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My iPod #403: Manic Street Preachers – Further Away

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Well. Here’s the final song from the “F” section. It’s been a while. It should have come yesterday, but university work took over. Hope you understand.

And to cap it all off is “Further Away”, the penultimate track from Manic Street Preachers’ stellar album “Everything Must Go”. Understandably, the band had a horrible time (to put it lightly) after guitarist and lyricist Richey Edwards’ disappearance in Febrary 1995. But only a year and a bit later, despite everything they’d gone through, the three remaining members pulled off one of the greatest comeback albums. That was “Everything Must Go”. And it all just went on from there.

“Further Away” is great. Very underrated, though some may say it’s one of the weakest on the album. I disagree. I think it’s as strong as any other song on there. I do actually prefer it to “A Design for Life”. Yeah. That’s right.

Why? Because I feel so emotional listening to it. The track was written Nicky Wire when the band were on tour and he was having a bout of homesickness, and who better to sing his lyrics and write the music than James Dean Bradfield? Honestly, his vocals just tower over everything. Over what are pretty simple chord changes throughout is a voice so powerful, but intricate and melodic at the same time. Staying restrained for the most part in the verses Bradfield then proceeds lets it all out in the chorus leaping from one syllable “FUURRRR-“, and the next “THER”. Just glorious in every way. Majestic. Everything about the track is wonderful, I can’t express it enough.

I also own the 10 year anniversary remastered version, so everything sounds just a tad clearer and sharper. Sounds like you are right next to the amplifiers there and then in the studio. Good to experience at high volumes.

And there it is. Another letter done. It’s been fun. What a great way to end it too, but that’s just me. You may not like the song.

Be back soon.

My iPod #354: Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks – Fall Away

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The track “Fall Away” is on indie rock master Stephen Malkmus’ and his Jicks album “Mirror Traffic“, his band’s fifth album from 2011. The track is very light to the ear with soft guitars, heavenly vocal harmonies for the choruses but is backed up with a bass drum that really packs a punch with over-ear headphones.

As it’s not a single, I can’t say that there’s much of a back story behind the song. It seems to be another one of those ones about being on the road and performing on tour, and the time that a band isn’t touring and is instead writing and rehearsing new songs in the studio that ‘no one else can hear’. The second verse seems to elaborate on this topic, using wordplay and metaphors that could only ever be written and sung by Malkmus.

This is a very good song to listen to when travelling or sleeping, just my opinion.

My iPod #128: Mystery Jets – The Boy Who Ran Away

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“The Boy Who Ran Away” was Mystery Jets’ third official single in 2006. Their first album “Making Dens” was out, and they were played a minority of the time on MTV2. Most of their airtime came in the NME Chart, before NME up and went to go and have their own channel.

At first, “The Boy Who Ran Away” wasn’t to my liking. I would always skip the channel everytime the video came on. I take that back – it’s not that it wasn’t to my liking, it was just that I barely gave it a chance.

I did like their other songs though. “Alas Agnes” was a good one, as was “You Can’t Fool Me Dennis” which weirded me out because the lead singer looked very similar to a friend I had in primary school. “The Boy Who Ran Away” must be alright then, shouldn’t it?

Well, yes it is. I wouldn’t be wasting my time on writing about a song I didn’t like. The majority of people in the UK liked the song too; it reached #23 over here and remains to be the band’s highest charting single.

The song tells a story about… a boy who runs away. From home apparently. But he ends up in a rubbish place, and goes home back to his parents even though he knows they don’t like him. Pretty miserable. It’s an upbeat song, so you probably wouldn’t realise the tragedy.

Look out for the ‘lo-lo-lo’ bridge singalong too. That’s catchy as hell.

Until tomorrow.

Jamie.

My iPod #117: George Harrison – Blow Away

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A very recent addition to my iPod. I only put it on there for a few weeks ago. And with good reason.

From the posts I’ve done so far, it may seem that my favourite Beatle is George Harrison. I don’t know how many I’ve done, but I know I’ve covered far more songs by him compared to the other three. Don’t worry, other songs will come soon. There’s no denying that George Harrison was a pretty cool guy.

I was searching around for George Harrison songs on YouTube, and I saw “George Harrison – Blow Away” which has more than a million views. So I thought it must be good if it has that many views.

I listened to it, and like the many other times when I hear something for the first time… I didn’t think it was anything much. Then the chorus got into my head. Then I saw the lyrics, started to sing along to it, and realised that this may be the happiest song I’ve ever heard in my life. What is it about this song that made me repeat it on the way to the instrument shop to get my guitar fixed, and back home again? The song arrangement is simple with a verse-chorus-verse etc. thing going. I think it’s the melody – it’s just so lovely. This song is so good. It makes me cheer up so hard.

At first I thought the song was about the weather. The video only reinforced that idea. The whole weather imagery is just a metaphor for Harrison’s feelings. He was feeling down, and so he wrote the song to remind himself to be more optimistic.

“Blow Away” can be found on George Harrison’s self-titled album from 1979, the year in which he became a father.

Until tomorrow.

Jamie.