Tag Archives: no

#1347: James Dean Bradfield – That’s No Way to Tell a Lie

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After finishing what was to be their last tour for a couple years in 2005, the members of Manic Street Preachers took a little break from each other. During that time, drummer Sean Moore… well, no one really knows, but I’m sure he had a good one. Bass guitarist and lyricist Nicky Wire went and recorded a solo album, released in 2006, called I Killed the Zeitgeist. And in the same year came The Great Western, James Dean Bradfield’s first solo project. Bradfield, as many may know, is the lead singer of the Manics, taking great pride in writing the music of the band’s songs alongside Moore. It wasn’t until 2001 that fans got a completely penned Bradfield song, covering music and lyrics, in the form of ‘Ocean Spray’. So how would a whole album of Bradfield-written tracks turn out? I can’t say myself, I’ve never listened to the whole thing. But the one track I know from there, the album’s opener and selected first single, I’ve enjoyed for a very long time. I guess almost 20 years now, ain’t that something?

I saw the video for ‘That’s No Way to Tell a Lie’ once on TV, and it feels like it was never played again. It most likely was. But if that’s the case, I didn’t see it. The video showed up, not on MTV2 but VH2 when that was a channel in the UK. I was sitting on the floor chilling, as you do when you’re 11 years old, watching Bradfield getting dunked into a lake while another Bradfield in shades watches on accompanied by some Asian mobsters while the song played over the top. I didn’t know what was going on. The song sounded all right, though. The chorus where the title’s sung a couple times left a mark. The visual of the mobsters lip-syncing the “Sha-la-la-la” vocals in the break were funny. The video finished, life happened. I’m sure I kept the song in the back of my mind for a while. But then it got to a point where I couldn’t get away from it later on in 2006, because someone at the BBC decided the track would make good backing music for the Goal of the Month competition on Match of the Day. It was like that for a good two seasons of football. Was singing along to it probably every time. So there you go. I was locked in.

I’ve been singing along to the lyrics and enjoying the music to this for so long now, I’ve never thought to go and really dig deep into what the song’s about. I did always like the “I hear you’ve got something to say / But first you need some people to say it to / Just before you rise from the dead” lines. I don’t know just something to the sound of them. But in Bradfield’s words, the song’s about “the push and pull of your head and your heart telling you different, conflicting things about the way you should feel about religion”. Your head saying, “No,” but your heart saying “Yes”. He says so here. I never would have thought that. But I guess mentions of ‘lost souls on a pilgrimage’ and the ‘rise from the dead’ does give way to that context, with the whole ‘that’s no way to tell a lie’ idea being a flat-out rejection of the religious imagery that sways people to believe in it. Or something? Honestly, I don’t know. I just like the song. Knowing what it’s about doesn’t make me like it any less.

#1170: Television – See No Evil

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Television’s Marquee Moon. A fine, fine album. If you want to hear an album that has good guitar performances in it, I’d say that this one should be an Exhibit A in a theoretical museum. I gave my personal backstory behind finding the record the last time I wrote about a song from it, so I admittedly I’m finding it hard to fill out this first paragraph. Really, all I have to say regarding how I feel about the album as a whole can be found in that link. But in short, heard it first time 2012/13 and proceeded to revisit in the years since. But even with that first listen, ‘See No Evil’ – the track that kicks things off – was one that stuck with me almost immediately.

Tom Verlaine’s guitar is the first thing you hear in the left ear, the bass guitar makes itself with a little fill accompanied by a crash cymbal, and the band properly come in together anchored by an earwormy, looping guitar riff on the right side, played by lead guitarist Richard Lloyd. Just that riff itself has enough of a melody that I can find myself singing it almost endlessly. All in all, it’s a strong performance. A strong performance for a song of immense optimism. You see, ‘See No Evil’ is written as a statement of intent and ambition by songwriter Verlaine. He wants to achieve impossible things, whether that be jumping over a mountain or having a boat made out of ocean, and wishes to leave the room and rid himself of any negative energy that someone or something might bring in his presence. He understands that there are bad people in this world, but in this state that he’s in now, he’s willing to give this evil a pass while filled with this fervent determination of his.

I don’t have much else to add here. I enjoy this one a lot. It makes for a great opener for the rest of the album to follow. Isolated from the context of the LP, it works just as well too. Great guitar tones, runs and fills are around every corner. Lloyd’s soaring solo at a minute and 50 seconds in is one that you have to bring out the air guitar for. I like the phrasing of the song title whenever it’s sung, building on itself bit by bit, before the ‘evil’ is yelled out with blistering screech. I, at least, get the sense that the four members of the band were having something of a good time during the make of this song. The music and the performance just exude the feeling. And it’s nice that during the song’s end, after Verlaine tells us he’s having good times with the person he loves in various, he turns it round to the listener to tell us that it’s possible for us to do the same thing.

#1020: Beach House – Pay No Mind

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God, 2018 was five years ago, how strange is that? Nothing too remarkable happened for me that year. But it was a good time to be a Beach House fan. Three years on after the surprise double release of Depression Cherry and Thank Your Lucky Stars, and along came 7 – the band’s aptly-titled seventh album. The headline news behind this new album was that Sonic Boom (Peter Kember) would be producing it, the first of the band’s not to be (co-)produced by Chris Coady since Devotion in 2008. The big question, how would this move affect Beach House’s sound? The answer, not by a vast amount. Beach House sounded like Beach House as per usual. No complaints. But Kember’s production provided a difference in sonics that sets the record apart from the others within the band’s discography.

‘Pay No Mind’ is the second track on 7. After the propulsive start of ‘Dark Spring’, proceedings are slowed right down. Alex Scally’s reverb-drenched guitars are accompanied by reverb-drenched snare and kick drum, and a constant synthesizer hum to represent what would be the bassline. The production work here makes the sonic palette sound expansive and far-reaching, and so warm that it feels like I’m sinking to a huge cushion when I listen to it. Can appreciate a good song that does that. And when everything truly opens up at around 1:26 in, with those chiming piano keys. Well, that’s just a moment of euphoria right there. Victoria Legrand’s vocals are as smooth as ever, only adding to the overall consoling tone that I don’t think I’m wrong in saying the track is going for.

Terms of lyrics, in one way I think the majority of it is made of words where the syllables needed to match the rhythm of the music. Not to say that the lyrics are inconsistent or poorly written, because they aren’t. But I think there’s a definite feel of lyrics to evoke imagery rather than to provide a narrative. Where the most ‘soul-bearing’ or whatever occurs is in what I guess you would label as the chorus: “Baby at night when I look at you/Nothing in this world keeps me confused/All it takes: look in your eyes.” I mean, that’s real love-feelings isn’t it. Otherwise, I think the song’s main message is in its title. Things won’t go as you want them to go. You’ve got to do what you can to make in this world, but it takes time. Don’t work yourself up into a stress. Pay no mind. Or something to that effect.

#937: Pixies – No. 13 Baby

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You go onto YouTube and search for this song. The majority of the comments go along the lines of “Man, this song’s good, but the ending though? Human perfection. Best endings of all time,” etcetera, etcetera. And, yeah, the song’s outro is quite special. But the rest of the song ain’t too bad. Black Francis/Frank Black sings with the usual unhinged style of vocal delivery, working well with the song’s theme of a stalker-like fascination with a lady. He describes the characteristics of this subject like some sort of mad scientist looking for another experiment, it’s quite menacing. The obsession is too much, as made clear in the “I’m in a state” repetition, and its seemingly never-ending fade-out ending signifies the endlessness of the situation. At least that’s how I like to think of it.

Doolittle is an album of subtle surprises. The lone guitar chord strum at the beginning of this one is just a small taste. But generally there will be elements of a certain track that you wouldn’t pick up on the first time, but after a number of listens make themselves more and more apparent. Like on ’13 Baby’, I never took into account how the verses are made of one chord that doesn’t progress into another until the choruses. Or how bassist Kim Deal just stops playing at certain points to highlight those bending guitar wails at various points. There’s also a subliminal shout-out during the choruses to a Los Angeles gang that was active around the time of the album’s making. The way it’s incorporated into them is real sneaky, once you get the melody and the words down you’ll barely know your singing it.

What’s peculiar about this track though is that the vocals are out of there after two minutes. The rest of the track is essentially its ending, what a lot of people love about it, consisting of a slow building of layers. Kim Deal and drummer David Lovering keep the track steady with the rhythm alongside Francis’ acoustic guitar. After a few measures, lead guitarist Joey Santiago rushes in with a frantic guitar fill. After that fades out, he re-enters with a dreamy arpeggiated chord that goes on and on before being drowned out by a wild rhythm guitar from Francis that sounds like it’s being strangled its chords are strummed. It’s all so hypnotizing up to that point, then that guitar adds a bit of nightmare fuel to the proceedings. It’s creepy, it’s sneaky, it all sounds so good. Pixies were very good at getting those things down.

#936: Cloud Nothings – No Thoughts

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All I can remember about ‘No Thoughts’ is that it was the last track from Cloud Nothings’ Here and Nowhere Else album that I added to my phone library. Now there were 5/8’s of the record instead of just half. I heard Here and Nowhere Else within the first week of its release in April 2014. There were tracks that immediately became favourites, two of which I’ve covered in this series. There were those I weren’t so keen on. ‘No Thoughts’ fell under a bit of a sleeper category. I’m sure I liked it, but clearly not enough. May have been a year or two until I really got it. And when it hit, it was instant.

Like the other tracks on ‘Nowhere Else’, ‘No Thoughts’ is propelled onward by harsh, overdriven guitar and a pummelling rhythm section, most notably driven by the crushing rush of Jayson Gerycz drums. Despite the wild nature of the band performance, the song is also carried by a great melody within the lyrics which helps bring some stability. One thing you have to admit about this track is… well, it’s a bit repetitive. But not in the way that repetition can irk some people. The second verse is the same as the first, but with a few subtle changes of words here and there. The chorus though, and the bridge, are made up of just one phrase or two. Just want to clarify I’m not complaining here. There’s something about the lyrical simplicity matched with the intensity of the music that all in all results in a fantastic combination.

That’s all I gotta say, I think. Just a great three-minute rush of noise rock on show here. A good time’s always had when hearing it, even if it does almost as quickly as it starts.