and being confused by the former and sort of more aware of what was going on with the latter. I didn’t come round to hearing Gorillaz in full until 2010 or so. Plastic Beach was, then, the new album, and everyone knew about Demon Days – think I got that for my birthday that same year – so it only made sense to complete the trilogy by downloading it off the random mp3 sites that you could go to in those days and hearing where it all started.

‘Re-Hash’ is the opener. Where it all started. Commercially, at least, I think I read somewhere that the very first song made under the Gorillaz name was ‘Ghost Train’. Though you all understand where I’m coming from. I feel like I read somewhere that the song is meant to be a veiled criticism of the simplicity and repetitiveness of the general music scene that was going on around 2001, when people like Britney Spears and N*Sync and other manufactured pop groups were existing. This was something that irked Damon Albarn, and was one of the main reasons that he and Jamie Hewlett created Gorillaz in the first place, and so it only made sense that he mimicked the thing that was so “hot” at the time. Hence why ‘Re-Hash”s dub bassline and drum pattern barely changes throughout the song, or why the lyrics in the second are the same as the first. And the chorus is made up of only one line, “It’s the money or stop”, another phrase that is repeated to high heaven. But in that is where the meaning lies. It’s all for the money.

It’s songs like this that make me miss the Gorillaz of old times. I’m sure I’ve said this before in the previous Gorillaz album-related post many moons ago, but this clean pop direction that Albarn’s taken the project to in recent times is one that I couldn’t care less about. You could expect something different from each upcoming Gorillaz album 15-20 years ago, which somehow immediately worked, but since coming back in 2017, things haven’t clicked with me as immediately as they once did. The trip-hop, dubby era of Gorillaz is one that I have a lot of heart for, even if people will die by the sword and say Demon Days is the certified classic. I mean it’s all right, I do like it myself. But I really like this.

#1094: The Strokes – Razorblade

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Been a while since I wrote about a song from The Strokes’ First Impressions of Earth on here. Last time was 2019, goodness, that feels like a lifetime ago. Having listened to that album a few times over the years, I’ve come to the conclusion that the particular album has some of the band’s best songs of their catalogue on there. It also suffers from having the dullest 11/12 minutes on there out of all the records they’ve made. The stretch of ‘Killing Lies’, ‘Fear of Sleep’ and ’15 Minutes’ is, in my eyes, not so great. I can never remember how those songs go after hearing them. That’s not the case for ‘Razorblade’ though, no, no. That’s one of for the best songs category.

Now, I remember the release of First Impressions pretty well. I was in my final year of primary school, 10 going on 11. The video for ‘Juicebox’ appeared on the TV and was shown very regularly during the day despite how racy it got. I dug the track. Now, not so much, but that’s going in another direction. My sister was going through a Strokes phase herself, and a school friend of hers lent her a First Impressions CD, which she immediately ripped onto Windows Media Player and returned to that friend not too long after. And even with that nice origin story, it took me years until I actually listened to ‘Razorblade’ in full and appreciated how good it was. Being that young an age, I don’t think I had the patience to sit through albums and mainly listened for the singles. It definitely could have been a single, though. If I was 17 years older, in the band and had my way, I would have made an argument for it.

The song’s this somewhat upbeat sounding song about emotional manipulation. I say upbeat because I hear that opening guitar riff by Nick Valensi in the left channel, those fiddly guitar lines he does during the verses, or Albert Hammond Jr’s solid rhythm guitar work all throughout, and I can’t help but think there’s something summery about the sound of it all. Like all this relationship turbulence is happening at the beach. Julian Casablancas is not singing about an actual razorblade here. The razorblade is a metaphor for love, as he states in the first line of the track, and he places this razorblade as the central component within this relationship of a couple who sound like they can’t stand each other, but, deep down, care for each deeply. Casablanca’s melody choices and delivery, that chorus reminds me of one of those old schoolchildren taunts from back in the day, make it sound like the whole affair’s pretty trivial and a bit silly. But love can be that way, I guess.

#1093: Pavement – Rattled by the Rush

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This song does have an official music video, but because it uses its radio edit, the guitar solo is cut out entirely. It’s only right that I have the album version up here first. I’ll embed the video after the final paragraph, though. Now that that’s out of the way, let’s get into this properly. ‘Rattled by the Rush’ is the second track on Pavement’s Wowee Zowee, the band’s third album, released just over a year after Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain. Story goes that critics couldn’t wait for Wowee Zowee to arrive because Crooked Rain… was just that good, but when it came around they were somewhat disappointed in its sprawling, eclectic direction, coming to the conclusion that Pavement were trying to sabotage their careers and were afraid of success. Stephen Malkmus replied to these notions, stating that it was mainly the marijuana usage that steered things along. It was also the marijuana that made ‘Rattled…’ sound like a smash hit to him, which resulted in it being released as the album’s first single.

If I tried to explain on here what I think ‘Rattled by the Rush’ is about, it’d probably be a waste of your time and mine. And no matter what Genius might have to say about it, I think this song is one of those occasions where the lyrics are just what they are and don’t have to be interpreted to any length or depth. There’s a clear stream of consciousness technique to them, the second verse in particular is a favourite of mine in terms of the rhyming and the words used in general, with ideas of one line running into a different idea in another (“cross your t’s, shirt smell”), and the words are accompanied by this stop-starting rhythm that makes it all sound very awkward, like it’s struggling to get going, before cascading into these heavy guitar breakdowns after the choruses. It’s a strange, strange song for sure. Especially one to choose for a first single. ‘Grounded’ was right there. But you’ve got to give it to Pavement for sticking to their principles.

The music video for the song caused some controversy back in the day. The band chose the guy who directed their former drummer’s ‘Plant Man’ music video to do the same job with ‘Rattled…’ (If you have questions about that linked song, don’t ask.) Band members mentioned that it wasn’t the greatest experience filming the video, and when it was shown on MTV2, it was banned for making people too dizzy because of the constantly spinning/zooming in and out camera work. An additional music video was made to make it more “pleasant” to watch, where the original video is shown on a bathroom tile next to a grotty bathtub. Fair to say, the track deserved better in terms of visuals.

#1092: They Might Be Giants – Rat Patrol

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Until 2007’s The Else, They Might Be Giants’ 1996 album Factory Showroom had the distinct characteristic of being the album by the band with the fewest tracks on there, a mere 13, compared to the 18, 19 or even 38 that fans had become so used to. I’ve built it in my head that the reasoning for the reduction in numbers was a reaction to Showroom‘s predecessor John Henry, which had 20 tracks, but was also almost an hour in length – almost a double album in TMBG respects. They Might Be Giants recorded many more songs than those that eventually appeared on Showroom, a few of appeared a few years later on 1999’s Long Tall Weekend, the group’s equivalent of Physical Graffiti in that it included new songs and oldies from previous album sessions that’d been left on the cutting room floor. ‘Rat Patrol’ was one of those Showroom outtakes.

Before ‘Rat Patrol’ ended up being the two-minute minor-key, almost heavy, hard-rocking Linnell-sung composition that it is, the original demo recorded for it revealed much more simpler beginnings. Sometimes played on their Dial-a-Song service, the recording is John Flansburgh singing the lyrics a capella in an kind of showtime-y fashion. Clearly a lot of fleshing out needed to be done. Flansburgh once stated that the track “caused quite a bit of division-even among those within the inner sanctum of TMBG”. Why it caused the division, we’ll never know. But somewhere along the way, decisions were made to let John Linnell take the lead vocal (Flansburgh sings in unison with those high-pitched backing vocals) and turn the track into a thrilling ride with dueling/harmonising guitar lines and dramatic piano/guitar vamps.

According to the band’s great Wikipedia-esque fansite, the ‘rat patrol’ phrase was taken from an American TV show of the same name that aired between 1966 and 1968. Not the first time that television has influenced a song or two by the Giants. And I’ve always sort of imagined this track being the very dramatic theme song for a TV show that’s waiting to be made. It probably wouldn’t work too well though. There’s something very menacing and almost frightening about this track. It’s also described in a TMBG document as ‘witchy rocker’, and I can understand, it is quite spooky. Like that lingering falsetto note by Linnell at the end that echoes off into the distance and eventually into silence. I wouldn’t want to hear that at night when I’m walking home alone. It’s a shame this didn’t make it onto Factory Showroom. I’d have had it as a hidden track after ‘The Bells Are Ringing’ to bring a more mysterious end to proceedings. What do I know about album sequencing, though.