Tag Archives: behind

My iPod #87: Nine Black Alps – Behind Your Eyes

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Hmmm….. so Nine Black Alps. I briefly touched upon them on a previous post – one that was quite rushed, seeing as I had forgotten to do a post on it in the ‘A’ series.

I always go on about my favourite bands on here. There’s They Might Be Giants, and Billy Talent too. Well, Nine Black Alps are another. Let me tell you why.

Why, I must have been ten years old or something when I first saw their video for “Unsatisfied” on MTV2. I always changed the channel when it came on, because the introduction sounded so depressing….. and the lead singer never smiled or anything. He just looked bored all the time. I didn’t wanna watch that. They then released “Just Friends” as a single, and that was a song I didn’t care for much either. For me, it was a much better song but it’s 2 and a bit minutes long, and it goes by quickly. Nope. Nine Black Alps weren’t the band for me

That was until the advert for their album “Everything Is” started airing on the television. It showed a few seconds of the two music videos for the songs I already mentioned. But it was the one for “Not Everyone” which really caught my attention. That’s for another blog. Then their songs started showing up on every EA Sports releases. First, “Cosmopolitan” was part of the EA Trax in FIFA 06, and then another of their songs, “Shot Down” appeared on Burnout Revenge.

Long story short, I got the album as a present for my eleventh birthday. It’s one of my favourites. “Behind Your Eyes” is a song from there.

“Behind Your Eyes” is one of the two acoustic songs on “Everything Is”. It comes after five songs full to the brim with hard-hitting riffs, loud guitars and various lyrics about dying, obtaining weapons and other morbid subjects. The album as a whole has quite a war-like concept to it. I’m not sure whether it’s a concept album or not. It could be.

Anyway, “Behind Your Eyes” introduces a sense of hope. A light, not quite at the end of the tunnel, but one  that shines for a few minutes until it flickers out. But you still manage to find a way through the darkness. That is until the light goes and then everything is dark again. I say that because as soon as “Behind Your Eyes” finishes, it’s back to the guitars and dark lyrics.

Yeah, it’s a pretty song amongst the madness.

Until tomorrow.

Jamie.

My iPod #86: The Who – Behind Blue Eyes

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Hi everyone. I’m feeling good. Each day just seems to go into the next so quickly, I don’t know where the time is going.

This is the third song from this album that I’ve done a blog on, and I’ve only got five songs from Who’s Next on my iPod. Oh, well.

For those of you who don’t know, “Who’s Next” is only a compilation of songs that were supposed to be used for a much bigger project that Pete Townshend had worked on. After they had finished “Tommy”, Townshend began work on a rock-opera called “Lifehouse”. However, when he explained the concept to his friends and the other band members they just didn’t get what was going on. They couldn’t handle it.

“Behind Blue Eyes” is sung from the perspective of the villain of the story, Jumbo. It was intended to be his ‘theme song’, but of course “Lifehouse” never happened. “Who’s Next” is still considered to be the band’s best album, even though it wasn’t intended to be made. That’s quite funny. You can listen to the album’s intended tracklist, thanks to this playlist on YouTube.

“Behind Blue Eyes” is the penultimate song – before “Won’t Get Fooled Again”. It starts off with Roger singing alone over Pete’s guitar, John later joins in with the bass and vocal harmonies are introduced. The song then changes into a full rock out when Keith and the electric guitars come in. Keith’s drumming is brilliant on this, listen to them here. The song then ends with a reprise of the first sections. With three cymbal crashes on the last three words, the song fades to a close.

It’s quite of a downer. But then the last track begins, and for the next nine minutes you’ll feel great.

Until tomorrow.

Jamie.