Tag Archives: one

#983: Modest Mouse – One Chance

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December 2014, I had finished the first semester of my second year of university. In one of my modules, there was a coursework assignment in which you could either create a graphic novel or carry out a creative project that you then had to write a commentary about. I chose the latter, and for that project I decided to make a music video. That’s right. And it was the holiday period, it was a time to appreciate friends and family. I knew I’d be seeing them a lot in that time. It just so happened that Modest Mouse’s ‘One Chance’ contained a sentiment that I thought was appropriate for it. So that’s the song I chose. That music video is on my YouTube channel, under a private setting, and no one else will ever be able to see it except me. But I got the highest grade you could get for it and the commentary too, so it was well worth it.

‘One Chance’ is the penultimate track on Good News for People Who Love Bad News, the band’s album released in 2004, and is another case of frontman Isaac Brock’s ponderings on life as a whole and the existential dread that can come along with it. However, he doesn’t appear to be as abstract or sharply witty in his lyrics as he is usually known to be. Nope, in this track he bluntly states that all we have is this one lifetime to do what we have to do and get it done right. He mentions his deep appreciation for his friends and family, juxtaposing it with the sadness felt when some of his loved ones pass away prematurely. And then there’s that whole added pressure of feeling small and insignificant when you consider that we’re all living on this ball floating in space. It’s something that weighs on Brock’s mind. But musically it’s delivered in a tight three minute band performance, quite the change from the experimental and sometimes brash route that the band had established in the previous records.

There are times when Brock’s yowling and hollering down the microphone like it’s no one’s business, but for the majority ‘One Chance’ is very much accessible and pleasantly melodic, very much like every other song on the album. I’d like to highlight bassist Eric Judy’s bass parts during the verse, playing the same pattern while slowly making its way up the fretboard. Very fluid and memorable too. I have a feeling this track’s a little overlooked. Coming in that second to last spot on the album, it’s at a position where listeners are usually waiting to hear how the record closes. But there’s a hidden gem in ‘One Chance’; it’s probably one of my favourite songs by the group.

#982: Blur – One Born Every Minute

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‘One Born Every Minute’ was officially released as a B-Side on Blur’s ‘Country House’ single in August ’95. There’s not much online about it, so I wouldn’t be able to relay many concrete facts about it. I want to say that its drums and percussion were actually recorded during the making of Modern Life Is Rubbish and are virtually the same as they appear in that recording. I also listened to drummer Dave Rowntree’s podcast a fair time ago, and when this track’s name popped up in conversation, he advised for the people who hadn’t heard it to, “Just don’t. Just don’t bother.” Said jokingly, but with sincerity. To any first listeners here, don’t be frightened. Now, there are some kazoos and a glaring use of those old-timey bike horns. I don’t mind those too much. You readers just might. If you get those out of your psyche, you’ll find there is a fine song underneath to be found. Still, you’ll see why it was just a B-Side and not alongside the stronger material that made it onto The Great Escape.

The track carries on the “We’re oh-so British” theme that the band had cultivated for themselves in ’93, but had taken to another level by 1995. With a musical, Cockney knees-up element to it, the song’s another observational take on Saturday nights out and Sunday roasts, talking to elders who gone through the war and commenting on how, when it comes to sex, everyone seems to be doing it with reckless abandon. At least that’s how I’ve taken it. When it comes to the chorus, I’m not sure whether the lyrics are meant to be sarcastic or earnest. There’s something within them that doesn’t totally match the tone of those berses. When Damon sings, “Oh, well, see how we’ve grown/One gets born every minute” is that somehow saying that we haven’t grown at all and are just carrying out the same routine, only for the next generation to repeat? Or is the chorus merely just a assortment of phrases that seemed to work together for the music. Maybe it’s a bit of both. Maybe I’m thinking too much about it.

Overall, it’s a very catchy tune with plenty of melodies and musical oddities that will catch your ear over repeated listens. Some of those highlights for me are: those climbing “ooh-ooh” harmonies by Graham Coxon in the choruses, his higher “EVERY MINUTE” alongside Damon’s lower vocal when he sings the same phrase, those harmonies on the “gin” before the second chorus that go all over the place but somehow work, and that piano that’s turned right up in the mix during the instrumental break before the final chorus. Some may find it all rather silly. But there’s always a time for that sort of thing.

#981: Mac DeMarco – One Another

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Hey, it’s another song by Mac DeMarco. Never realised how many of his tracks began with the letter ‘O’. Also never took into account how close they were alphabetically. These things just work out that way. But it’s another good one, at least in my books, though I have to admit it passed me by on that initial listen. Really, it wasn’t until the music video (above) for ‘One Another’ was released that replayed it a few times and found that it was indeed a fine piece of music. This Old Dog had already been out for exactly a month at that point. But you know how they say better late than never and all that. The video played its part too, containing clips of DeMarco and his band goofing around and barely making any attempt to mime correctly to the track.

Like many others on the record, ‘One Another’ maintains a predominantly acoustic soundscape, containing easygoing guitar chord progressions that are pleasant to the ears with these feathery keyboard presses in between. Carrying on his usual go-to lyrical subject matter of relationships, DeMarco takes on the perspective of someone providing advice to another who has just gone through a breakup. This narrator hopes to cheer this poor soul up, telling them they it’s worth to have loved and lost then never to have loved at all, and that by going through this sad situation they’ll know what and what not to do the next time they’ve found someone. Although it may hurt now, there will be a time when they understand it wasn’t all pointless and better days are to come.

Yeah, it’s another relaxing one courtesy of Mac DeMarco. Fans of his were quick to jokingly make quips on the track was similarly titled to another of his called ‘Another One’. These tracks are not the same. Though I would say that that song is even more smoother than this. Can’t go wrong listening to both though. This’ll be the last DeMarco song I write about in this section, I swear.

#931: Mac DeMarco – No Other Heart

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‘No Other One’ is a track from Mac DeMarco’s mini-album Another One, released back in 2015. By that time I had a been a fan of the guy since the arrival of Salad Days the year before. After having watched visited 2 and watched a large portion of YouTube videos concerning him, the announcement of Another One was a cause of great anticipation on my part. I even had a try of sort-of reviewing its lead single around the time. The mini-album came, including seven songs (all more or less about love, gaining it, losing it, wishing that you had it, accepting when it’s gone) and an instrumental. The title track is a favourite of mine. ‘No Other One’ follows it, very much containing the same situation, but is delivered in more of a deceptively cheerful manner.

That situation being that the narrators in both songs have feelings for a lady who is already in a relationship with someone else. The old case of unrequited love. Hurts for a lot of people. But DeMarco lays it down in the lyrics that makes it so relatable for many listeners. In this case, he notices that this girl has been feeling low for some time. He wants to be the man to make her happy, but then he realises that she’s already taken and so has to let things be. But there’s still that yearning and wanting that makes things harder to accept. This is all stated under/over soft piano chords, that noodling guitar-style that was something of a trademark of DeMarco’s at the time, and a really groovy bass that ties everything together. In fact, if you’re zoning out on DeMarco’s vocals and noticing other things in the music, the bass will probably be the next thing you’ll pay attention to. Very melodic. Very tasteful.

Seven years on, I kind of see Another One has bit of an era-ending document of DeMarco’s. After this, his music never sounded quite the same. Though some cynics out there might laugh at that notion and argue the opposite. From what I’ve noticed, he moved down more of an acoustic route with more varied instrumentation on 2017’s This Old Dog, and then followed that by taking his tracks to their basic elements on Here Comes the Cowboy in 2019. There was definitely a sound to his earlier releases that tied them all together. Maybe it was simply that shining guitar tone that was present on all of them. I could ponder about this for a long time.

#930: They Might Be Giants – No One Knows My Plan

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They Might Be Giants’ 1994 album John Henry was the first where Johns Linnell and Flansburgh were accompanied by a live band rather than the drum machines and synth-instruments that had been their go-to method up to that point. Upon the album’s arrival, fans were greeted with guitar-prominent instrumentals, an actual bass guitar and live drums, and brass. There’s a lot of horns on this album. Today’s track, ‘No One Knows My Plan’, is one of those tracks to feature them. Brass can sometimes be one of those instrumental groups where, if heard too much in one sitting, they can be a bit overbearing. But you’ve got to appreciate the instrumental melody of the trumpet that triumphantly opens this song. Once you do that, it’s plain sailing from there.

The track arrives at the album’s midpoint, acting as something of an opener to its second half. With its conga-esque rhythms and ascending/descending scale riffs, it helps pick up the momentum after the contemplative turn the preceding song takes. In ‘No One Knows…’, the narrator is planning an escape from a prison cell, and the track is practically the tale of the narrator’s thoughts, feelings and experiences they’ve had while trying to fulfil this act. They tried to escape before, but have since realised that they’ve had to change their tactics. They’re always scheming, but they’ll never tell anyone the full angle. All this described under a skipping drum pattern, a horn group that undergo the role that a rhythm guitar would usually cover, and with a reference to Plato’s Allegory of the Cave put in for good measure.

This one’s been a favourite of mine for the longest time. Not just from John Henry, but out of the whole TMBG catalogue. The melody’s so infectious. Once you’ve got that in your head, it’s hard to get rid of it. I’ll go ahead and admit that the album in particular isn’t one of my favourites by They, but it’s not without its highlights. ‘No One Knows…’ is for sure one of them. Back in the day, someone at the Cartoon Network offices must have liked the track too. It was used as the intro music to Cartoon Planet for a while.