Tag Archives: nine black alps

#902: Nine Black Alps – Never Coming Down

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Nine Black Alps released their debut album Everything Is back in 2005. As you fellow music listeners know, singles have to be released from albums to create a buzz and get people interested. In the band’s case, they had a few to pick from. When they released ‘Just Friends’ as one of those singles, ‘Never Coming Down’ was one of its B-sides – found on seven inch vinyl copies. Once they got all the singles out of their system, the band released something of a post-album release, the Glitter Gulch EP in 2006, which included a small number of B-sides plus a live number recorded for a French radio station. ‘Never Coming Down’ is on there too and was now available to a wider audience because back in the 2000s it’s fair to say that vinyl was not on people’s minds.

The track differs from the majority of those that made it onto Everything Is in that it’s a slow burner mainly led by acoustic guitars. It begins with a drum pattern that remains the same throughout the four minutes the song lasts for. A melodic bassline joins in before those acoustic guitars come in together to fill out the soundscape. The use of the acoustics provide a warm feeling to the ears. They certainly have a relaxing element to them. I particularly like it when that bass slide occurs during the choruses alongside those “ooh” backing vocals. It’s some sweet stuff. The music’s mellow overall, but it’s paired with lyrics about feeling empty, lonely and needing someone to talk to. It’s a conflicting dynamic that’s been done many a time before, but I’m definitely not complaining ‘cos it’s done so well here. You think it’s a comfortable listen, but then you hear Sam Forrest singing about the dread people can feel when they’ve let a friend down. Then it turns into a sad listen. One that makes you ponder. Then the song fades out with the bassline and drums from the start into silence, leaving nothing behind. It’s actually quite a heavy track thinking about it now.

The band had all of their B-sides available to play on their official website about a decade ago. Even the very rare ones that were only available on vinyl. That’s where I heard this track for the first time. I downloaded them from there using a program called Freecorder, which required listening to all of the tracks from front to back while the application simultaneously recorded and saved them onto my computer. It worked, I still have the programme today. Was well worth the time spent. Good thing I did because those songs aren’t up there anymore. You can find ’em on YouTube though.

#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.

#641: Nine Black Alps – Ironside

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‘Ironside’ opens the second half of Nine Black Alps’ 2005 album Everything Is. Coming right after the acoustic track ‘Behind Your Eyes’, it’s a bit of a smack in the face and something just to say ‘right, back to what we were doing for the first five numbers’.

This album is a 10/10 for me. It really hasn’t lost its effect on me after thirteen years of owning it and listening to it. I’ve seen in places that people feel that the band where the Nirvana influence on their sleeves. I don’t get that. Nirvana has never come to mind when I’ve listen through. I’m sure there is a band from the past they sound like. And even if they do, there’s nothing wrong with that. Nine Black Alps do their own thing very well, and I don’t think they ever got better than their first record. I don’t have much to say about the song itself which is why I’m rambling on a bit. I think it may be about self-harming and having a bleak outlook on life in general. It’s a real rocker though. Quite intense.

#636: Nine Black Alps – Intermission

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‘Intermission’ is the second of two mainly acoustic numbers on Nine Black Alps’ debut Everything Is from 2005. An album that is a proper onslaught of heavy guitars, thrashing drums and Sam Forrest’s growling vocals, ‘Intermission’ and fellow acoustic track ‘Behind Your Eyes’ arrive at points when the momentum has to be brought down a little before picking back up with a rapid change on the next song.

Because I was so into the intensity of the other ten tracks, it took me a while to get into ‘Intermission’. Anything with an acoustic guitar in I just switched off for. This was when I was eleven. But it didn’t take long to realise how good a song it was. The only track on the album not to be recorded in a proper studio – it was instead recorded in Sam Forrest’s flat in Manchester – ‘Intermission’ is a real downer. The main refrain or hook or whatever you want to call it is led by forlorn slide guitars that weep in both headphones. Like a lot of other songs on the album, the lyrics evokes imagery of war and weaponry with a cynical twist to them. ‘Intermission’ is very much anti-war. It details people who carelessly laugh at it when the misery is going down.

The album could easily have ended here. But the band reel you back in again with a raging closer. That’s for another time.

My iPod #564: Nine Black Alps – I Can’t Lose

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‘I Can’t Lose’ is one of the many B-sides Mancunian alternative rock/grungy-type band Nine Blacks Alps made during the sessions for their debut album Everything Is, released in 2005, and appeared on the ‘Just Friends’ single. That album still sounds as good today as it did then as an eleven-year-old. I could possibly write a whole article about how much I like that album, how I got into it etc. etc. That would be for another time.

Everything Is is a perfect twelve song package of fast, biting guitar music. Couldn’t get much better. ‘I Can’t Lose’ is very much in the same vein as the songs on the album and wouldn’t seem out of place had the band decided it to be on the final tracklist, but its production doesn’t give it that heavy feel that is present on so many of the songs that did make it.

Not trying to take anything away from it though, ‘I Can’t Lose’ is still very enjoyable. It’s not meant to be a very heavy song at all. It has a self-deprecating vibe to it which I can’t really explain. I mean, the song’s called ‘I Can’t Lose’ but the song’s narrator mentions how they always lose even if they seem to be at an advantage. Whichever way it’s meant to be taken, it’s all good stuff.