Tag Archives: from

#1462: Arctic Monkeys – The View from the Afternoon

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You might not be able to believe that this will be the first time I’ve covered a song from Arctic Monkeys’ debut album. I’ve written about ‘Fake Tales of San Francisco’ and ‘From the Ritz to the Rubble’ in the past, but those were both concerning the versions on the Five Minutes with Arctic Monkeys EP. Not saying that I’m an OG fan who was downloading songs from MySpace back in the day, but I did hear those Beneath the Boardwalk demos before Whatever People… was released in January 2006. And when the album arrived, a lot of the songs, to me, were just sanitised versions of them. The edge that was once there had now been taken out. A roundabout way of saying I liked the demos more. I’ve always liked the live take they did for the ‘I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor’ music video more than how the studio take came out too. It somehow felt too produced, which is funny ’cause the album’s obviously the least produced out of all the work they’ve done.

‘The View from the Afternoon’ wasn’t on that collection of demos, though. I heard the song first via its music video, which was on repeat on MTV2 in 2006 because it was the new one by the Arctic Monkeys. The track was originally going to be the third single from Whatever People…, but the band had announced the Who the Fuck Are Arctic Monkeys? EP just two months after the album’s release. ‘The View…’ was to be included as the leading track on that EP, so the video was made to prepare the people for that rather than what would be an A-side and maybe a couple B-sides. In the video, a young man plays the drums to the song in the middle of a council estate from what looks like morning to night, his hands bleeding in the process, until he’s eventually knocked out by a guy with a baseball bat. We don’t see the impact, but you can see that’s what’s about to happen. This video made me really want to get into playing the drums. Because I also saw the visual first, I didn’t know how the song properly ended until my sister borrowed a copy of Whatever People… from a school friend of hers, ’cause the song cuts out just as the baseball bat’s about to hit the kid’s head. It’s a very nice chord the song ends on, gotta say.

The whole theme of the album is a night out in Sheffield, from perspectives of the people involved to the outsiders looking in at all the chaos. ‘The View from the Afternoon’ is exactly what it’s about in the title. It’s about the people looking forward to the night out, thinking about the endless possibilities a few hours before everything kicks off. The track opens with the line “Anticipation has a habit to set you up for disappointment,” which everyone comments on how clever it is that Alex Turner’s also referencing the hype around the ban. That isn’t the entire lyric, though, so is he really? He probably is. I sometimes thought people were reading too much into it. But yeah, Turner writes from the point of view of someone listing the things they want to see while out on the town. Girls in fancy dress, gambling in the fruit machine, the works. A particular action that’s focused upon in the lyrics is drunk texting a girl you’re interested in, which the band urge the narrator to bear in mind. We have a strong album opener on our hands. The four bandmembers are firing on all cylinders. Maybe there’s a reason why the music video places a focus on the drumming, because Matt Helders is going crazy on ’em. Lot of sixteenths on the hi-hats and frenetic drum fills. Turner and Jamie Cook play very quickly on their guitars, their highlight probably being the part where the song dies down and the two of them play alternating chords that switch from left to right and back again in the headphones. Former bass guitarist Andy Nicholson follows the chord progression of the rhythm guitar, but he does it very well, rounds off that low end. So maybe Whatever People… isn’t my favourite Arctic Monkeys album, but I can’t say it doesn’t get off to a good start.

My iPod #398: 30 Seconds to Mars – From Yesterday

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The song doesn’t properly start until two minutes in. If you’re here just for that, then skip to that time. Otherwise, enjoy the seven and a half music video.

Though I’m not the biggest fan of 30 Seconds to Mars, I do think all of the singles released from “A Beautiful Lie” are great. Around the time that their music videos started appearing on TV, I was just starting my first year of secondary school. There never seemed to be a moment when one of their videos wasn’t showing on MTV. If, let’s say, “The Kill”‘s music video stopped playing because the single was getting old and didn’t need to get into the charts then the band’s newer video would start playing instead. It was mad stuff, though they had to be heavily edited due to the band’s tendency to make their videos as short films. “From Yesterday”‘s video did not differ from this, as you can see. Apparently there’s a thirteen minute version.

The track is the seventh on the band’s second album, and from looking at it’s lyrics I can only suggest that it’s about….. the President?…. maybe? You can contest me on that one. Generally, hearing it nearly every day either after coming home from school, or in the mornings when getting ready pretty much forced me to remember its melody and  everything else. Though it wasn’t a song that I found annoying or repetitive, so I wasn’t bothered. Still, doesn’t bother me today. Nice to hear it when it pops up on the iPod now and again. Reminds me of being in year 7.

My iPod #397: Arctic Monkeys – From the Ritz to the Rubble

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Like “Fake Tales of San Francisco”, the version of “From the Ritz to the Rubble” I listen to can be found on the EP “Five Minutes with Arctic Monkeys”. There aren’t any major differences between that version and the re-recorded take on “Whatever People Say….”. The only one I can think of at the top of my head is the ending bass. Even so, the version you can hear above was the one I was listening to waaaay before the album was released and therefore I got used to seeing that as the official version. Though both tracks were recorded in a totally different label, I have to say that I feel “Five Minutes with Arctic Monkeys” contains the better takes of both songs.

Though the majority of you may recognise the track as the penultimate offering of Arctic Monkeys’ phenomenal debut from 2006, “Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not”, an album about a Saturday night out in Sheffield. Although “A Certain Romance” brings the album to a close, I consider “From the Ritz to the Rubble” to be night-out concept’s ending, coming from a person who wakes up on the Sunday morning thinking ‘what the fuck was that all about?’. Though not before a recalling of events involving a power-mad bouncer at the entrance of a club, which funnily isn’t all that important as Turner shrugs it off claiming it as ‘a story to tell you’.

The song’s main message concerns how people reflect on the things they’ve done on a drunk night out, and how amazingly different things appear to be the morning after. It is also one of the most energetic tracks on the Monkeys’ debut; many cymbals crash, a lot of alternating guitar lines occur which pan from one ear to the other, and plus it has a groovy bassline which you can never go wrong with. One to get the blood rushing.

My iPod #396: Nick Drake – From the Morning

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“…listening to this album, with headphones to be isolated of all exterior noises, with eyes closed, is a unique experience. Because at the end, the last song you hear is FROM THE MORNING, and this song is so positive! After all an album of a beautiful darkness, you finish on this moving celebration of life, telling you that another day starts after this tormented night, all starts again with a beautiful morning, that everything is possible with the rise of the sun. It’s at the opposite with the whole rest of the album, and it ends like that. I’m telling you, you can’t arrive at the end of PINK MOON with your eyes dry. That’s why this song has a particular saviour. And you need to know that FROM THE MORNING was his parents favourite song, proof that it has a positive reflect, and that’s why they chose a quote of this song as epitaph on his gravestone “Now we rise, and we are everywhere”.

That is a comment under the lyrics of “From the Morning” on songsmeaning.net. And I actually couldn’t put it better myself.

“Pink Moon” is the album to play during the hours of a cold winter night; its bare atmosphere and depressing lyrics matching the dark, silent environment. You walk around wondering where to turn.

But then “From the Morning” begins just as the sun rises, the skies turn a pinkish colour, the birds start to sing and you realise you’ve been bugging out over nothing. Everything will be alright. Another day is here. Time to learn something new.

The track’s presence wipes the sadness and desolation present throughout “Pink Moon” away, and as the last song ends the album on a happy, positive note. Sadly he would pass away only a few years later, but at least his official discography came to a definitive conclusion with this highly-spirited tune.

My iPod #395: Linkin Park – From the Inside

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“From the Inside” is from Linkin Park’s second album “Meteora”. It’s my favourite track on that album, too. It was released as its fourth single in 2004, physically in Australia and the USA whilst it was download only in the UK. It’s a track of the band’s that isn’t really overplayed so I never feel as if I can ever really get tired of it, say like “What I’ve Done” or “In the End” or something. This is an actual track I can really get into when that siren-like keyboard melody begins.

“From the Inside” adapts that quiet verse/loud chorus dynamic that is typically used in grunge music. Chester Bennington softly sings alternating with Mike Shinoda’s raps in the verses, before Bennington lets loose and the trademark Meteora wall of guitars enter for the chorus. Bennington screams a lot during the bridge too, which excites any Linkin Park fan.

Not much else I can say about it. It’s a very heavy tune about being betrayed and not knowing who you can trust anymore, with a waltz time signature. Cool stuff.