Finally! After almost three years from its release, I have seen the last Harry Potter film. The feels! I kid you not, just two minutes ago I finished watching it. Thank you MegaShare. I never thought I could get an actual working link as the top result on Google, but there you go.
Today’s track is one that would not be acclaimed by a lot of Beatle fans. It was one of my most played tracks in iTunes, which would either impress some people or gain some curious looks by others.
Well I don’t care! I like it. The song’s quite funny. And one based on real events. An American man went to visit his mother in India, where John Lennon and the rest of the band were staying at the time, and set out on elephants to hunt a tiger. A tiger was killed, John didn’t like it, the rest is history.
The song is also noted for the one and only appearance of a female lead vocal on a Beatles track. This pisses off some people, as it was provided by Yoko Ono. For me…. meh. I am indifferent. It is over before you know it.
Sorry for the late post, I had started writing at around seven and then some events occurred which prevented me from finishing it… But here it is.
First day of the new year but the posting doesn’t stop. You think I would take a day off for this momentous occasion? You is stupid. I would never do that. Even though I am at my friend’s place and easily could have missed today. But I feel as if it would have been a waste to let this day go without making a mark on it, so here we go.
I bought “Consolers of the Lonely” in 2008 just because I really liked “Salute Your Solution” and wanted to listen to it on repeat without waiting for it to appear on MTV2. That resulted in me a skipping the almost title track when I first got the album. That was a silly mistake.
I did have a reason as to why I did. The slow guitar introduction did not impress me so I skipped the whole song altogether, not knowing that the song actually changed into a full-on hard rock tune.
Something that I really liked about the first single from the album was the change of the band’s sound. I know that’s said for a lot of artists, but compared to “Broken Boy Soldiers” which sounded like a band writing their tracks and then recording them in a small studio, “Consolers of the Lonely” was the sound of a band ready to take on the biggest festivals and fill the largest stadiums.
With the track beginning on a quiet note, a bunch of studio chatter and aforementioned guitar I wasn’t expecting much. That was until the count-in from the drumsticks appeared and the real song began. The first chord accompanied with the pounding rhythm section hit me like a ton of bricks. It sounded so good. Brendan Benson’s vocals sound as rich as ever, and work ever so well as the ‘lonely’ character as detailed in the album name.
Then the middle begins. The song slows down, and the guitar from the introduction is the backbone of it. Very clever! So it wasn’t some sort of random lick that they just threw in, it actually has purpose. Jack White strides in as the ‘consoler’ as he offers the loner ‘something good to eat’ and slap-bang we’re back to the pumping verses again.
It’s all done really smoothly. This song is one containing a lot of changes. The best one is saved for the last minute when the song suddenly gains pace and the band execute one of the best breakdowns I have out of all the songs I have on my Apple product.
“The Coast Is Always Changing” is a track from Maxïmo Park’s first album “A Certain Trigger” which was released in 2005. The eighth track on that album if I remember correctly.
It was a single too. Their very very very first single. Like even before “Apply Some Pressure“. I didn’t know this song existed until the video played on MTV2, and that was way after the album had been released anyway.
One thing that irks me about this song, and others on “Trigger”, is that it sounds a lot different from “Apply Some Pressure”, “Graffiti” and “Going Missing”. Has anyone else noticed this apart from me? In terms of production this song, “I Want You to Stay” and “Signal and Sign” for example sound really rough. A bit like demo recordings. Whereas the former three sound really polished. I don’t know if that’s just me. Maybe it is.
I do like this song though, however different it sounds to the other singles.
Supergrass’ first official single as a band. Sounding like it was recorded in a few minutes in cramped and compact room, “Caught by the Fuzz” is an autobiographical account of lead singer Gaz Coombe’s first time of being arrested by the police when he was only 15.
The song is very quick. Quite punk-esque, with a semi-talking verse and a belter of a chorus which all end with the word ‘tonight’. Well, it’s not really a chorus. But if you listen to it, you will understand what I mean.
The film “Hot Fuzz” has this track playing during the credits, so if you wanted to know what that song was called…. here it is.
It is the second song on the band’s first album “I Should Coco“, a bit of Cockney rhyming slang for those of you who aren’t familiar.
“The Cap’m” is the second most popular They Might Be Giants song from “The Else” according to TMBW, coming in at #40 on the overall song rating chart. Why is this? Well, I can’t speak for all of the fans who rated it. What I can tell you is why I like it though. That is probably what you expect, as that is what I have done for every song on my iPod since February.
What is probably the most interesting aspect of the song is the incongruous relationship between the lyrics and everything about the music. The music itself sounds very uplifting, from the chord progressions to the vocals. But the lyrics are from the point of view of a pretentious and egoistic narrator. Almost like “And Your Bird Can Sing” by The Beatles…. That’s another song I like. Maybe, more bands should go with that formula, because the two songs I know of that use it have done no wrong.
The Music in My Ears 