Tag Archives: her

#867: Animal Collective – Mouth Wooed Her

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Hard to know where to start with this one. Back in 2014 when I was properly getting into Animal Collective and heard Sung Tongs for the first time, my personal highlights became clear straight away. I certainly didn’t consider ‘Mouth Wooed Her’ to be one of them. I guess I just thought it was too strange. And, I mean, you couldn’t really blame me for that initial reaction. Avey Tare is not your average singer. And the track changes its time signature and shifts through many movements… it’s one to get your head around.

Then one day that I couldn’t possibly recall, it was definitely years after 2014, I heard it once more and it all seemed to make a lot more sense. Sometimes that’s the way it goes when it comes to music. But would I say it’s my favourite track on the album? Probably not. But I appreciate it quite a bit. It is weird, but simultaneously quite flowing and free to the ears. I think I would put that down to its waltz timing. And the vocal melody’s pretty memorable to. Avey Tare sings along with every downbeat (I believe, I’m not a music theorist) which gives the track that little bit of a bounce. It’s like the vocals are jumping with every delivery of a line in a verse. It takes a strange turn at about 1:40 in, which I’m sure confused on that first listen. Still does now, just a bit. But then after a quiet moment it launches back into the final few verses and all sounds good again. That is until about a minute later when the slow breakdown section starts with hazy acoustic guitars, claps, and Avey Tare singing that he needs mouth water repeatedly for the rest of the song’s duration. ‘Mouth Wooed Her’ is play on ‘mouth water’, by the way. A lot of wordplay happens in the song titles on this album.

So, yeah. Not my favourite, but won’t skip whenever it appears on a train journey. Will this post sway you to give the track a listen and throw you down an Animal Collective-shaped rabbit hole? Well, that’s questionable. But at the very least, I tried.

#796: Kid Cudi ft. Kanye West & Common – Make Her Say

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‘Make Her Say’, a song by Kid Cudi featuring Kanye West and Common, leaked in the early months of 2009, I remember that happening quite well. I was in Year 9, couldn’t tell you the US equivalent, and my friend who was always visiting websites for new music ended up downloading it. He showed it to everyone. When you’re 14 you’re trying to impress anyone you can. That he was able to get this download was a big deal for him, I guess.

Anyway, ‘Make Her Say’ was originally titled ‘I Poke Her Face’, reflecting the sexual content in the lyrics and also as a nod to the Lady Gaga sample that is heavily featured in the track. The title wasn’t appropriate for radio, thus the change in name. It features Cudi, West and Common rapping about having their eyes on women and detailing their own sexual fantasies about them. It’s all in good heart, even if it’s all a bit dirty. Talk about threesomes and spitting/swallowing is all in there, but the main act that’s highlighted is fellatio and how satisfying it is.

The track is actually very minimal in production, I’ve realised. I think this video is what Kanye took the ‘Poker Face’ sample from, and he just spliced it up, put a drum beat over it and made it a new song. Work’s greatly, though. Especially the way that Gaga’s vocals pop up here and there and work alongside the verses from Cudi, West and Common. The original leak had a full minute of Lady Gaga singing at the end; that’s the version I still listen to today. That was cut down for the album for reasons I don’t know.

#730: Mac DeMarco – Let Her Go

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I think I’m now older than Mac DeMarco was when he released Salad Days in 2014. I was in my first year of university, 18 but very close to 19, looking for new music to hear and DeMarco appeared with a Best New Music tag on Pitchfork. This is a story I’ve told many times before on this blog. To cut it short, I liked the album pretty much instantly. I still think it’s his best one to this day. This blog was well under way by the time he released the record, so songs like ‘Blue Boy’ and ‘Brother’ I wasn’t able to write about. I did do one for ‘Go Easy’ though, that could be a fun one to read (I don’t know I’ve never really looked back). There will be more to come from this album in the future. But today’s post looks at ‘Let Her Go’, a track that further proved to an eighteen year old me that this was some really good music.

It was the shining guitar tone that grabbed my attention initially when hearing the album for the first time. It was a constant throughout the album, and comes into play especially on this song. ‘Let Her Go’ is the obvious ‘hit’ from Salad Days, carried by a summery ringing descending guitar riff that interplays with the hopping bassline throughout its verses. Despite its upbeat rhythm, DeMarco sings about the hardships of unrequited love. It’s a classic song trope, happy-sounding music with sad lyrics, and I have to say that when carried out well it’s always an add to the music library. I don’t even think back then I realised how sad the song was until I read the lyrics, even though I was ‘singing’ along to them very freely.

Six years on and ‘Let Her Go’ resonates with me just as much as it did back then. I would be lying if I said I haven’t gone through what’s described in the track. Because of that, it probably resonates with me more. I always be a fan of Mac DeMarco, but that Salad Days/Another One era will always be the one I regard as his best.

Mac DeMarco – The Way You’d Love Her “Review”

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Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay. A new song by Mac DeMarco. Great fan of this guy’s stuff. Been a fan for more than a year now. “Salad Days” is a brilliant listen. I listened to that before I did “2” but that is just as good. (Do prefer the former to it, I’m just gonna say). But right here, you get a bit of flavours from the two.

“The Way You’d Love Her” is the man’s first single from the upcoming “mini-LP” entitled “Another One”, which comes out in early August. It is very much more of the same as what you usually get from him. But the stuff you get is of a very good quality. His style’s just one that works every time. May people be tired of hearing the “same song”? Suuuure. But it depends. If you’re a Mac DeMarco fan, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t like this one.

I did think the music and melody of the verses were a lot better than the chorus. Normally I find that in DeMarco’s songs the verses are only the mere teasers before the greater melody is shown in the latter. But that’s how I felt yesterday. Everything will most likely fall into place.

He is coming to Manchester for the Parklife Festival, and I will see him no matter what it takes. 6-7 June, folks.