Tag Archives: my ipod

#713: The Maccabees – Latchmere

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I liked The Maccabees for a while. Physical copies of Colour It In and Walls of Arms sit on my shelf in my bedroom. Still prefer their debut album to anything else they made. Kind of lost me on the third album. It was sad when they split up a few years back. Just another band from my first year of secondary school days that were gone and reminding me that time was moving on.

Looking back I think ‘Latchmere’ may have been the first song I’d ever heard by The Maccabees. Very sure it would have happened during the times when I would be watching MTV2 in the mornings where there would be a program dedicated to the newest music out there. Think it was called ‘Brand Spanking New’? Something along those lines. The version used in its music video (below) was recorded earlier than the one that eventually ended up on the band’s debut album; it’s just a bit different and there are a few lyric changes here and there but nothing too drastic.

The track is dedicated to the leisure centre in Battersea, the place in south London where the band originated from. I feel the lyrics are just made up of phrases that were taken by signs and phrases said by the lifeguards at the place, plus Orlando Weeks’ excitement about the wave machine that’s also there. Also listen to the rapid fire drumming throughout. I would air drum to this thing and there is no let up, especially during the verses.

#712: Eels – Last Stop: This Town

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Mark Oliver Everett, known as ‘E’ by the majority of people, lost both his mother and sister in tragic circumstances leaving him as the sole living member of his family. Their passing were separated by only a short amount of time, and the sudden drastic change in E’s life became the subject of Eels’ second album Electro-Shock Blues.

‘Last Stop: This Town’ is one of the many songs from the album that are about his sister. In it, Everett makes up the wishful situation where his sister’s spirit appears to him and they fly over the city together for one last time before she leaves him for the final time. I think that’s also what is depicted on the album’s front cover. It’s a saddening matter at hand but still optimistic and beautiful in a way. The track though is up there as one of the record’s most upbeat songs. Co-written by Michael Simpson, known for being one half of the producing Dust Brothers duo, ‘Last Stop’ incorporates harpsichords, keyboarded choir backing vocals, and fat ‘GET DOWN’ DJ scratches that appear during the choruses. It’s definitely designed to be an alternative hit of some kind, with plenty of catchy hooks and great melodies to boot.

Though heartbreaking in its lyrics, the music remains very cheerful in its delivery. I can only suggest its the audio equivalent of making the best out of a bad situation. If that makes any sense.

#711: OutKast ft. Slimm Calhoun, Lil’ Jon & The Eastside Boyz, & Mello – Last Call

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‘Last Call’ is the last proper song on the Speakerboxxx half of OutKast’s double album before being followed by a ‘postlude’ for the track ‘Bowtie’ from earlier. It’s a great posse track, dedicated to going to the club and getting drunk until the lights turn on and it’s time to go home. Slimm Calhoun and Mello are on here, and I have never heard anything by them or about them since. They have some nice verses, nothing to lyrical to get your head around, but perfectly suited for the ‘good times are here’ vibe that the song ultimately goes for. Lil’ Jon is also there being Lil’ Jon.

Recorded at a point where Big Boi and André 3000 were beginning to go in different directions, Speakerboxxx and The Love Below act as near solo albums for the two respective artists. There are only a few points where 3000 appears on Speakerboxxx; he does so on this track though in the role of producer. So I guess it’s him we have to thank for that fantastic synth line that repeats during the choruses, the bouncing rhythm set by the drums and those backing horns that mirror the bassline.

This is another song I didn’t appreciate until way down the line. Nothing to heavy or sentimental about it. Just a good party song. And we all need that sometimes.

#710: Meat Puppets – Lake of Fire

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Anyone who reads this blog and is very much into the same music will see this and think, “Hey, that’s that song Nirvana covered in the Unplugged concert for MTV”. Then, if you haven’t heard the original, you’ll click on the video above and think “Wow, Kurt did this song way better, this man can’t sing at all!”

Personally, I’m not a big fan of Kurt’s voice in that session and prefer the original by a mile. Curt Kirkwood doesn’t really “sing” the original. It’s more of a strained yelling, (almost) in tune, with a scream that occurs for a split second in the midst of it all. I can’t say that cliché where the singing doesn’t matter because it’s the passion with which it’s sung because Kirkwood sounds either very high or drunk behind the microphone. But I really like it still, I’ve got to say.

Despite it’s almost lo-fi style and the really loose way the music is delivered, there’s still an almighty sense of swing and menace to the track. The bass is thick and melodic, right in the centre, and the lead guitar in the right sounds ferocious with its triplet licks and emphatic downstrokes. It’s clear how Cobain took influence from their music in the first place. There’s also this strange clicking noise that you can hear throughout the track… Don’t know what it is, but it only adds to the dark and quite strange atmosphere.

I’ll leave Nirvana’s cover below – but it’s all about the Meat Puppets for me.

#709: Kevin Ayers – The Lady Rachel

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When I was interning at a music magazine in 2015, there was plenty of down time when there wasn’t much going on. If there wasn’t any down time, there was a lot of opportunity to put on a playlist while I was sorting through computer files or writing a blog of some sort. It was during those times that the song ‘Joy of a Toy Continued’ by Kevin Ayers appeared in my Discover Weekly playlist. It’s one of the happiest sounding songs I know. From that I went on to listen to Ayers’ album that the song takes its name from (or vice versa, I’m not sure, it’s also the name of a song by his former group Soft Machine). For a while Joy of a Toy was my go-to album. Ayers’ vocals reminded me of Nick Drake and the music sounded like everything was taking place at the circus. That feeling was probably aided by the cover art. It’s very fun, quick, wacky in places.’The Lady Rachel’ is one of its highlights.

The track has a very ominous sound to it. It’s backed by a majority of minor chords in its verses. There are no drums in there which adds to the song’s crawling and creepy feel, led by a very melodic bassline that jumps up and down and goes all over the place. Despite that, the track is about the titular character climbing up the stairs to her bedroom, going to sleep and having a surreal dream where she finds a castle in a box and heads into it after the castle’s moat speaks to her. The subject matter is quite innocent in a way. A girl goes to sleep and has a strange dream. Nothing wrong with that. But it’s the juxtaposition of that with the eerie music that makes it such a great listen.

Too bad I hadn’t heard the album sooner. I’m not able to speak at length about ‘The Clarietta Rag’ and ‘Eleanor’s Cake (Which Ate Her)’. I’m way past those letters. The former is another of my favourites from the album. The latter is a beautiful tribute to Eleanor Barooshian of 60s group The Cake who split up in 1968.