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#645: Hot Hot Heat – Island of the Honest Man

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Does anyone else remember when Windows Media Player had this option where you could search for a song on the internet and add it to your own playlist after the program provided a link to the website where the file was hosted? I think it was called the ‘guide’? Something along those lines. It wasn’t such a great tool as the music was very scarce. Not always in great quality either. It wasn’t like now where you can virtually listen to anything now because of Spotify and the like. But to build on my initial question… I think that is how I came to hear today’s song for the very first time back in 2005, and it’s probably one of the better songs from the album it’s on.

‘Island of the Honest Man’ was the initial promo single from Hot Hot Heat’s second album Elevator, before ‘Goodnight Goodnight’ was released as the proper commercial track some time later. In 2005 I was ten, and I guess there was something about this track that I thought stood out from a lot of other things I was listening to around that time. The clangy guitar in the verses is very sharp and biting in its delivery. Its general fast tempo and the way the timing changes during the transition into the chorus. The chorus is fantastic too. There’s a very uplifting sense about it, something I’ve got from those fluid summery guitars that back it up. I don’t think the track excites me as much as it did way back when but I still get into its groove when its momentum gets going. Also recently I noticed that there’s a guitar part that harmonises with the lead vocals during the last choruses. That’s pretty cool.

I guess because I heard it at that young age I never considered what the lyrics are about. Though mainly from its chorus, it’s about finding this place where you can do whatever you want to do without being judged. Be yourself. All of that sentiment.

#637: Super Furry Animals – The International Language of Screaming

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Super Furry Animals are known to have one of the most solid discographies for a British rock group. In about late 2014 I made it a goal to go through it from their debut Fuzzy Logic to whatever their most recent album was at the time. I only made it to their second album. Guerrilla I had already listened to years prior. I gave up on that task very quickly. But now I knew three albums by SFA. Radiator is the band’s second album, released in 1997, and is where you can find today’s song tucked in near the beginning of the record.

If you’ve listened to Radiator from front to back, you’ll know that the track follows ‘The Placid Casual’ which is very keyboard-led, Gruff Rhy’s vocals are packed in the middle and the drums crash with a vengeance. On ‘Screaming’ almost all the instruments are packed in the centre, with Rhy’s vocals separated in the left and right with very open guitars. It makes a great contrast, and is a great one-two punch at the start of the album.

‘The International Language of Screaming’ was released as the album’s second single way back when. It lasts for only two minutes and fifteen seconds but is packed with a lot of elements that make it very enjoyable and hard to forget. The main vocal melody almost never changes throughout the thing, and I’ve also like how it rises and rises before dropping down again and returning back to its beginning again. There are these weird wailing/cooing noises that I’ve only began to hear that surround all the music. But at the base of it are these overdriven guitars that lead the track along. I feel this track is just about boredom with life. Becoming stagnant at some point and needing to way to break out of the funk. Singer Gruff Rhys finds that the best way to do this is by screaming, which he obliges to do as the final choruses repeat and the song finishes with a soundscape of swirling electronic noises.

#634: The Beatles – The Inner Light

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George Harrison began work on what would be his debut solo album in late 1967. Those sessions resulted in Wonderwall Music, released a year later. He travelled to Bombay in order to work with some musicians, and back to London to record some vocals. In that time, today’s song – ‘The Inner Light’ – was recorded. It was the last of Harrison’s songs during his time in the Beatles to explore the Indian influences that had been something of a trademark for him since 1966.

There’s a lot of information on its Wikipedia page that I don’t want to regurgitate. I’ve basically come to take it as an ode to meditation. Feeling content and peace within yourself and those around you. He took a lot of the lines from the Chinese Tao Te Ching text, putting a glorious melody on the words which are backed by a strong harmonium drone and floating Indian flutes.

Upon completion, it was made B-Side to ‘Lady Madonna’ and released in March 1968 while The Beatles went to India for some Transcendental Meditation. It was the first Harrison song to appear on a single. Harrison was proud of it, Paul McCartney held it in high regard. It worked out well in the end. For the song at least – the band were never quite the same from this year onwards.

#631: Big Star – In the Street

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‘In the Street’ is the third song on Big Star’s first album #1 Record from 1972. Now I thought I had talked about a Big Star song before. I haven’t. I have, however, written about two songs by Chris Bell, who coincidentally takes the lead vocal on this track. I can’t recall if I talked about Big Star in them, but to put you up to speed – they were a band in the seventies who made all this great music which didn’t get heard by anyone at the time because of a lack in distribution. As time went on people discovered their albums and realised what they were missing.

Although Bell sings this ‘In the Street’, it was actually written by fellow songwriter in the band Alex Chilton which allowed the tracklisting to alternate between the two singers. I feel that Bell’s shrill vocals are best suited for it compared to Chilton’s calmer tones. Compare Bell here with Chilton on…. ‘Thirteen’, for example. Anyway, the track is more or less about having nothing to do in the neighbourhood but chill out with friends or your partner and smoke a joint every once in a while. It’s a song for everyone, really. This is done so with in a tightly packed two and a half minutes with punchy drums, swaggering production and glorious vocal harmonies.

It took a while for me to get into this song because I was so used to Cheap Trick’s version at the start of That 70s Show. While those 30 seconds are almost always the best parts of those episodes, Big Star is the OG.

#630: Weezer – In the Garage

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When Weezer signed to Geffen Records in 1993, frontman and singer-songwriter Rivers Cuomo was assumedly stoked about the whole situation. So much so that he wrote two songs about the ordeal. Whichever one he wrote first can be argued but alongside ‘Holiday’, ‘In the Garage’ was written. Both appeared on the band’s blue debut album a year later.

The two songs connect to each other so much (subject matter wise) that they are put right next to each other in the tracklist, although whilst ‘Holiday’ is a much more uptempo and jubilant affair, ‘In the Garage’ slows things down and takes more of an introspective look on Cuomo’s feelings about being signed. The garage is that of Amherst House in Los Angeles where the members of Weezer lived and would hold their early rehearsals; the track is a dedication to that place. Rivers Cuomo is a nerd and heavy metal fan and a bit of a recluse and he’s proud to declare it here. In the garage he’s able to geek out on Dungeons and Dragons and worship his KISS posters without being judged by his peers. It’s a wholesome track. Has a very warm sentiment.

Much like all of the other tracks on the album, the song is characterized by a wall of sleek guitars (all provided by Cuomo) although here, there is a touch of harmonica and a fuzz bass in the second verse to change things up a bit. It’s a fine listen. It’s a popular one amongst Weezer fans. It’s probably not my personal favourite on the album. The whole thing is a 10/10 so you can’t go wrong.