Tag Archives: my ipod

My iPod #455: Razorlight – Golden Touch

1 Reply

I quite liked Razorlight back in the day. We can all agree that Up All Night, the album today’s track can be found on is their best work to date. Their self-titled follow up weren’t that bad either. Never listened to Slipway Fires because “Wire to Wire” made me wince every time. That was in 2008. And as the years have gone on the group’s faded into obscurity. A shame. But wouldn’t really excited by a sudden announcement of a new album any time soon. Just my opinion.

But enough on that. We’re going back to 2004. “Golden Touch” was released just a week before the band’s full debut album hit the shelves in stores nationwide. It became quite popular too. The song was the band’s first top-ten hit at the fourth time of trying, becoming one of their signature tunes and one of the British indie anthems of the year in the process.

Johnny Borrell talks/wails in tune about a girl, who unbeknownst to her, is the subject of many conversations behind her back. Borrell thinks this lady is special, she has the ‘golden touch’, and the song is a basic message to her to take no notice of the haters. Never really liked the way the lead vocals are delivered on here, though they’re made up for by the track’s loose feel established by the arpeggiated guitar licks and its overall groovy rhythm. There are some background ‘ha-ha-haaaaaaaa’ vocals at near two minutes in that are just perfect too.

My iPod #454: Fall Out Boy – Golden

Leave a reply

“Golden” is the sixth track from Fall Out Boy’s 2007 album Infinity on High. The awkward de-tuning guitars during the fade out of “Hum Hallelujah” seem into the piano which plays the role as lead instrument in this track.

At two minutes and thirty-two seconds it is the shortest song on the album, though it is one of the more emotional ones on there being about the difficulties of living the glamorous lifestyle, being rich, having the fame, but still feeling worthless on the inside due to the inability to have a normal life outside of it all. It’s very sad. And Patrick Stump puts his heart and soul into his performance, aided by some soaring vocal harmonies during the last chorus.

The song songs very abruptly and unexpectedly giving way to a metronome that steadily ticks and ticks until it suddenly increases in pace. Then “Thnks fr th Mmrs” starts. That’s for another day.

______________________________

That’s me caught up then. Daily work will resume as of tomorrow.

My iPod #453: Pavement – Gold Soundz

1 Reply

“Gold Soundz” may just be Pavement’s poppiest moment ever to be recorded and released. Found in the middle of the great Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain, it is positioned after the wild rocking of “Unfair” and precedes the jazzy and experimental “5-4=Unity” but finds the perfect middle ground to provide one of the band’s most lighter, softer and easy listening tracks in their wide catalogue of astounding music. I am a Pavement fan, so I might have a bit of a bias opinion on this stuff.

In terms of the mix, the track is very treble heavy. The bass guitar and drum pedal are present are audible but are pushed back putting the focus on the guitars and various cymbals with Stephen Malkmus’ voice right in the middle of it all. Malkmus sings continuously, his lyrics roll right off the tongue from the first verse and straight into the chorus without any sign of effort, though they may not mean anything in particular they still manage to make a lot of sense in a way coming off quite confusing but beautiful in the process.

Took me a while to get into “Gold Soundz” though. Not really sure why. But I can’t help but feel happy when I hear it from time to time.

My iPod #452: Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Gold Lion

Leave a reply

I also remember the first time I heard “Gold Lion”, and the second time, the third, the fourth and so on….. The music video for it was repeated upon every hour one day in 2006, because Yeah Yeah Yeahs were back and it was the group’s brand new single from the forthcoming album Show Your Bones. At the time, the band hadn’t released an album since their cool 2003 debut Fever to Tell. Of course I didn’t know that. As a result, “Gold Lion” is the track that properly introduced me to Yeah Yeah Yeahs. (Though I have a feeling I might have heard “Maps” somewhere before.)

And so “Gold Lion” starts the album off with a lone “We Will Rock You” drum pattern that lasts for seconds before Karen O’s vocals and acoustic guitar of Nick Zinner enter the mix. The song carries on and builds as electric guitars and keyboards are introduced, the drums become more free-flowing with busier execution leading into the track’s wordless refrain and the following instrumental breaks. All in all, it sets the tone for the rest of the album and was a good way to mark a return of a killer group.

The track’s okay. Never thought about its meaning. But I like it. Reminds me of being in Year 6 again.

My iPod #451: Kanye West ft. Jamie Foxx – Gold Digger

Leave a reply

With “All Day” circulating the Internet in its official form and the forthcoming album So Help Me God over the horizon, it seems like 2015 is gonna be another busy year for Kanye West. “All Day” is hot fire. Gets me pumped hearing it. Looking forward to the album too. But today’s song comes the rapper’s second studio album Late Registration, released ten years ago this coming August. What the hell.

I remember hearing “Gold Digger” for the very first time. And this isn’t me just saying it, this is something I can vividly recall. Coming back from London Heathrow after the holiday to Belgium, the ‘premiere of Kanye West’s brand new song’ was the main subject on Radio 1. It played. I didn’t think much of it. I was ten, I wasn’t really focusing on it that much I just wanted to get home. My sister, on the other hand, loved it. She was ecstatic. What excited her more was when the music video (as can be seen above) was eventually played on MTV Base weeks later. Those were good times. She then went to Woolworths to buy Late Registration due to boredom when a power cut occurred in our local area. Life went on from there.

“Gold Digger” is one of Kanye’s most popular songs, though you won’t see him performing it anytime soon. He’s very serious about work at the moment. More so than usual. If you haven’t heard the track I dunno where you’ve been in this life. Unless you were born five years ago or something.

Memorable lines are spat, Jamie Foxx imitates Ray Charles, the song is filled with the humourous wit he displayed in his first two albums. Overall, it’s just catchy and funky as anything. Honestly, I don’t know what else to say.

Well, it may have lost its touch due to being replayed immensely over the years. But you still can’t deny its greatness.