Tag Archives: my ipod

#777: Joy Division – Love Will Tear Us Apart

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Surely, this is a song that everyone knows. I was tempted to just write ‘classic’ on this post and call it a day, leaving some sort of poignant message by doing so. Then I realised that would be a bit lame. A bit pretentious too. This’ll probably be a short one, though. As much as I like ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart’, it is a fantastic song and gone through the ages as one of the best of all time, I don’t think it’s had the greatest effect on me personally than it probably has for millions of people out there. I do appreciate it a lot, though. There’s a lot of greatness in its subtlety and weariness.

The track was released as a single in June 1980, a month after Joy Division’s frontman Ian Curtis committed suicide. The music video is the only official one they did, and was filmed just a few weeks before the tragic event. This song is the first of the band’s I’d ever heard; its music video played on a channel somewhere (maybe Q TV, most likely MTV2), and for a while was the only one I listened to. Maybe it was because Curtis looked so despondent on the microphone. I also didn’t know that Joy Division were held in such high regard. I was a young boy at that time.

I think the only major point in my enjoyment of the track is that the ‘Permanent Mix’ that was released on a compilation in 1995 is my go-to version. That’s just the one I’ve been accustomed to for all this time. It’s the version that’s played in the video above. A lot of people prefer the original 1980 release. That’s fine. The main difference between the two is that the mix is a lot fuller in the ’90s reissue. There’s also a nice acoustic guitar outro added in there too. It’s the same song at the end of the day.

#776: Wolfmother – Love Train

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Every time I hear ‘Love Train’ by Wolfmother I’m reminded of the times when it was the band’s new single and its video was making the rounds for the first time on MTV2 in the UK. 2006 was the year. Wolfmother seemed to come out of nowhere when the group’s video for ‘Dimension’ was also played endlessly on that channel. That was the first ever song of theirs I heard/watched and I guess its fair to say that became a bit of a fan. They wore their 70s hard rock influences on their sleeves but the music was amazing. I got their album as a result; I haven’t gone through it in a while.

After ‘Dimension’ and ‘Woman’ were released as singles, ‘Love Train’ followed. It wasn’t as commercially successful as its two predecessors but showed, at least to me, that they could be just a bit versatile and could lay on the funk on their music if they wanted. ‘Train’ is carried by this groove and riff that I’m sure probably came from some jam the band were doing in their spare time. The lyrics aren’t very substantive and I’m sure the music is meant to be the main thing to focus on, but from what I can hear the narrator hasn’t been in the game for a while and is looking to get back to it some time soon.

There are a load of copies of Wolfmother’s first album which have a totally different tracklist to the one I own, and that don’t have this song on there. The record was initially released only in Australia in late 2005; I guess either the band didn’t finish the song in time for it to be included, or they hadn’t even thought of it in between the time they released the album in their home country and its international release. Whatever happened, ‘Love Train’ exists, I’m glad it does, the music video you can see up there.

#775: The Darkness – Love Is Only a Feeling

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The Darkness was probably the first rock band I ever got into. I believe this is a statement I’ve said a few times before along this long road I’ve chosen to go down, but I haven’t looked back to see exactly where. As an eight-year-old going on nine, I can still remember the group being one of the most popular in the UK during 2003-04. ‘I Believe in a Thing Called Love’ was massive. Initially, I thought it was a joke song because… just watch the damn music video. But I actually sat down and fully took it in one day and it suddenly clicked. And I still don’t think the tag of a band you shouldn’t take seriously had gone even when they released ‘Christmas Time (Don’t Let the Bells End)’ later that year, a song that I wanted to be number 1 in the charts but was beaten by the ‘Mad World’ cover by Gary Jules.

‘Love Is Only a Feeling’ was released as the final single from Permission to Land in March 2004, and I think it was this song and its great video that convinced me to ask my older cousin to get the album for me as a birthday gift. The track is an emotional power ballad. Not so much the chugging rocker of ‘Thing Called Love’, ‘Feeling’ is led by these emphatic guitar downstrokes and dueling/harmonising guitar solos that appear throughout. The track’s meaning is very much clear in the title. Singer Justin Hawkins says it’s about how wonderful love can make you feel, but how it can also be a danger too. It’s a song that’s really from the heart, and I think that’s what really attracted me to it all that time ago. Any reservations I had about the band not being very serious about their stuff was gone. This song was really good. Still is almost 20 years later.

#774: The Who – Love Ain’t for Keeping

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The Who’s 1971 album Who’s Next opens with two intense rockers. ‘Baba O’Riley’, one of the band’s most iconic songs, and then ‘Bargain’, a five and a half minute powerhouse of hard rock. So to slow the momentum down just a bit, ‘Love Ain’t for Keeping’ arrives as a bit of a country-folk acoustic number, steady to the ear and much easier to take in in comparison to its predecessors.

I’ve always been fond of this one. It’s only two minutes and ten seconds, probably gets a bit shafted because of all the other songs on the album too. But it shows that The Who were as great in their softer approach to their music rather than the usual balls to the wall performances. Keith Moon on the drums plays with just enough restraint and keeps control of the song’s rhythm alongside bassist John Entwistle, and Pete Townshend plays the acoustic guitar in both channels, covering the rhythmic role in the left and lead guitar lines on the right. I think the overall highlight of the song are its vocals. They’re a highlight on many a Who song but it’s a glorious feeling when Roger Daltrey comes in with the first ‘Layin’ on my back…’ line that opens this one, especially with the natural reverb that occurs when he drags out the long note. The three-part harmonies during the instrumental nearing the end are amazing too.

So what it’s about? Judging from the lyrics, I say it’s about a person living in the countryside feeling fine and wants to make use of the good times they have by making love. It’s not meant to be kept, after all. If you think this track is boring, there was another version of the song made with guitarist Leslie West during the sessions for Who’s Next. It’s a lot more like the Who performances you may know and prefer. Townshend also takes the lead vocal here. I think it’s okay. I’ll stick with the one that appeared on the album.

#773: Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks – Loud Cloud Crowd

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The past two years have been a busy time for Stephen Malkmus. Since 2018, he’s released an album every year. That one saw the release of Sparkle Hard with the Jicks, which was then followed by his proper solo debut album Groove Denied, a record that was bit more electronic and definitely stranger in its sound. Then came Traditional Techniques earlier this year, but definitely feels as if it was released in another lifetime the way this year’s been. To cut things short, these releases made me go back and listen to his older albums in the Jicks catalogue.

I came across Face the Truth – which I’ll say is probably my second favourite of his after the 2001 self-titled album – and ‘Loud Cloud Crowd’ got to me on that first listen. It sounds like the soundtrack to the beginning ceremony of an event. Like the Olympics of something. Gives me the same feeling I get with Vangelis’ ‘Chariots of Fire’. Big things are on the horizon. I don’t know. I just get good feelings from this track. I think it’s generally about being optimistic about the future, and how it’s up to you to make your own path to make things happen. Though in the standard Malkmus way, he makes his lyrics just a bit surreal and jokingly cryptic that it’s truly understand what the subject matter is. I’m not sure what a ‘loud cloud crowd’ is; it’s probably nothing to dwell on. What I know is, that type of crowd sound quite important the way Malkmus sings it.

In terms of the music, it plays upon the quiet verse/loud chorus dynamic. It’s a bit more subtle here than how you would usually here it in a Pixies or standard grunge song though. Malkmus sings in the verses alongside a subdued guitar line and synth-bass. Some rolling tom-toms enter the frame to build some layers, and then the chorus comes in with some added synth-strings that add to the sort of regal tone the track is going for. I feel the whole arrangement’s done very well. An unrelated note but this song was also on the soundtrack for Major League Baseball 2K6. That’s a game I don’t have and probably won’t own anytime soon. But that fact is usually a common topic in the YouTube videos for this song.