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My iPod #446: Maxïmo Park – Going Missing

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“Going Missing” is the fifth track on Maxïmo Park’s 2005 debut album A Certain Trigger. It was then released as a single in July of that year, getting to the time when my mum had organised a family holiday to Belgium. (I’m still not sure why she wanted to go there so much.) But I remember when I was there that I would spontaneously begin to sing it for no particular reason, other than that I thought I could relate to the title somehow. I mean, I was kinda missing from England, that’s where all my friends were. I was missing ’em. The link was probably weaker than I wanted it to be.

Knowing it pretty much since it first came out, I’ve never cared about what the track’s subject matter is or what could have happened to Paul Smith that made him want to the lyric. But someone on songmeanings.net gave an idea that it’s about a man who was in a casual relationship with a woman who wanted more. She left him. But then he starts to like her when she goes. He realises what he’s missed out on. He’s gone on his own to try and work things out for himself. Seems plausible to me.

Straight up, this is my favourite Maxïmo Park song. Known every single word to it for close to ten years now. Though it took me a while to finally get to listen to it. Every time I saw that first panning shot of lead singer Paul Smith looking miserable as anything on that brown sofa when the video showed up on MTV2, I always changed the channel. Why did he look so mad? The ten year old me didn’t want to see such an unhappy face at the start of a music video. Despite this, the video was aired every freaking day so there was no avoiding it anymore. Might as well watch it to get over it, you know? So I did. And I was captivated. It’s very intense. Smith angrily chucks things at walls, flings cutlery off tables and angrily jumps about in slow motion and further maddeningly mouths the words to the song wide-eyed into the camera as if he’s going out of his mind. It’s one of those videos where the images within it pop into your head even when you’re listening to it when you’re out or something. It’s just perfect. Ah, man.

My iPod #445: Blink-182 – Going Away to College

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Tom DeLonge is not a member of Blink-182 anymore. Seems strange just typing that sentence. I was confused as everyone else when the events leading up to his departure starting appearing on Twitter, and still am weeks later. Doesn’t seem right not having the three guys together. But that’s how it goes I guess.

Let’s go back to a more simple and happier time by discussing today’s track, “Going Away to College”. The song is track four on Blink’s breakthrough album Enema of the State from 1999. The notes at the end of “Aliens Exist” merge straight into the lone guitar by Tom which starts “College” off before the Mark and Travis join in. It is mainly written by Mark Hoppus, I assume as he takes the lead vocals on it, and is from the perspective of a guy who we’ll guess is going away to college soon and is having all these feelings about leaving his loved one behind. There’s nothing much else to it. It’s a very sweet three-minute pop punk love song. One of my favourites from that album. So much so that I added it to my version of their Greatest Hits compilation which I then went to upload on YouTube. You won’t find it. That account got terminated.

Just a note, you might want to listen to this and “What’s My Age Again?” together. Makes it a bit more complete if you ask me.

My iPod #444: Mercury Rev – Goddess on a Hiway

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I have a vivid memory of watching the music video for this song on the TV, years before I really knew who Mercury Rev were or properly listened to Deserter’s Songs, and thinking that it was one of the most depressing ones I’d seen in a very long time. In it, three members from the band go out camping in a landscape dominated by dull shades of grey while front man Jonathan Donahue mouths the lyrics with a solemn and sad appearance on his face. And at the end of it is assumed that he lets himself drown in the pond whilst the other two members look out at the stranded boat he was once in. I can’t specifically remember how old I was then, but it was a downer to witness at a young age.

It still is at nineteen years of living. But the visuals do accompany the music very well, so I can’t complain. “Goddess” was released as the first single from 1999’s Deserter’s Songs a few months after the album’s release, though the song’s creation goes as far back as 1989 when Donahue was still a member of fellow band The Flaming Lips. The lyrics on that version are basically the same, but recorded very hastily I guess on with very limited resources. But it was on Deserter’s Songs where it got proper treatment like all of the other songs and was recorded finely with a range of instrumentation.

Starting off with a lone piano and bass, “Goddess” follows the dynamic of the ‘quiet verse/loud chorus’. Donahue sings rather softly accompanied by the rhythm section and aforementioned piano before exploding into the chorus where every other instrument bursts into the mix from a whimsical recorder to distorted guitars. The title is played with a bit too which is quite noteworthy. It isn’t until the last verse that the title is actually uttered, but at the beginning the lyric states “I got us on a highway” which… I don’t know why it always strikes me when it gets to that last verse.

It is a haunting listen. One which requires much attention. Great song from a great album.

My iPod #443: Sex Pistols – God Save the Queen

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“God Save the Queen”, the anti-anthem performed by Sex Pistols, was released as a track on the classic Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols. ‘Accidentally’ released as a single during the Queen’s Silver Jubilee in 1977, the song inevitably caused controversy. The BBC refused to play it, a lot of radio stations were banned from airing it. It reached number two in the charts, but there has always been accusations that it was actually the highest selling single at the time and should have been one spot higher.

The track mostly makes fun out of the power that the Queen seems to have over the country. The lyrics note her to be some sort of robot fabricated by her ancestors, and in another instance as some sort of money laundering figure. Though the overall conclusion is that if we all get too hyped up for this monarchy malarkey that towers over the nation, listen to every word they say and take it face value… then there is no hope for us. Though with the lyrics delivered in the trademark snarly, snotty, and sarcastic tone by Johnny Rotten, it’s nothing to take very seriously.

I do really rate Rotten’s vocals on here though. Delivering lines occasionally ending with offhand sniggers and emphatic pronunciation on certain syllables, Rotten from casually speaking the lines at the beginning increases in vocal intensity with every chorus particularly on the “We mean it, maaaaaan” line climaxing with his restrained scream which leads into the “No future” coda. Makes you wanna thrash your arms about and shout at a wall.

So that’s my take on a great song. Very British. Very punk.

My iPod #442: Coldplay – God Put a Smile upon Your Face

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“God Put a Smile upon Your Face” is a track from Coldplay’s 2003 album A Rush of Blood to the Head, one which built upon the sound that the group had established with their preceding debut Parachutes. The former album contains some of Coldplay’s highly rated songs from “The Scientist” to “In My Place”. But I feel “God Put a Smile” doesn’t get much love as those, or any of the other tracks in Coldplay’s vast catalogue. Releasing it as a proper single in only a few regions may have something to do with that.

Starting off with Chris Martin singing the first verse with an sinister acoustic riff to set the ball rolling, the track picks up with a cool bass groove and steady beat with little guitar licks added by Jonny Buckland for effect. There’s something about this track that I think makes it have an edge over a few others. I think it’s quite a dark song. I know that ‘dark’ isn’t an adjective that you would normally associate with a band such as Coldplay. It just has that dissonant tone about it. The music video maybe reinforces this idea.

Honestly can’t say much about it. Nothing personal; it is a good track that fits in with that killer first half of the album.