Tag Archives: not accepted anywhere

#1102: The Automatic – Recover

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I did say this song would get its own post a few weeks ago. And here it is. This is ‘Recover’ by The Automatic, the first song I ever heard by the band. I woke up in the morning, switched the TV on and headed straight to MTV2 to see what was going on. This song was what was going on. It was the exact video above that was being shown. I might have even watched it right from the beginning to its end. When it comes to these things, the video’s usually halfway through or nearing its end. I can’t really remember vividly, this would have happened in 2005 or something. I’m quite sure that’s how I came about it, though. It left a good impression on me. It made me think, “Hmm. I’ll look out for this ‘The Automatic’ again.” And then, ‘Raoul’ followed and so on, I explained it all in the post for that track.

‘Recover’ would end up being the fourth track on the band’s debut album Not Accepted Anywhere. In guitarist Rob Hawkins words, the song’s about “being a waster and trying to motivate yourself into doing something better than sit in front of the television.” Hangovers, situations of being shown pictures of a night you can’t remember and speaking a whole load of garbage until you suddenly forget what you were even talking about are alluded to and referenced. This narrator clearly likes their alcohol/drug usage, but suffers from the after effects of the indulgence. They know they should change, but when the next night out’s on the horizon, they’re back to it all over again. The chorus was the section that stuck out to me on that initial watch/listen (as it usually is for every song in existence), with the echoing delivery of “(Get) Get! (Up) Up!” before the vocalists sing “Recover” in unison. It’s a nice little hook. Also really enjoy the bridge where guitarist Hawkins and keyboardist Alex Pennie alternate their lines with the former in the left channel and the latter in the right, before harmonising on the final one and joining together with lead vocalist and bassist James Frost for the final choruses.

So, yeah, that’s ‘Recover’. That’s also the last you’ll be seeing of The Automatic on here, which I guess is a shame. If you enjoy this track quite a bit, it had three music videos made for it. The one above was the second. Its first version (below) was rarely shown anywhere, and the third (also below) was made when the decision was made to re-record and re-release the song after the success of their big, big hit ‘Monster’ in 2006. I never liked that re-recorded version. God bless the quality on those videos too. As for The Automatic, they went on to release two more albums. ‘Steve McQueen’ from 2008’s This Is a Fix was a huge favourite of mine when it initially arrived. Fell out of love with it, eventually. Then by the time 2010’s Tear the Signs Down came around, times were changing and the interest in a lot of those mid-2000s UK indie bands was waning. The band disappeared and never came back. They’re a reminder of those sweet and innocent years of Year 6 and those adolescent times, though. So I’ll thank them for that.

#1091: The Automatic – Raoul

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Whoa, whoa, whoa, this is the first time I’m talking about The Automatic on here? That just doesn’t seem right. It’s very much the truth, though. Anyone who doesn’t know who The Automatic are, they’re one of the countless, many, multitude of indie bands from the UK that appeared really from out of nowhere during the mid-2000s. They released three albums, one would follow with a little less success after the other, and what was meant to be a temporary break starting in 2010 became clear that the band was never going to get back together any time soon after a few years had passed. Today’s track, ‘Raoul’, is taken from their 2006 debut Not Accepted Anywhere, which also included their signature tune ‘Monster’ and ‘Recover’, which will get its own post on here very soon from what I can tell.

‘Raoul’ is the second track on that album, was released as the band’s second single ever and was also the second song of the group’s that I got to know. After hearing/seeing another song of theirs before on MTV2, which I took note of immediately ’cause I liked it so much, maybe some months or so had gone and there appeared a new music video for this new single. So many times on here, I’ve been able to recall to the best of my ability how I felt when hearing a particular song for the first time. Whether I was impressed or had my doubts. When it comes to this one though… I’m sure I thought it was good, and that was about it. It did the job. I don’t think I liked it as much as the single that came before it, but I liked it enough that I was intrigued by what the band would come up with next. Or at least whatever the equivalent of “intrigued” is to the 10/11-year-old that I would have been at the time.

The song is an ode to the owner of the sandwich shop where the band would go to get away from periods of heaviness and tension in the studio. But ‘Raoul’ is also meant to symbolise that centre of freedom that people may go to and find solace in when their day-to-day routine is starting to get to them a little bit. The band go see Raoul, and after doing so make the decision to ‘go back to work’, which is repeated until the song’s end. After the band’s success with ‘Monster’ making the top five in the UK singles chart, the decision was made by their record label to re-release the song in 2007 to capitalise on the momentum. Either the song was remixed or re-recorded. In the end, to me, it didn’t sound as good as the original. Got a fancy new music video for it, though.