Tag Archives: my ipod

#685: Wilco – Kamera

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It’s back. The moment you’ve all been waiting for. Been a month and a few weeks but I think I’m ready to come back to this. Nothing much has changed. I did pass my driving test at the end of January though. Six months of driving lessons that led up to it. I’m a grand less in wealth than I was before. But at least it’s all over now. This thing just continues to carry on though. And it’s time for the K’s. Like ‘J’, there aren’t a lot of songs to write about beginning with ‘K’ too. It just depends on how I’m feeling whether I can get these out on a regular schedule.

And so to kick it all off is ‘Kamera’, the second track from Wilco’s album Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. Remembering the time the track really clicked for me, I’d returned home at about 12pm after sleeping round a friend’s house after a birthday party. Got to my house, mother left for work, and I decided to listen to ‘Yankee’ on Spotify. So there I was, hungover, lying on the sofa, staring at the ceiling with my headphones on and having an existential crisis when the noise that ends the album’s first track suddenly ended and the acoustic guitars for ‘Kamera’ came in.

The song is understated in its delivery and aesthetic. After seven minutes of ‘I Am Trying to Break Your Heart’, an ambitious opener that ends in a collage of noise, ‘Kamera’ arrives as a straight up acoustic-driven alt-rock tune. As the song goes on, it subtly builds and layers are added. Pretty synthesizer flourishes and keyboard melodies appear here and there interplaying with Jeff Tweedy’s vocal. The backing harmony vocals appear out of nowhere and only for a brief period in the final verse. Jeff Tweedy also double tracks his lower main vocal with one in a higher register in that last part too. Its ending seems to loop forever as the acoustic guitars play a climbing riff alongside a (I want to say) glockenspiel that plays a downward scale. And then just as the band get ready to play the last few chords, there’s a small ‘beep’ that appears to signify their cue to wrap things up.

I didn’t notice all of this when I was on the sofa that time. I think then, I was engaged by how happy it sounded even though there’s a hint of sadness to it that I can’t quite grasp. Several listens to it since then has revealed just how much goes on this song. It has become one of my favourites from the album after years of not caring that much about it.

#684: Cloud Nothings – Just See Fear

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The last of the Js. Told you the Js wouldn’t last that long. Though I did take a break whilst doing them. There aren’t a lot of songs I have on here beginning with K too. I’ll probably wait a bit before going straight into those though. If anyone’s reading these, thank you for doing so. I get rather small viewings on here. But I don’t do it for those. I just like to share my favourite music with people. I want to try and branch out onto other topics on here. But this is really all I know… and strongly care about. There’s still more to come.

So the last track for now comes from Cloud Nothings’ album from 2014 – Here and Nowhere Else. That album turns six in April though I remember listening to it continuously in its first few weeks of release. That and Mac DeMarco’s Salad Days. Those were good times. ‘Just See Fear’ was one of the many songs on Nowhere Else that impressed me from the get go. It was, for a while, my favourite song on the whole thing. As time has gone on my preference for others in comparison to this has increased, but whenever ‘Fear’ arrives on shuffle the endorphin rush settles in.

Like all of its fellow tracks, ‘Just See Fear’ is a powerful and intense noise rock track held together by the thunderous drumming of Jayson Gerycz and guitar work from lead vocalist from Dylan Baldi. It was in this album that the band had only one guitarist after the departure of Joe Boyer who played on previous album Attack on Memory, so Baldi takes on the role of both rhythm and lead guitarist mimicking his vocal lines as well as just generally keeping along with the tempo. His words aren’t very clear to hear. But if you’re into melody then there’s plenty of it. Things really pick in the last minute though; the guitar seems to rise in volume as Gerycz goes even crazier on the drums with these crazy rolls and cymbal crashes as Baldi goes on to scream incomprehensible syllables. It’s a climactic section that makes the release all the much better when it flies straight back into the final chorus.

There you go. I’ll be back again.

#683: Bob Dylan – Just Like a Woman

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It was around this time last year that I came to revisit this album. It’s in 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die – a book I got for my 22nd birthday and am still going through to this day. I am on 1968.

I’ve had Blonde on Blonde in my iTunes library since at least 2014(?) Maybe have been earlier. And I didn’t rate ‘Just Like a Woman’ back then. Thought it was okay but I immediately forgot about it. It took the revisit last year to find that it’s one of the best songs on the album.

It’a very pretty. Set in a waltz time with a calm Hammond organ and acoustic guitars. Really what takes up much of the soundscape is Dylan’s striking harmonica and that iconic voice of his. His vocals are not pretty, as you may or may not know, but it’s all about the feeling he gives behind his delivery which he never fails in providing.

#682: Nine Black Alps – Just Friends

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‘Just Friends’ is the ninth song on Nine Black Alps’ debut album Everything Is. It was released as a single. I sort of remember the time it’s video was doing the rounds on MTV2, recalling how upbeat and light-hearted it was in comparison to ‘Unsatisfied’.

Turns out I’ve been mishearing this song’s lyrics for all this time, and as a result my initial interpretation of it has been thrown out the window. Originally I thought it was about two people breaking up and becoming ‘just friends’. It’s actually the opposite. What I thought was “now, in the long, we’re just friends” in the chorus is really “now we’re no longer just friends”. It’s about being heavily invested in a relationship and stepping up to the plate to make things work, but it’s all delivered in a very cynical, “meh, I don’t really care” attitude in the lyrics.

The track is two minutes and 15 seconds long, starting off strongly right from the start with a drum roll and its main riff, just as the cymbals from the preceding track on the album are beginning to fade out. It’s a song with high energy, great melodies throughout via the guitars and Sam Forrest’s vocal take. It’s another gem from a fantastic album that I’m grateful I actually own to this day.

#681: Jane’s Addiction – Just Because

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The video for this song used to show on Kerrang! all the time back in the day. I’d be flicking through my usual circuit of music channels (MTV2 to Kerrang to The Amp (anyone remember The Amp?) to Scuzz and then back to MTV2 – this was how it was before YouTube) and there it was. It came to a time when I convinced myself to watch the whole thing from front to back just to see why it was always in circulation.

Turned out to be worth the few minutes. ‘Just Because’ was Jane’s Addiction’s big comeback single (I didn’t know that at the time, and I’m sure few years had passed since its release when I first watched it anyway) in 2003 for their big comeback album Strays, their first LP after a initial 12-year breakup. The track is drastically different to anything the band made in the 90s. Whether fans were receptive of the change or not I’m not sure. They were capable of making some far out stuff in those times. So when the first song after a twelve year wait was this really streamlined arena-rock U2-ish rocker I have a feeling that some people were divisive on the single.

I’m all for it. I’ve never followed Jane’s Addiction that closely so my opinion might not matter too much. But that guitar riff by Dave Navarro gets the anticipation rolling every time. His playing really drives the song forward, especially with those small guitar solos in each instrumental break. Always appreciated that high note he reaches to close it all out too. Perry Farrell laps it up on the vocals and additionally so in the music video. Is it right to say that the chorus on here is a monster too?

Maybe I should listen to more Jane’s Addiction. I did listen to Ritual de lo Habitual one time. Might need to listen to it again. Otherwise all I know is this song and ‘Been Caught Stealing’. Basic, am I right?