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My iPod #457: Weezer – The Good Life

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“The Good Life” was released as the second single from Weezer’s second album, one that is considered to be their best too, Pinkerton in 1996. Though reception towards the album was not too great when it first came out. You can read about that for yourselves. The song was somehow meant to save the album’s commercial status but by the point of its rush-release the damage had been done.

The song is written from Rivers Cuomo’s frustration after painful surgery in which one of his legs literally had to be stretched in order to match the length of the other. Times were obviously not too great for the guy, and the experience inspired him to write the track.

In it, he still sees himself as a ‘funky dude’ when he looks at the mirror but things aren’t really funky when you’re broken, beaten down, and can’t go around anywhere without a cane to support you. The man is in clear desperation. Now I wouldn’t say this is the most cathartic track on Pinkerton, because that album is catharsis defined. But it is definitely one in which every element from the lead vocals, the improvisational backing vocals, the whole band performance, the fast breakdown which leads into the slow comedown with the slide guitar……. Everything owns. One of Weezer’s best songs, in my opinion.

I wonder if this had been released as the first single whether that would have done anything for Pinkerton back in its day. Oh well.

My iPod #443: Sex Pistols – God Save the Queen

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“God Save the Queen”, the anti-anthem performed by Sex Pistols, was released as a track on the classic Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols. ‘Accidentally’ released as a single during the Queen’s Silver Jubilee in 1977, the song inevitably caused controversy. The BBC refused to play it, a lot of radio stations were banned from airing it. It reached number two in the charts, but there has always been accusations that it was actually the highest selling single at the time and should have been one spot higher.

The track mostly makes fun out of the power that the Queen seems to have over the country. The lyrics note her to be some sort of robot fabricated by her ancestors, and in another instance as some sort of money laundering figure. Though the overall conclusion is that if we all get too hyped up for this monarchy malarkey that towers over the nation, listen to every word they say and take it face value… then there is no hope for us. Though with the lyrics delivered in the trademark snarly, snotty, and sarcastic tone by Johnny Rotten, it’s nothing to take very seriously.

I do really rate Rotten’s vocals on here though. Delivering lines occasionally ending with offhand sniggers and emphatic pronunciation on certain syllables, Rotten from casually speaking the lines at the beginning increases in vocal intensity with every chorus particularly on the “We mean it, maaaaaan” line climaxing with his restrained scream which leads into the “No future” coda. Makes you wanna thrash your arms about and shout at a wall.

So that’s my take on a great song. Very British. Very punk.

My iPod #441: Louis XIV – God Killed the Queen

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“God Killed the Queen” is a song by the band Louis XIV on the album The Best Little Secrets Are Kept from 2005. A lot of people know the track due to its inclusion on the soundtrack for the sports game “SSX on Tour”; I saw it because, from what I remember, the new video for  the track was constantly being advertised on a music channel (which I think was Kerrang!). But it was only played at night, which was the one and only time I saw the full thing.

For its sub-two minute duration it is a very busy track to listen to. Based around 4 chords more or less, the track contains vocals and guitars which pan from one channel to the other within split seconds. Some vocal sections are buried underneath the mix, some of them fade into it a few measures late, and some overlap each other completely. Whoever mixed the song did a very weird job of it. Though I don’t mind it even if it may be a bit perplexing for some. And at least the steady rhythm section and various hand-claps and additional percussion provide a firm backbone for all of the production meddling to work around. It is a very catchy song to listen to. I’m still into it though all these years later.

Not much of a Louis XIV person; I only like this song. It’s about a one night stand by the way, in spite of the ‘shocking’ title.

My iPod #439: Queens of the Stone Age – Go with the Flow

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“Go with the Flow” is a song by Queens of the Stone Age that has grown to be one of the band’s most known and beloved songs. Reasons? It’s placed on what is arguably the band’s best album of Songs for the Deaf, it has a brilliant and iconic Shynola-directed music video used to promote its single release, and and because everything about it is just too badass to comprehend.

Though personally it’s not my favourite Queens track, I admire it for its sheer velocity, execution, and quality. The song doesn’t even allow you to settle into the groove. It just explodes into its rhythm and from then on it’s full throttle energy exuded all round by each member. Honestly…. never thought about its meaning that much because to me the music has a lot more impact. But Josh Homme still works it on the vocal area as only he does best, and backs it up with powerful guitar playing alongside Nick Oliveri on the bass and Gene Trautmann (and not Dave Grohl as some may think) on the drums.

If you haven’t heard it before, where have you been? Listen to it now, man.

My iPod #425: Manic Street Preachers – The Girl Who Wanted to Be God

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“The Girl Who Wanted to Be God” is a track from Manic Street Preachers’ album “Everything Must Go“, released in 1996. This album was their first after the disappearance of lyricist and rhythm guitarist Richey Edwards (which happened twenty years ago yesterday, if you didn’t know) though some tracks on it included lyrics that Edwards had left over – today’s track is one of them, though Nicky Wire did contribute lyrics too. I’ve personally never looked into the lyrics much though the title is also the name of a poem by the late Sylvia Plath, whose work Edwards was known to study. Take from that what you will.

Admittedly the part of the track that got me straight away were the sensational strings that give the track this elating feeling of freedom. After seconds of a choppy guitar and a meddling rhythm section that start the track off, the strings suddenly appear to play the chorus melody and I’m launched into the air and find myself soaring through the sky, faster than the speed of sound. And then James Dean Bradfield reinforces that feeling by belting out the title phrase which makes up the song’s chorus. The verses are good; they have a good melody to them. But that chorus…. some days it will pop in my head, and I can be repeating it for minutes on end.

If I were lucky enough to be a member of Manic Street Preachers in 1996, I would definitely have wanted this to be a single. Could you imagine thousands of people singing back that chorus to you at concerts? Man. Better than “Kevin Carter“, I think. Though however glorious the strings and wailing guitar may be, it still reminds me of music that should be in the background of a flight advert or the theme music to a soap opera. I really don’t know why, I just get that vibe from it.