Tag Archives: alone

#723: Razorlight – Leave Me Alone

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There was one day when I was going through my iTunes library when I realised I didn’t really like a lot of Razorlight songs as much as I used to. I’ve written about them many times in the past. Bar ‘Before I Fall to Pieces’ and ‘America’, two of the band’s songs which I still enjoy now, a lot from debut album Up All Night I took off my iPod/Phone years ago. ‘Golden Touch’, ‘Fall, Fall, Fall’, and ‘Dalston’ all get a resounding meh from me now. They just haven’t dated very well, I think. I could go back and delete the posts I wrote when I did like those songs. But I won’t. It’s good to see a younger me in time when I actually thought those songs were worth listening to.

Saying that, I still really like Up All Night‘s opener ‘Leave Me Alone’. It’s basically made from two chords saving some moments in the song’s chorus and a short instrumental bridge, and I’m very sure that the band couldn’t make a true ending for the track so they just faded it out and put some organ and ‘aah-aah’ vocals over it. There’s something about it that makes it sound unfinished. But it’s still undeniably catchy. Frontman Johnny Borrell has this sing-talking thing going through the verses which changes to a more melodic tone during the choruses. The band’s original drummer Christian Smith-Pancorvo plays a good rhythm, switching it up when he goes into double-time at various points… In fact, I think Smith really carries the band performance in this one. Good drums roll that you can slap your knees too.

Razorlight fell off by the wayside quite hard. They released Slipway Fires in 2009 and just disappeared. And the thing was no one really cared that they had gone. The band is together still, but are merely a husk of what they used to be.

My iPod #434: Blur – Globe Alone

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“Globe Alone” is the twelfth track on Blur’s fourth album “The Great Escape” in 1995. I like that album; I think it’s okay. But there are plenty who wouldn’t put it at the top of their favourite Blur album list due to the ‘faux-grandiosity’ or ‘pomposity’ some sensed in the lyrics and music. Brass is used in a lot of tracks too. Though being recorded at the height of the band’s success during the Britpop ‘movement’ during the mid-90s may have had something to do with it. But it’s on “Globe Alone” where, apart from the presence of a synthesizer and an organ in some parts, the guitar, bass, and drums take full control of the song’s momentum.

The lyrics in this case detail the life of a person who is only interested in the latest trends and what he sees on television adverts which is all well and good, but the music they are set against makes the second-shortest song on the album one of the craziest ones on there to listen to. Graham Coxon provides a wild performance with a roaring delivery during the choruses with vigorous string bends and messy guitar lines, Damon Albarn yells out every lyric from the high chest with barely any breaks, Dave Rowntree pulls off some of his best drumming in the track with a constant thrashing of the high-hat and several quickfire drum rolls, and Alex James ties it all together with a smooth bassline.

Blur changed their style for a more guitar-oriented aesthetic on their next album in 1997, and it is “Globe Alone”, which tends to be overlooked by, that could be seen as the precursor of that evolution. One of the most enjoyable to listen to from “The Great Escape”.

My iPod #29: Love – Alone Again Or

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Yeah. Said it’s all right. I won’t forget. All the times I’ve waited patiently for you. And you’ll do, just what, you choose to do. And I will be alone again tonight my dear.Those are the first words of album ‘Forever Changes’ by Love.

I’m a great fan of music. Any type. You may have guessed that already. I got to a point last year, when I really couldn’t think of any albums to download. I had a large amount stuffed into my iTunes library, but still I couldn’t think of anymore.

That was until I took the initiative to search ‘best albums ever’ into Google, and surprise surprise there’s a site which had all I could hope for.

besteveralbums.com compiles the albums by the amount of times they’ve been placed in a ‘best of’ chart in magazines as well as allow users to rate their favourite albums. I would have no idea who ‘Love’ is if it wasn’t for the site, I probably wouldn’t have listened to any of the albums that are shown on there too.

I listened to ‘Forever Changes’, for the first time last year on Spotify. ‘Alone Again Or’ was the one that got my attention straight away. Yes, it is the first track of the album so that’s obviously going to happen. It’s quite a simple song, it has two verses with one of them repeated as the final verse, but it is backed up with lush orchestration. Violins, various strings, the trumpets in the middle which reminds me of the stereotypical background music that’s played in a cartoon when a character goes to Mexico, or some other South American country. To put it frank, it sets the mood for the whole album.

And yet still, ‘Forever Changes’ isn’t one of my favourite albums. I don’t know what it is, I don’t really know how to say why it isn’t. I think it’s just that it’s sounds very different to what I normally listen to. There’s something very sophisticated about it that just puts me off it. I’d probably have to listen to it again and see if I change my mind.

You don’t have to take my bullshit though, listen to it and make up your own decision.

Until next time.

Jamie