According to Kapranos, or what I could make from him before he introduced this song at a festival, the track is about skiving off school and hiding away in the shadows of the matinée. Every music channel showed the song as simply “Matinée” which is (I’m guressing) what everybody generally calls it. Maybe even some Franz Ferdinand fans if they’re too occupied to say the full title. Either way it is the same song, but it is the darkness of the matinée which is being specified that is being established as the hiding place, and not just the building itself.
Whatever.
It is remarkable to think it has been ten years since I first heard this. This was one of my favourite songs at the time. I thought the video made the song even better. The ‘robotic’ choreography, Alex Kapranos’ fringe and the huge painting of Terry Wogan during the final verse. I had daydreams of being in a band and making a video like it. I wanted Looking at it now makes me want to that eight years old who would wake up early in the morning to watch MTV2, actually watch music videos and discover bands for the first time all over again.
It wasn’t as successful as “Take Me Out”, which I’ll get on to ages from now, but to me it certainly brings back some good memories.
I am going to say something that will irk a lot of Pavement fans. But “Terror Twilight” is my favourite Pavement album. I said it, what.
The record gets a lot of scepticism by the majority of Pavement fans for many reasons. Reasons that I would try to list here, but would end up typing them very vaguely so you probably won’t understand. Basically this is the band’s last album, made at a time when relationships within the band were deteriorating. I think a lot of people sense that from the album’s sound. Stephen Malkmus’ vocals sound quite lacklustre and lack conviction, there wasn’t an “Unfair” or a “Two States” type song on there. In fact the writer of the latter, Scott Kannberg the guitarist and other songwriter in the band, didn’t get one song on this album. He had at least one song on the previous four albums. Thing’s weren’t looking good. Would Pavement split up? Their split later in 1999 answered that question.
Despite all that, I simply adore this album. It has such an airy, dream-like atmosphere about it. No doubt that is due to the production of one Nigel Godrich, who you may or may not know as the producer of most of Radiohead’s albums. Nothing sounds rough; all the songs are very soothing and pleasing to the ear. Yes Malkmus wrote all the songs, the songs sound too polished, Malkmus sounds bored but you know…. GET OUT OF HERE. I DON’T CARE. “Terror Twilight” forever.
That’s my album review. Now for the song.
So, “Cream of Gold” is the fourth song on “Terror Twilight”. It did take a while for me to eventually like this song enough to put it on my iPod. I didn’t just put it on there because “You Are the Light” segues into it when you listen to the album. I did grow to appreciate the song for its coolness.
I have no clue what the song is about. The lyrics are very abstract. Even the song title is just a longer way of saying “Beige”, which I only figured out a few weeks ago. I think it’s about some sort of bad relationship of a couple, and the narrator knew from the start but he still suffers through it.
Musically, it’s very gloomy. It rocks, don’t get me wrong. This isn’t some emo, goth type song or whatever. The songs starts to play when you’re outside, it’s really dark and you beginning to worry about your own safety. That happened to me some time ago when I was walking back to my house….. But the track just suits that type of atmosphere. It has quite a threatening tone to it.
The guitar tuning is not the ‘standard’, which Pavement were known to do for many songs from their albums. After two verses, two choruses and a few repeats of the last line of the chorus, Malkmus busts out a solo and repeats a phrase about six times before the track falls apart with some feedback. Not in a bad way to end. Good stuff.
Finally! After almost three years from its release, I have seen the last Harry Potter film. The feels! I kid you not, just two minutes ago I finished watching it. Thank you MegaShare. I never thought I could get an actual working link as the top result on Google, but there you go.
Today’s track is one that would not be acclaimed by a lot of Beatle fans. It was one of my most played tracks in iTunes, which would either impress some people or gain some curious looks by others.
Well I don’t care! I like it. The song’s quite funny. And one based on real events. An American man went to visit his mother in India, where John Lennon and the rest of the band were staying at the time, and set out on elephants to hunt a tiger. A tiger was killed, John didn’t like it, the rest is history.
The song is also noted for the one and only appearance of a female lead vocal on a Beatles track. This pisses off some people, as it was provided by Yoko Ono. For me…. meh. I am indifferent. It is over before you know it.
Sorry for the late post, I had started writing at around seven and then some events occurred which prevented me from finishing it… But here it is.
First day of the new year but the posting doesn’t stop. You think I would take a day off for this momentous occasion? You is stupid. I would never do that. Even though I am at my friend’s place and easily could have missed today. But I feel as if it would have been a waste to let this day go without making a mark on it, so here we go.
I bought “Consolers of the Lonely” in 2008 just because I really liked “Salute Your Solution” and wanted to listen to it on repeat without waiting for it to appear on MTV2. That resulted in me a skipping the almost title track when I first got the album. That was a silly mistake.
I did have a reason as to why I did. The slow guitar introduction did not impress me so I skipped the whole song altogether, not knowing that the song actually changed into a full-on hard rock tune.
Something that I really liked about the first single from the album was the change of the band’s sound. I know that’s said for a lot of artists, but compared to “Broken Boy Soldiers” which sounded like a band writing their tracks and then recording them in a small studio, “Consolers of the Lonely” was the sound of a band ready to take on the biggest festivals and fill the largest stadiums.
With the track beginning on a quiet note, a bunch of studio chatter and aforementioned guitar I wasn’t expecting much. That was until the count-in from the drumsticks appeared and the real song began. The first chord accompanied with the pounding rhythm section hit me like a ton of bricks. It sounded so good. Brendan Benson’s vocals sound as rich as ever, and work ever so well as the ‘lonely’ character as detailed in the album name.
Then the middle begins. The song slows down, and the guitar from the introduction is the backbone of it. Very clever! So it wasn’t some sort of random lick that they just threw in, it actually has purpose. Jack White strides in as the ‘consoler’ as he offers the loner ‘something good to eat’ and slap-bang we’re back to the pumping verses again.
It’s all done really smoothly. This song is one containing a lot of changes. The best one is saved for the last minute when the song suddenly gains pace and the band execute one of the best breakdowns I have out of all the songs I have on my Apple product.
When I should have been revising for my A2 exams, I found myself listening to random albums on Spotify. “Odessey and Oracle” was an album I stumbled across thanks to this site, and “Care for Cell 44” is the song that starts everything off.
“Care…” is one of the happiest songs I have ever listened to in my eighteen and a bit years of living. Following on from the dainty piano that plays in the opening seconds is an upbeat, bouncy rhythm helped along by a melodic bass-line and almost child-like vocals of Colin Blunstone.
For a band named “The Zombies” I was expecting their sound to be a lot more ‘noisy’, to put it in a weird way. But I was pleasantly surprised to hear such an uplifting track, especially one to begin such an enjoyable album.
The Music in My Ears 