Tag Archives: good shoes

#1035: Good Shoes – The Photos on My Wall

Leave a reply

Well, this’ll be the last song by Good Shoes I cover on here. It’s been fun. I’ve written about only two others. But they’re worthwhile to check out. Of course they are, otherwise I wouldn’t have bothered to express my great thoughts about them. Out of these three, ‘The Photos on My Wall’ is the one that I have the least of a personal attachment to. It was the second single to be released from the band’s 2007 debut album Think Before You Speak, the album title also taken from a lyric within the song, but I don’t think I properly listened to it in full until years later. Think it may have been used in an Inbetweeners episode or something. Hearing the song in that context made me want to search it out, and upon that revisit, it became an instant add to the library.

Here’s another case where I’ve heard the track for so long, but never thought to take time out to what the lyrics are going on about. So here it is, my first analysis into them. Well, I’ll say that I think the narrator here expresses a similar view to the one in fellow Good Shoes song ‘Never Meant to Hurt You’. They’re both prone to saying things without thinking, hurting their significant other in the process. Though while the narrator shows at least some remorse in ‘Never Meant…’, the voice in ‘Photos’ knows their shortcomings, but isn’t willing to do anything to improve themselves. Though then again, when Rhys Jones sings ‘I think I could do better/So arrogant’, maybe that’s him saying he could be a better person, realising that he can be a bit full of himself. All this time I thought he was saying he could do better as in finding someone more suitable to be in a relationship with. Though I guess there could be the intentional double-meaning… You see? You get me started on lyrics and I’ll never stop. Thoughts just pour out of me.

The track’s under two minutes. Perky and upbeat in its delivery. I believe the riff that opens the track was what I heard on the Inbetweeners. Or at least some show similar to that that would be showing on Channel 4. Wherever it was, it reminded me that the song did exist and that maybe I should check it out because it sounded so damn catchy. By that point, Good Shoes would have just released their second album No Hope, No Future. Maybe that title was an omen of some sorts because the band broke up after its release. Another one of those countless indie rock bands of the ’00s falling by the wayside. A shame. But they did make some great tunes.

#905: Good Shoes – Never Meant to Hurt You

1 Reply

Here’s another track by Good Shoes, one that like countless others throughout this series I got to know just by watching MTV2 in the morning. I’ve given something of a backstory as to how I came know the band’s music in the previous post I did concerning them, which greatly decreases the amount of words I’d have to write on here. Also allows me to talk more about the song. I’m by no means a professional, but I’ll try my best.

The track is the tale of a relationship where a girl is infatuated with the man she’s with while he just doesn’t feel the same. The narrator’s remorseful about the way things ended, wishing that things had been different, and trying to maintain the fact that with all that happened no harm was ever meant to be caused. It’s a sad subject. But together with the cutesy stop-motion music video and its general catchiness and urgent melodies, the melancholy tends to float under the radar a little. You can definitely sense a tinge of sadness though. That changes however when after that final instrumental break, the song ends with a joyous repetition of the title.

One thing I’ve noticed about Good Shoes is that there’s barely any bass in their songs, and as a result their tracks can sound very light and easy on the ears, and it also lets those little guitar licks stick out more too. That certain style suits this track perfectly, especially during those instrumental breaks that separates the choruses and verses. I also like singer Rhys Jones’ vocals on this. He pronounces and enunciates words in ways which I don’t think I’ve heard before. He’s not the greatest singer by any means, but there’s a lot of feeling behind it. That’s all you want really. Below’s the album version, which isn’t any different from the video above except that it has the word ‘fuck’ in it.

#859: Good Shoes – Morden

2 Replies

2007 was a good time to be an indie band from the UK. Since Arctic Monkeys had exploded the year before, the floodgates opened and those groups just kept on coming. But even if they had only one popular song, they could go at least somewhere and get a bit of hype before they eventually disappeared. Good Shoes had more than just one good song. They had a few actually. ‘All in My Head’ was their first single, came with a great music video too. And from my experience, whenever a new Good Shoes video arrived on MTV2, the song it was made to promote was usually very good. And one day I was sitting there, watching music videos come and go on that channel, when the video for the band’s ‘new’ single ‘Morden’ appeared.

I’ve been in Morden once. Not for any great length of time. I passed through the place during an Uber ride to its train station. I really should have gone home that night instead of getting too drunk that I had to stay round at a friend’s who lived near there. It was a long journey back to my place, I tell you. From what I saw of Morden, I didn’t think it was that bad. I don’t live there though, so my opinion shouldn’t matter much. However, the members of Good Shoes are, and the band’s track ‘Morden’ is a tale of just how shitty the town can be. Or at least how shitty the place was in the eyes of singer Rhys Jones.

The track’s a sweet 2-and-a-half minute jangly pop tune, but in it Jones straight out tells the listener that Morden isn’t a place you want to take your kids too. People are apparently racist, some might stab if you walk into the wrong area, kids are killing themselves, and overall it’s just a very uninspiring place that you wouldn’t want to live in. Now, I didn’t realise that when I was 12. Then, it just sounded good, and the one word chorus was quite memorable. Seeing the lyrics now I guess puts a downer on it, doesn’t affect my enthusiasm of it though. I find it funny in a strange way.