Tag Archives: hear

#953: Cloud Nothings – Now Hear In

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‘Now Hear In’ stands as the first song I ever heard by Cloud Nothings. Attack on Memory had passed me by, and it was in 2014 when Here and Nowhere Else was released and got an 8.7 on Pitchfork that I thought this may be an album I could get behind. I don’t think I listened to the whole thing at once. I remember it being quite late at night. But ‘Now Hear In’ was right there, so it only made sense to at least hear one song before going to bed. The opening riff sounded inviting enough. Then Dylan Baldi begins singing a really accessible melody. Alongside the rough guitars and grimy rhythm section, the track made sense then and there.

I’ve written about a few songs from this album now. One quite recently as a matter of fact, so I’m at the risk of repeating a lot of things I say in those other posts here too. You can have a look back. I know what I’m about to mention is in almost all of them and that’s Jayson Gerycz’s drumming. All throughout the album, he plays at what feels like a beat earlier than all the guitars around him. Adds a sense of urgency and provides a solid rush throughout the whole album. As the first song I’d ever heard, it was strange hearing the drums being played this way. But as the naïve 18-year-old I was, it certainly scratched a mental itch that I hadn’t known existed up to that point.

I’d like to think I’ve got a grip about what this track is about. Maybe it’s not as clear-cut as I think it is. But I’ve always seen it as song about an apathetic person who’s thinks life is all right, trying to find the exciting stuff in it, but it’s mostly the same experiences each day. They’ve got a friend or a significant other who pretty much feel the same way, and it’s with that common link that they get along with each other than most other people. All in all though, they’re not very impressed with a lot that goes on. The lyrics do introduce a theme of living in the now, but the track itself doesn’t resolve that theme in the most positive way. That’s not until the album’s final track. And it’s with that uncertainty that we’re left with a fine album opener. Always have a good time with this one.

My iPod #562: They Might Be Giants – I Can Hear You

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I can’t vividly describe the first time I heard ‘I Can Hear You’. There was no situation I found myself in life where the song was playing on the radio and felt a wave of emotion. It just happened when I listened to Factory Showroom in full in 2010 or so. I can’t remember how I felt about the song on that first listen, though revisits to it revealed another noteworthy gem of the group’s within their illustrious discography.

The performance of ‘I Can Hear You’ was recorded at the Edison Historic Site in New Jersey on wax cylinder alongside three other songs on 27th April 1996, explaining the low audio quality of the track. Its thin sound also makes it quite hard to decipher what instruments are being played on it. All these years I never thought there was a bass being played in it, yet close listening made it much clearer. It also has quite a simple yet punchy rhythm to it which makes it that much enjoyable to hear.

The lyrics are sets of dialogue from other low-quality transmissions that you may come across in daily life, whether it be from a passenger in a plane calling a close friend from the sky to those intercom towers you order your food from at a fast-food drive-through. There’s a sad feeling I get from this song, I can’t explain it. There’s something about the sound of it and its cyclical nature – the ‘chorus’ at the beginning of the song comes back around at the end – that sometimes gets to me. It’s far from being one of the band’s best songs. Though I enjoy it a lot. Good tune.

The band replicated the recording process of the song as part of a Millennium special of Jon Stewart’s Daily Show in 1999. This version is just as good, if not probably better, given some string flourishes that enhance its effect.