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My iPod #405: Enter Shikari – Gap in the Fence

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Next Monday post-hardcore group Enter Shikari release what will be the band’s fourth album “The Mindsweep“. Can I say that I am hyped about this? Not really. My interest in their music has faded as the years pass; had I not searched the group up on Google earlier this week, I would definitely not have known that a new album was coming soon. It also may be due to the dub-step stuff they began to incorporate into their music. It’s a shame. I used like to like them quite a lot. But I believe “Common Dreads” was their last album that I was excited for, and learnt to appreciate after listening to it a few times.

“Gap in the Fence”, about subservience and taking things at face value (in Rou Reynolds’ words, not mine), is a track that builds and becomes bigger as it goes on. Initially beginning as one of the slower and quieter ones on the album, Reynolds sings on his lonesome with an acoustic guitar; soft percussion and pretty vocal harmonies occur soon after. It is halfway through when the music somehow then evolves into this glistening house/trance beat where Rou makes it clear that he needs ‘to get out of here’. Many, many times. But it all results in a climactic finish consisting of loud guitars, a mix of shouting and singing, and a final word that stretches out for a few seconds before coming to an emphatic stop. “GRANNTEEEEEEEEEEEEEED-UH.” I feel Reynolds’ anger just listening to it,

It then segues into the next track “Havoc B”, but that’s besides the point.

“Gap in the Fence” is a sick one. Very nice.

In this video – at 6:50 or so – the band talk about the song. You might want to watch the whole thing if you want to know the background behind each individual track on “Common Dreads”.

My iPod #397: Arctic Monkeys – From the Ritz to the Rubble

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Like “Fake Tales of San Francisco”, the version of “From the Ritz to the Rubble” I listen to can be found on the EP “Five Minutes with Arctic Monkeys”. There aren’t any major differences between that version and the re-recorded take on “Whatever People Say….”. The only one I can think of at the top of my head is the ending bass. Even so, the version you can hear above was the one I was listening to waaaay before the album was released and therefore I got used to seeing that as the official version. Though both tracks were recorded in a totally different label, I have to say that I feel “Five Minutes with Arctic Monkeys” contains the better takes of both songs.

Though the majority of you may recognise the track as the penultimate offering of Arctic Monkeys’ phenomenal debut from 2006, “Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not”, an album about a Saturday night out in Sheffield. Although “A Certain Romance” brings the album to a close, I consider “From the Ritz to the Rubble” to be night-out concept’s ending, coming from a person who wakes up on the Sunday morning thinking ‘what the fuck was that all about?’. Though not before a recalling of events involving a power-mad bouncer at the entrance of a club, which funnily isn’t all that important as Turner shrugs it off claiming it as ‘a story to tell you’.

The song’s main message concerns how people reflect on the things they’ve done on a drunk night out, and how amazingly different things appear to be the morning after. It is also one of the most energetic tracks on the Monkeys’ debut; many cymbals crash, a lot of alternating guitar lines occur which pan from one ear to the other, and plus it has a groovy bassline which you can never go wrong with. One to get the blood rushing.

My iPod #396: Nick Drake – From the Morning

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“…listening to this album, with headphones to be isolated of all exterior noises, with eyes closed, is a unique experience. Because at the end, the last song you hear is FROM THE MORNING, and this song is so positive! After all an album of a beautiful darkness, you finish on this moving celebration of life, telling you that another day starts after this tormented night, all starts again with a beautiful morning, that everything is possible with the rise of the sun. It’s at the opposite with the whole rest of the album, and it ends like that. I’m telling you, you can’t arrive at the end of PINK MOON with your eyes dry. That’s why this song has a particular saviour. And you need to know that FROM THE MORNING was his parents favourite song, proof that it has a positive reflect, and that’s why they chose a quote of this song as epitaph on his gravestone “Now we rise, and we are everywhere”.

That is a comment under the lyrics of “From the Morning” on songsmeaning.net. And I actually couldn’t put it better myself.

“Pink Moon” is the album to play during the hours of a cold winter night; its bare atmosphere and depressing lyrics matching the dark, silent environment. You walk around wondering where to turn.

But then “From the Morning” begins just as the sun rises, the skies turn a pinkish colour, the birds start to sing and you realise you’ve been bugging out over nothing. Everything will be alright. Another day is here. Time to learn something new.

The track’s presence wipes the sadness and desolation present throughout “Pink Moon” away, and as the last song ends the album on a happy, positive note. Sadly he would pass away only a few years later, but at least his official discography came to a definitive conclusion with this highly-spirited tune.

My iPod #395: Linkin Park – From the Inside

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“From the Inside” is from Linkin Park’s second album “Meteora”. It’s my favourite track on that album, too. It was released as its fourth single in 2004, physically in Australia and the USA whilst it was download only in the UK. It’s a track of the band’s that isn’t really overplayed so I never feel as if I can ever really get tired of it, say like “What I’ve Done” or “In the End” or something. This is an actual track I can really get into when that siren-like keyboard melody begins.

“From the Inside” adapts that quiet verse/loud chorus dynamic that is typically used in grunge music. Chester Bennington softly sings alternating with Mike Shinoda’s raps in the verses, before Bennington lets loose and the trademark Meteora wall of guitars enter for the chorus. Bennington screams a lot during the bridge too, which excites any Linkin Park fan.

Not much else I can say about it. It’s a very heavy tune about being betrayed and not knowing who you can trust anymore, with a waltz time signature. Cool stuff.

My iPod #370: Gorillaz – Fire Coming Out of the Monkey’s Head

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Looking through my iPod before I started this I found that, to my embarrassment, I have accidentally missed out a song. Silly me. I thought I had the order sussed out too. I’ll get to it one day. For now, the series must continue.

“Fire Coming Out of the Monkey’s Head” begins the “End of the World” track trilogy at the end of the “Demon Days” album with “Don’t Get Lost in Heaven” and the title track coming after. Listen to those three songs in succession. I also don’t think they have an official name together, “End of the World” just seems like the most appropriate thing to call it.

The track is essentially a story, narrated by the late and great Dennis Hopper, about the ‘Happyfolk’ who live under the great mountain called Monkey. Monkey eventually explodes, consuming the Earth in a great wave of fire after the ‘Strangefolk’ dig deep into its centre, stealing the jewels that lie within it. A menacing, repetitive bassline plays with deep humming backing vocals and clicking guitar licks setting the tracks mysterious and creepy tone during the verses. Damon Albarn (2D) comes in with a few verses too, accompanied by a sole acoustic guitar.

I read an interesting comment on there that suggested that this track was the main track of the entire album. Every track preceding has essentially been parts of the narrative that is told in this one song where everything comes together. Kinda makes sense. The happyfolk being the “Last Living Souls” and everything, and “Feel Good Inc.” being that point where the happy people seem to realise that something is going amiss but try and block it out to all they’re might. It’s very long to describe. But I can see it. Can’t remember where I saw that comment though, must have been years ago. Oh well.