Tag Archives: the

#709: Kevin Ayers – The Lady Rachel

1 Reply

When I was interning at a music magazine in 2015, there was plenty of down time when there wasn’t much going on. If there wasn’t any down time, there was a lot of opportunity to put on a playlist while I was sorting through computer files or writing a blog of some sort. It was during those times that the song ‘Joy of a Toy Continued’ by Kevin Ayers appeared in my Discover Weekly playlist. It’s one of the happiest sounding songs I know. From that I went on to listen to Ayers’ album that the song takes its name from (or vice versa, I’m not sure, it’s also the name of a song by his former group Soft Machine). For a while Joy of a Toy was my go-to album. Ayers’ vocals reminded me of Nick Drake and the music sounded like everything was taking place at the circus. That feeling was probably aided by the cover art. It’s very fun, quick, wacky in places.’The Lady Rachel’ is one of its highlights.

The track has a very ominous sound to it. It’s backed by a majority of minor chords in its verses. There are no drums in there which adds to the song’s crawling and creepy feel, led by a very melodic bassline that jumps up and down and goes all over the place. Despite that, the track is about the titular character climbing up the stairs to her bedroom, going to sleep and having a surreal dream where she finds a castle in a box and heads into it after the castle’s moat speaks to her. The subject matter is quite innocent in a way. A girl goes to sleep and has a strange dream. Nothing wrong with that. But it’s the juxtaposition of that with the eerie music that makes it such a great listen.

Too bad I hadn’t heard the album sooner. I’m not able to speak at length about ‘The Clarietta Rag’ and ‘Eleanor’s Cake (Which Ate Her)’. I’m way past those letters. The former is another of my favourites from the album. The latter is a beautiful tribute to Eleanor Barooshian of 60s group The Cake who split up in 1968.

#702: The Shins – Kissing the Lipless

Leave a reply

I’ve tried to get into The Shins but I’ve long conceded that their albums don’t do that much for me. Long ago I downloaded Oh, Inverted World and Chutes Too Narrow because I’d seen that they were praised very well. I do think Chutes is better – I deleted Inverted because I never returned to it – but even then there are two tracks on there that I listen to.

‘Kissing the Lipless’ starts off Chutes Too Narrow, an album that is now reaching twenty years since its release. It probably means a lot to many people. Been the soundtrack to many a formative year and important moments. Can’t say that for me. I’ve got to admit that I haven’t even listened to this song many times to properly gauge its meaning. I just really like James Mercer’s vocals on this. Usually, his vocals are what prevent me from really getting into a Shins song – but he sings the melody so strongly and with pure gusto that it’s hard not to feel some emotion from it.

In terms of what it’s about….? I can’t go into too much detail without copying it from somewhere else. But I believe it’s about a friendship that has ended and all the memories that it once contained. Something along those lines.

#700: Kings of Leon – King of the Rodeo

2 Replies

This is another one of those songs where I was actually alive and could remember its video showing on the TV as opposed to finding it years later. One thing I remember about this track is that I, somehow, always managed to change the channel to MTV2 when the video for this song was almost finishing. I don’t think I ever saw the beginning until YouTube came along. Or maybe it was on the band’s official website when bands used to have their music videos on their in a .wmv format back in the day.

‘King of the Rodeo’ is on Kings of Leon’s second album Aha Shake Heartbreak, released in 2004. It was the album’s third single. I still don’t really know what Caleb Followill is saying throughout this thing. It’s never come to mind that I should find the lyrics and truly understand what he’s singing. I’ve always appreciated the sound of his voice here. The coarse tone, the breaks when he’s reaching for the high notes. It’s a characteristic that made the Kings of Leon those days very exciting to listen to. Yes, I’m one of those people. I think the real main highlight in the track is the guitar work of Matthew Followill. While Caleb pretty much plays two chords for the whole song, Nathan keeps the momentum going with the crunchy riffs and string bends. It’s in the left speaker if you’re using your headphones. Or the right, if you’re watching the video.

Now, I have read the lyrics. Apparently, there are a few references to the film Withnail and I in the track. I wasn’t expecting that. Other than that, there’s not much meaning to the lyrical content. I’ll take it that about they’re about some relationship between a guy and a girl in the South.

#698: Neutral Milk Hotel – The King of Carrot Flowers, Pt. 1

Leave a reply

While I may not see In the Aeroplane Over the Sea as the classic, iconic indie album as a lot of people do – it’s not my go-to when I want something to listen to – I can still appreciate the musicianship and all those elements that make good songs.

‘The King of Carrot Flowers, Pt 1.’ is more or less the introduction to the record, detailing an abusive relationship between two adults while a young boy falls in love with a girl. I would say it’s actually my favourite song on the whole thing. You may find that strange; I won’t argue with you. It just provides a homely and warm vibe straight away from the busy acoustic guitar riff that starts things off. The repetitive melody within the verses become so familiar after numerous listens. I’ve also always liked how the track builds as it goes on, with an accordion added in for the second verse before everything climaxes with those rising horns. It’s beautiful stuff.

It carries on into Parts 2 and 3 where everything takes a left turn. The whole band joins in for a raucous and messy performance. I don’t like it as much. Not because of its rough style. Could never just get into it….. But it’s down there for you.

#695: The Wombats – Kill the Director

1 Reply

Haven’t written about The Wombats in a while. Last time I did was in 2014. ‘Backfire at the Disco’ was a track I did a blog on here too, talking about how much I like it, why that is and so on and so forth. Some time between then and now I grew tired of it and it is now off the phone. That was The Wombats’ first single, I believe, and I remember seeing its video on MTV2 most of the time. It was all right. But it was the next single that got me thinking ‘This band might be onto something here’. Or something to that equivalent when I was 12 years old.

‘Kill the Director’ is the first ‘proper’ song from the band’s debut album, apparently inspired by the rom-com film The Holiday from 2006. It’s basically about the feeling of futility that one can feel when it comes to dating, trying to put on an act to try and impress a girl and failing in the process. The message is all in the song’s main refrain – “If this is a rom-com, kill the director”, roughly bows down to – if this is what love is meant to be like then end it now because it’s not worth it.

It works great as the opener, coming through with these alternating bass and guitar chords alongside Dan Haggis’ busy drumming. It’s fast, fast, fast stuff, exploding into the song’s chorus each time with the ‘ooh-ooh’ backing vocals that are a staple throughout the album. The ‘This is no/Bridget Jones’ coda gets a bit stale after a while for me, it doesn’t have to be repeated that many times or the line could have started just a few measures later, but as a whole the track doesn’t disappoint in delivering a hook upon hook in just under three minutes.