Tag Archives: my ipod

#660: The Sea and Cake – Jacking the Ball

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In 2015 or 2016, one of those two years, ‘Jacking the Ball’ by The Sea and Cake appeared on my Discover Weekly playlist on Spotify. I was on my year out of university getting some industry work in, it was nearing the end of the day and there wasn’t much that needed to be done. The last two hours were usually Spotify playlist time. I remember it sounding good when I first heard it. It may have appeared another on the list a few times afterwards. But I guess I forgot about it for a while.

Fast forward to 2017 during my last few months in university and for some reason the fact that it existed popped into my head. I searched for it on YouTube and there it was. I couldn’t listen to it as loudly because my ears had recently started this ringing noise that has gone on to this day. Nevertheless, the track still sounded as good as it did when I was sitting in the work office the previous year.

It’s hard to say what ‘Jacking the Ball’ is about. After listening to The Sea and Cake’s self-titled debut from 1994, which ‘Jacking the Ball’ opens, I gathered that they were the type of band who worked on some grooves and jams and once they got the right instrumental they put some lyrics on top with a good melody. Many of their albums are very groove-based. If you’re into that sort of stuff you should definitely try their discography out. The lyrics here don’t really mean anything but are more about evoking feelings, images and emotions. The guitar riff is definitely the track’s best part. So catchy and relaxed. I’m a fan of Sam Prekop’s vocal delivery too.

I’ve deduced that the track is a kind of ‘us against the world’ track. Hanging out with friends and having the best times and feeling like you’re kings of the world. There’s no lyrical sign that signifies that. That’s just my take.

#659: Manic Street Preachers – Jackie Collins Existential Question Time

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Hello there. Your favourite series is back, this time covering the Js, coming to you every other day until those songs are done. There aren’t a lot of songs I have on my phone beginning with ‘J’. It’s one of those letters that don’t really appear quite frequently at the start of a word. The songs to come are great though. At least I think so. I’ve been okay if you wanted to know. Been learning to drive and steadily getting there. That’s about it. On to the song!

‘Jackie Collins….’ was the first single from their 2009 album Journal for Plague Lovers. Well… it wasn’t really a single. No track from that album was. Nicky Wire joked that just the titles alone for some of the tracks on there didn’t really make them suitable for a commercial release. Though it was this one that made it known that there was a new album on its way. It’s one of the lighter and poppier moments on the album, save for the last minute or so where James Dean Bradfield really lets loose on the vocals accompanied by the thrashing drums and rise in tempo. Those guitar harmonics that serve as the song’s main musical hook are brilliant too. Good musical substance packed into two and a half minutes.

The lyrics were written by Richey Edwards, the band’s former guitarist and lyricist who disappeared one day in February 1995. Despite all hopes that he would some day return, he was officially presumed dead 13 years later in November of 2008. All of the lyrics on the album were written by him, if you hadn’t heard it before, and were taken from a notebook that he had left behind before his disappearance. They’re not the easiest to decipher, though that doesn’t matter really. I’ve always sensed some sort of sarcasm and satire from them though for reasons I don’t understand myself. You’d just have to listen to the song.

#658: The Strokes – Ize of the World

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It’s an emotional time. This is the last entry in the “I” section. This has taken two years to do. And I started this again having gone on a bit of a hiatus. I’ll go on a bit of a break after this one. I’ll certainly be back a lot sooner though. So many more songs to go. Plus there are barely any songs for ‘J’.

And to close it out is ‘Ize of the World’, the phenomenal track by The Strokes, found on First Impressions of Earth in 2006. There are a lot of times on this album where Julian Casablancas pushes his voice to the brink. It’s the first one on which he properly screams, or at least properly goes for those high notes with his chest. He goes for those types of vocals on ‘Vision of Division’ where, in my opinion, he doesn’t sound too great. However, it’s on ‘Ize’ where he executes those really well.

It’s a very intense track. Like it’s the backing music to the end of days or something. When I was younger I had these images of my head of people lying awake in bed, fearing of near-death, trying to make up for lost time but it’s too late as the city gets wiped out and there’s nothing left.

That’s really not what the song is about though. It’s more Casablancas’ feelings on modern society, how we survive in these dire times and what we could do to better ourselves. His points and observations are set to great guitar interplay between Albert Hammond Jr. and Nick Valensi (as is the usual in any Strokes song); the track alternates between calm verses and powerful choruses before building in intensity as it nears its end before ultimately disappearing out of existence. Kind of takes your breath away the first time you hear the studio trickery. I think it’s one of the most important songs on this album.

So that’s it. The I’s are done. Hope you enjoyed reading each entry. J’s will come soon. See you lat

#657: Aphex Twin – IZ-US

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This might be the first proper electronic song I’ve had to write about in the six years I’ve been doing this blog… I like to think I’m a person who’s into all genres, though it’s not hard to see that what I cover is usually guitar-centric. I do appreciate other things here and there though.

‘IZ-US’ is the closing track on Richard D. James’ 1997 Come to Daddy EP. This along with the other song ‘Flim’, which I would have wrote about had I known it sooner, both appeared in my Discover Weekly playlist on Spotify. Not at the same time to make it clear. I liked ‘em that much they were pretty much instant downloads.

I’ve known about Aphex Twin’s music for ages though. Honestly not trying to brag or anything. I think I was watching this 100 Greatest Music Videos thing on Channel 4 when I was about ten and ‘Windowlicker’ appeared in the countdown. I’ve only recently realised how great that song is too. Hearing it without those visuals helped a lot. Though I’m not a massive fan compared to other people who actually follow the man, I do admire the catalogue of work he’s done.

#656: The Streets – It’s Too Late

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Mike Skinner wrote two great break-up/end of relationship songs, that I know of, in the early 2000s. One that everyone knows is ‘Dry Your Eyes’, a track that almost every man can relate to – so much so that it reached number one in the UK charts 15 years ago. The other one that people might not know so well is ‘It’s Too Late’, an album cut from The Streets’ debut Original Pirate Material in 2002. Both contain the use of strings to add some emotional weight though I’m sure that’s all coincidental.

‘Too Late’ is from the perspective of a guy who had numerous warnings that this break-up was going to occur. All right there in the first verse the situation’s explained. His girl asks him to meet him somewhere. Narrator instead goes to meet mates and smoke some weed and as a result is late to the meet-up location. The girl has told him before that one day she would leave if he messed up again. He didn’t take the threat too seriously. Ignorance is bliss and all that. The second verse seems to show the narrator trying to make up for this by trying to show up on time in one last chance sort of thing. In the final verse though, he asks her to meet him. She doesn’t arrive. It’s safe to assume that it’s too late to make amends.

I can’t remember when it was that I listened to this song and thought “wow, this is actually great I’m going to add it to my phone so I can hear it all the time”. Mike Skinner’s voice may not be for everyone. His delivery is unapologetically British. I myself don’t mind it. Well…. the way he tries to rhyme ‘there’ and ‘beer’ around one minute and twenty seconds in is…. not too great. The female vocal in the chorus is okay, not too much to my likin’. But even if you don’t vibe with the vocals so much, just listen to those strings. There’s a great sadness and sense of reminiscence to them. They loop and play the same melody throughout the entire thing, bar some points where the dissonant ambient tones come in, but they never get tiresome which is always a good thing. Most definitely the emotional centrepiece of the entire album.