It took me a while to fully appreciate “Fixing a Hole”. It didn’t grab me the way that other tracks on “Sgt. Pepper” did. Its stereo mix with the rhythm section and harpsichord in the left channel and George’s sole lead guitar in the right leaves the track feeling very empty, especially compared with every other track on the album. Obviously, I’ve grown to like it more in time otherwise there would be no point to this post.
Being a track that isn’t about anything else than what it says in the title, there’s nothing emotional for the listener to dwell upon. It’s a track to just chill and relax to. I like that kind of music. Reminds me of something played at some late-night jazz/blues lounge-type place, it is that calm of a track.
While looking for more music to listen to I stumbled across “Chutes Too Narrow“, the second album released by indie rock band The Shins in 2003. The group had been one that I had heard of before; I watched their music videos for their singles “Phantom Limb” and “Australia” when they were due to release “Wincing the Night Away”. Though I didn’t become a fan of their stuff straight away, I did like the sound of those two songs and even if I wasn’t left awestruck or anything their melodies still popped in my head at the most random of times.
There are a lot of those cheerful, memorable melodies on each track of “Chutes Too Narrow”, and “Fighting in a Sack” was the one that I liked the most out of all of them. It’s a sprightly two-and-a-half-minute number questioning death, how we as human beings feel about this inevitability and the possibility that the topic wouldn’t be so heavy if we all enjoyed living in the moment and making most of the time we have.
Filled with little keyboard licks, a leaping vocal performance by James Mercer, a harmonica solo and a bright “woo” chant before it are included, and it never fails to make me that bit happier when listening to it.
Have you ever gone on casually going about on your daily routine knowing that something big and life changing was on the horizon, but you’re just that person too wrapped up in your own life or what’s happening on the television to realise it? Well, I think that’s what Damon Albarn was thinking about when he was writing the lyrics to “End of a Century”, the third track and last single from the 1994 album “Parklife“.
If I was a little older in 1999 – maybe ten or eleven (around those ages) – I would probably be able to tell you how much people were going crazy for the start of the new millennium. I can’t because I was about four and I can barely remember living in the nineties anyway. The only thing I remember vaguely around the start of 2000 was the “Millennium Bug” where all the electricity was supposed to go out and there would be no more power. Even now, I have no idea what it was about.
While there was obviously a large majority of the world who did care that the world was entering a new era, you can’t say that there weren’t some people existing then who didn’t. Thought it was ‘nothing special’. Saw it just like any other day, and were more interested in carrying on with their lives.
So listen to this track, because it’s coming from a guy who was very much aware of what was going on at that time. Well, six years before anyway.
That is my decision for yesterday’s post. As the saying goes, ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.’
But on the topic of my iPod, I was wondering what I could do to bring some consistency to my new blog.
I don’t just want to come on here one day with nothing to write about. I’ve been looking through the songs that I have on my ‘portable device’ and wondering… ‘damn, this is the music that I’ve enjoyed throughout my life…. where does the time go? blah blah blah nostalgia’.
So I’m going to guide you, in alphabetical order, through the songs I have, how I discovered them and whatever.
So number one…..
The Futureheads – A to B
OK. The Futureheads are a four piece band from Sunderland, consisting of two brothers and two other guys. I’ve listened to them for about… nine years now, ever since their debut album came out in 2004. I think the first song I heard by them was ‘Decent Days and Nights’, when I was watching good old MTV2, when it actually played a wider variety of better music. It is now called MTV Rocks, but it doesn’t rock at all. Not. at. all. But anyway, I liked that song and I remember I went shopping with my mum in Tesco one day, and we were in the CD aisle and I saw the front cover of The Futureheads album. I saw it, and the conversation as I recall went a little something like: Mum: “What’s that?” Me: “It’s an album by a band I listen to.” Mum: “Do you like them?” Me: “Yeah, sure.” Mum: “Alright, well then put it in [the trolley].” And I’ve never looked back since. I wouldn’t say that The Futureheads are one of my all time favourite bands, but they have really good, catchy songs with great vocals and punchy instrumentation. Check out some other stuffbythem if you want. Their latest album ‘Rant’ was released last year, but is only acapella…. so get that if you’re into that kind of stuff. Did you like this blog entry? Comment on it, and I’ll try and make these as daily as I can. Until next time. Jamie
The Music in My Ears 