Tag Archives: my ipod

#650: …And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead – It Was There That I Saw You

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‘It Was There That I Saw You’, the (almost) opener of Trail of Dead’s 2002 album Source Tags & Codes still gets me pumped today. I listened to the full album for the first time about five years ago and ended up pleasantly surprised by the entire thing. There’s this grand mystical vibe that the music and lyrics give out throughout which some may find pretentious but I found bearable at least.

But ‘I Was There’ starts it all off with this calming introduction that suddenly explodes into a ball of energy with crashing drums and exhilarating guitar work. It is during this moment that singer Conrad Keely comes into frame singing about the time he became enamoured by someone (I’ll assume a lady) and had some great times with her before eventually losing touch. He is left wondering what he has been up to in the time that have been apart.

It’s endearing stuff. But then the fast music suddenly stops and transitions into this slow breakdown – with a melody taken from the preceding track ‘Invocation’ – that builds and builds in intensity, repeating that melody endlessly before transitioning back into the fast music you were hearing almost two minutes ago. Ahhh… it feels so good when that happens. You can experience it too!

It’s a dynamic track that pulls and pushes and takes a few turns here and there. It’s an exciting listen. It’s a great album, I say.

#649: The Flaming Lips – It Overtakes Me

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At War with the Mystics is the first Flaming Lips album I was properly alive and kicking for around the time of its release. I was eleven watching MTV2 almost every morning and the video for ‘The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song’ was showing very frequently. The song is all right. A bland opinion that I hold to this day. ‘The WAND’ followed some time after. While that one has a great groove to it, I hold that in the same regard as I do the ‘YYY Song’. Neither of them are bad though, and I can still dig them even 13 years on.

However, the track that really grabbed me from the album was ‘It Overtakes Me’. Not that I went out and actually bought the album. Actually I was either in bed or the living room and this advert for Becks beer came on. It was this weird stop-motion animation where these models were dancing to a thick bassline and an almighty groove. I later found out that it was the song that you see in the title. I’ll put that advert below just so you can all witness my impressive descriptive skills.

So ‘It Overtakes Me’ is the seventh track on At War with the Mystics. On the album itself, it’s merged with an almost-four minute instrumental entitled ‘The Stars Are So Big… I Am So Small… Do I Stand a Chance?’. I’m not too big a fan of that, but luckily the main song was edited to remove that section on its own EP and is the version you can listen to above. I might just link the instrumental at the bottom too.

As I said earlier, ‘It Overtakes Me’ is dominated by this thick and heavy bassline that’s at the forefront of the mix and is pretty much the melodic centre of the whole composition. While that bass is going on, Wayne Coyne sings about how insignificant and small he seems to be in this big wide world (a theme he tends to explore in the group’s music) and how the fact that we’re all on this sphere floating in space overwhelms him. It’s not all emotional though. There are some twinkling keyboard melodies, dramatic backing vocals, loose moments when a bandmember will yell out ‘Yeah’ in the midst of everything….. There’s a point where a vocal slowly transforms from a chipmunk-like pitch to a giant-like bellow too. It’s a very fun listen for something that can cause an existential crisis for some people.

#648: Tame Impala – It Is Not Meant to Be

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‘It Is Not Meant to Be’ is the first track on Tame Impala’s debut album Innerspeaker, released almost ten years ago…. If I remember right, that particular was the second of the “group”‘s that I listened to following Lonerism when I was in my last year of sixth form. Compared to that album, it was apparent that there was a lot more focus on the guitars and some good riffs. A lot less synthesizer work. But it was all still some great music for this guy in 2012/13.

Probably down as one of the best introductions to an album in my music library, ‘It Is Not Meant to Be’ grabbed me right away with its thick bassline and phasing guitars that repeat on and on for a minute and 20 seconds before the vocals eventually come in. If that section were its own track I wouldn’t be too upset. It’s very hypnotizing. But then Kevin Parker arrives and tells the listener about a girl he’s had his eye on and who is way out of his league, much to his reluctant acknowledgment. And that’s something a lot of guys have been through, right? I know I have.

But it’s not just because of its relatability that I dig this track. It just sounds so good. When I listen to it, I see…. trees of green, the sun. I sense a summery feeling but its surrounded by a mystic haze. Like I’m lying in a field. And then when the chorus hits I’m lifted to a whole other level. It’s a warm, comfortable listen that carries a heavy weight but won’t do you any harm in the long run. It’s definitely a smooth way to start off a discography.

#647: Blur – It Could Be You

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I may have said this before but just to reinforce it again, I prefer The Great Escape to Parklife. I realise that the latter is recognised as Blur’s first classic album, it was immense for British culture during the time it was released. The former is mostly seen as Parklife‘s weaker follow-up nowadays. It also doesn’t help that none of the bandmembers don’t look on The Great Escape very fondly either. When it comes down to it, I enjoy a lot more songs from that album than I do its predecessor.

‘It Could Be You’ is a track from The Great Escape, released in 1995, and was also released as single – only in Japan – the following year. It is predominantly inspired by The National Lottery, which had recently become a thing around the time the album came out, with its title taken from the initial slogan that was used to promote the whole ordeal. Damon Albarn sings about what he could do if he were to win it, or at least sings from the perspective of someone who wishes to, alongside various phrases and observations on British society that he was prone to during those times.

Like a lot of songs on Parklife, the track is rich in melodies and general catchiness, pepped up with enthusiastic ‘doo-doo/ooh-ooh’ vocals here and there and quite the keen vocal take from Albarn. Actually, a lot of the vocals here seem almost camp in a way…. like it could be a musical number or something. Though it does help that they’re backed up by a relatively strong performance from Graham Coxon’s guitars and the rhythm section of Alex James and Dave Rowntree. Check out the fuzz bass that comes in for a brief moment during the chorus. It took me a while to realise that was even there.

#646: John Lennon – Isolation

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Completely forgot to do this yesterday, I don’t know what happened. Lapse in concentration I’ll put it down to. Hopefully what I go on to say was worth the grueling wait.

My passion for the Beatles truly came into fruition at the beginning of this decade. Come to think of it, I’ve been a Beatles fan for ten years almost exactly to the day. Though it was 2010 when I began venturing into the members’ solo ventures. John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band was the most shocking out of them to me. Not ‘shocking’ in that it scared me, though those screams at the end of ‘Mother’ made 15-year-old me quite uneasy, but here was John Lennon – the funny guy from the group with the sharpest wit and cheek – full of rage and singing about how much pain he was in….. It’s a great listen though. One of the best albums ever, in my opinion.

I remember ‘Isolation’ being one of the songs that I warmed to straight away. It’s a slow blues-type number with a swing-feel to it. Like the other tracks on the album, the production is very sparse and dry but the instrumentation fills up the soundscape, particularly those climbing notes from the piano. Lennon, who plays the keys, is accompanied only by Klaus Voorman on bass and Ringo Starr on drums.

Just my own thoughts here but I think the song’s greatest strength is its tempo. The rhythm is just so perfectly timed that when the bridge comes in via Lennon’s elongated note, it makes every pound on the piano and cymbal crash hit so much harder. I feel like punching a hole into a desk when the very final chord of the track suddenly brings things to a halt, it’s all very cathartic.