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#580: Ween – I Saw Gener Cryin’ in His Sleep

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Not a very festive or momentous song for the coming new year, I know. But these things aren’t planned. I just do whatever song is next on my phone. And on this New Year’s Eve the track is ‘I Saw Gener Cryin’ in His Sleep’, the thirteenth track on Ween’s major-label debut Pure Guava.

For any Ween fan reading (quite unlikely) wondering where I would place Pure Guava in my favourite albums of the band, I’ll say to you that it probably isn’t in my top five of theirs. To me it just feels like The Pod Part 2, though with less songs and… a bigger sound to it maybe? There’s a larger emphasis on grooves and the drums on Guava, but The Pod in itself is just a lot more interesting and has a lot more variety – no matter how out there it is. I only have four songs from Guava on my phone and for some reason ‘I Saw Gener’, which I feel a lot of people would probably skip over after a while, popped out to me on that first album listen in 2015 or so.

I guess it’s because Ween are known for being this silly band who make a lot of silly stuff (even though their music is actually amazing and you should listen to anything of theirs as soon as you can) and this song details an instance where things aren’t as they seem. Dean Ween – real name Mickey Melchiondo, affectionately known as Deaner by Ween fans – sings about seeing bandmate Gene Ween crying in his sleep and offers some advice to help him through bad times. It’s all a bit heavy.

However, it’s shoddily recorded and set to upbeat, bouncy music which completely overshadows the downbeat lyricism. The drum machines skip out of time and some points, the drum machine cymbals thrash about wildly, there’s some piercing feedback after the first chorus. It’s a great listen. It makes it so funny, but it’s not supposed to be. It’s so conflicting. But that’s the beauty of many a Ween song.

That’s the end of 2017. Hard to believe I revived this back in August when I was stuck at home relentlessly searching for jobs online. Now I have one. I start next week. Hopefully this is the start of something special. Will see you in 2018. Many more songs to come.

My iPod #528: Jakobínarína – His Lyrics Are Disastrous

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Jakobínarína were an Icelandic indie-punk band that pretty much existed for a split second before disappearing and never being heard from again. After three singles came the album The First Crusade in the autumn of 2007. Unfortunately, that would be the only crusade they would embark on as the six members decided to part ways a few months later. What could have accomplished had they continued? Like Test Icicles and Larrikin Love – to name two good bands who never made it out of the 00s – we’ll never know. But we have the music, man. And that’s all that matters, surely?

“His Lyrics Are Disastrous” is the second song on The First Crusade, and is about a person who wishes to rob a bank with someone, leave the country and never return. That is pretty much it. The lyrics don’t expand much upon that situation. The title phrase doesn’t appear within the song itself; I think I remember reading somewhere that it was said by a critic/listener who was at one of their shows. The lyrics on show could appear as their own choruses in two different songs, so the title chosen is rather apt however jokingly self-deprecating it is.

Overall, it is a short and snappy to just get loose to. Nothing philosophical to dwell upon. Those types of songs can sometimes be the best ones.

My iPod #257: Coldplay – Death and All His Friends

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Ah, Coldplay. Not my favourite group. But nevertheless they are back with a new album, their sixth to be exact, in May entitled “Ghost Stories”. They’ve put out two songs already: “Midnight“, which got some polarizing feedback due to its minimalism  – and the first official single “Magic” which is quite similar to “Midnight in the way that there are barely any instruments in it, but actually has a beat and a good melody. It is the one which I like a bit myself and it is better than the former song. But that’s just my opinion.

Today’s song is the other title track from Coldplay’s fourth album “Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends“, commonly known as “Viva la Vida”. Most people know it for the album where Coldplay changed. They went around wearing suits a la The Beatles during the Sgt. Pepper phase and generally went for a new approach in making their music. Some may have found it pretentious. I think it’s their best album. I have “Parachutes“, “A Rush” & “X&Y“; they have their moments, but “Viva” along with “Prospekt’s March” – that is good listening. No to “Mylo Xyloto” though.

The beginning of “Death and All His Friends” is actually a song that was meant to be separate altogether. This was its original incarnation. It’s very calm and soothing for the first half before bursting into life when the rest of the band join in and abruptly changing into the soaring and climactic ending (in 7/4 time signature) which will catch any first listener by surprise. The song is a triumphant ending to a wonderful album. There is a full version of the instrumental that you hear at the beginning of the very first track of the album, but I cut that out before putting it on my iPod. You can’t beat that ending.