Tag Archives: the

#1218: The Futureheads – Skip to the End

2 Replies

Goddamn it, it’s been nearly 20 years since this song came out, and I vividly remember watching MTV2 when its music video was showing on the regular. That places me at the age of 11, nearing the end of my days in primary school. ‘Skip to the End’ was unveiled as the first single from what was going to be the new second album by The Futureheads, News and Tributes. It was something I wasn’t expecting because 1, I wasn’t reading up on music like that back then, and 2, another song by the band had been released some months prior that had been announced as a standalone thing and nothing more. But none of it mattered. The band were officially back, back. And owning the band’s debut album on CD like I did, and still do, it was an exciting thing.

I wouldn’t be able to specifically remember the very first time I watched the video/heard the song, but I do recall at least thinking initially that it maybe wasn’t as immediate as a ‘Decent Days and Nights’ or ‘Area’. The verses hopped along with clicking cross-sticks and stabbing guitar chords. Guitarist/singer Barry Hyde delivers his vocals, unusually without the notable backing vocals that were ingrained in the Futureheads DNA. But then the chorus comes in, those backing vocals arrive with it and everything felt all right again. It took a while to get there, but that familiar Futureheads feeling was established. And after hearing it probably almost every morning before school in that time, it made sense that it would stick in my head and I would add it on a phone so I could write my feelings about it nearly two decades later.

The lyrical matter is pretty simple. The narrator here states that if there was a chance to somehow go forward in time and witness the end of their relationship with someone, they would do so to see if there was any point in starting it in the first place. Whether it’s a happy end or a broken heart is the main factor with which they would make their decision. There’s no answer to how the relationship in question goes because obviously it isn’t something anyone’s able to do. It’s just a song to say if they could, they would. But if the second verse is anything to go by, Hyde sings about “going through the roof” (getting very upset) when his lady makes sense, it may be fair to say that things could be going a little better.

#1215: Noisettes – Sister Rosetta (Capture the Spirit)

2 Replies

Another Noisettes song beginning with ‘S’. Not so far after the last one too. Funny how it goes sometimes. You won’t write about a song by a band/artist for a long while, and then before you know it you’re writing about two in almost quick succession. The last one was ‘Scratch Your Name’, a fine, fine song, I’d advise you to listen and maybe read what I have to say about it. But now it’s time for ‘Sister Rosetta’ to shine. Like ‘Scratch Your Name’, ‘Sister Rosetta’ was another track from the band’s debut album to be chosen as a single. It got its own music video, which I’m sure I would have seen on the TV at some moment in time. I can’t remember watching it as much as the singles that came before. But when I did catch the video on those brief occasions, it was always a good time.

The track is an homage to American singer-songwriter Sister Rosetta Tharpe, who pretty much invented rock and roll. I wish my grandma was as cool as this. But more thoroughly, the lyrics explore the personality of a lady who frequently partakes in nights out in London with the song’s narrator. The narrator describes the good times they have together, making note of the synergy between the two characters, complementing each other “like Satan and Christ”, and I think the chorus sees the narrator wanting something more to happen in this relationship. What it is isn’t explicitly stated, but a capturing of the spirit must occur in order for the narrator’s questions to be answered. The verses are carried by an old-timey rock ‘n’ roll feel, suitably reflected by the swing dancing choreography in the video, before transitioning into the blistering punky choruses. They close out the song, just when things start to feel a little out of control, with singer Shingai Shoniwa bringing proceedings to a halt with a sudden shriek.

If you listen closely to the song via the video, you’ll hear that the rumbling noise at the song’s end sort of cuts out quite abruptly. That’s because, on What’s the Time Mr. Wolf?, the audio carries through right into the following track ‘Bridge to Canada’ – the first Noisettes song I wrote about on here so many years ago. Seeing as this is the last Noisettes song I’ll be writing about on here, it feels good to somehow tie them all together. Some people reading this may recognise ‘Sister Rosetta’ as a song that was featured in a Twilight film. It seems the track was re-recorded for its inclusion, and I have to say…. I don’t like it all that much. Sounds so much tamer in comparison to the original. But, you know, that’s just my opinion. Hear it out for yourself.

#1187: The Beatles – She Came in Through the Bathroom Window

Leave a reply

Well, this track comes as a bit of a weird one to talk about. It’s The Beatles. ‘She Came in Through the Bathroom Window’ is from Abbey Road. Everyone likes that album. When I think about it, it’s not the one I return to when I want to hear a Beatles album in full. That would probably go to Revolver or Rubber Soul or something. But I won’t argue that it has some of the band’s best songs on there. ‘She Came in…’ is a part of the medley that makes up the majority of Abbey Road‘s second half, kinda closing out its first part, and was performed in one take alongside ‘Polythene Pam’ whose closing solo segues right into the introduction.

For the longest time I looked at the medley with a bit of a side-eye. Blasphemous to say, I know. This was the masterstroke that marked the ending of the Beatles’ recording career. But seeing as it was made up of tunes that John Lennon and Paul McCartney had in the can going back to 1968, the album was released in Autumn 1969, I used to see it as the guys sort of scraping the bottom of the barrel for material and shmushing them together. Although I appreciate it a lot more these days, I do usually have that feeling lurking in the back of my mind. As a result, I like some of the parts more than the whole. And I can’t say that I have a deep, deep connection with this particular tune other than I found myself singing it to myself whenever I was out shopping or in the shower. If I was singing it in those situations, that probably means I’ve liked it somewhere along the line.

‘She Came in…’ was inspired by a real-life incident where a fan broke into Paul McCartney’s London home, literally through the bathroom window while he was out. The parts about being ‘protected by a silver spoon’ and sucking her thumb ‘by the banks of her own lagoon’ I have no idea about. Only McCartney could tell you if he asked him. But being a grandmaster of melody that he is, he makes the whole two minutes the song goes on for sound rather good. I guess he just let his imagination run wild about this particular person, wondering what she does as a job and what her aspirations may be. It’s all a bit up in the air, this one, regarding the lyrics. But regarding the harmonies, the backing vocals, Harrison’s guitar licks, the sort of half-time tempo McCartney’s bass takes for the second verse. That’s all good, good stuff. One of my highlights out of the so-called ‘Long One’.

#1176: Nirvana – Serve the Servants

Leave a reply

While thinking about what I was gonna write for this song, its chorus just kept on repeating itself in my head. It’s a funny thing about ‘Serve the Servants’. This was the opener to Nirvana’s In Utero, the album consciously made, at the behest of main man Kurt Cobain, to sound a lot more unpolished and possess a rawer feel to counter the “overproduction” of Nevermind. And sure, it gets that theme going from the first second with the sound of a drumstick count-in and that blast of an opening chord. But once its rhythm and near-groove properly sets in with melody in tow, it’s just as catchy and much of a tune as anything that came on the album before. It’s not the most massive of changes. That shock really comes in on the song after.

I first listened to In Utero just over 11 years ago. It might have even been during this month in 2013. That was a special year for the album, ’cause it marked 20 years since it was originally released and there was a whole special 20th anniversary release that was coming around the corner at the time. My take on it? I like it a bunch. It’s probably my favourite Nirvana LP. Nevermind will always been seen as the outright classic, but I just prefer a lot of the songs on Utero. The majority of the first half of the former has been overplayed over the years to the point where I can go long points without having to listen to it. Plus, might be a little silly, but there’s something about Nevermind that’s a little too perfect to me. It’s the little oddities and things left in on In Utero that I’ve always felt have made it the more rewarding listen.

‘Serve the Servants’ is a tune that I’ve never really been able to figure out. It appears to be about a lot of different things all brought together. Cobain touches upon his own boredom with the music business, getting older and the pain that comes with it, relationship issues with his dad and references the Salem witch trials. So, maybe it’s fair to say it’s a bit of an autobiographical thing going on with a totally different subject put in to throw the listener off. Maybe it’s all just words Cobain put together to sound good. Too bad he can’t tell us now. But it’s always been an engaging tune to hear. In comparison to the power chords of ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’, ‘Servants’ rolls along with this odd riff which usually shouldn’t work but very much does. Cobain sings louder in the verses compared to the choruses where he’s nearly mumbling. The solo’s a trip and doesn’t just follow the vocal melody of the verse, and at 2:42, something I’ve just noticed, someone flat-out coughs in the middle of it. You gotta dig that sort of stuff.

#1173: Supergrass – Seen the Light

Leave a reply

My old TV, provided by Virgin Media, had this feature where you could go into its guide and select a variety of music videos if ever you wanted to watch them. It was pretty cool. Television hadn’t yet got to the point where you could easily hook up your laptop right up to the big CRT screen. And if it had, I couldn’t anyway because I didn’t have a laptop. But it was neat to be able to watch whatever music video that tickled your fancy, in very, good quality, and in full screen without a problem of adverts or buffering and all the like. And it was through that that I came to know ‘Seen the Light’, a track from Supergrass’s 2002 album Life on Other Planets, which was also released as a single in early 2003.

As you’ll see above, the video doesn’t feature a physical presence of the band in any way. They must have been out on tour promoting the album or something. But is instead a clip consisting of followers going crazy over their apparent leaders, whether it be the congregation in a church or rabid fans at what appears to be a Fabian show. The video’s also made so it looks like various characters within it are miming the lyrics to the song. It’s a weird one, but also quite funny. And I guess it all ties in with the song’s lyrical matter too, which concerns the moment of joy and rapture that has been felt among the people now that their eyes have ‘seen the light’. What that light is isn’t really specified. But what matters is that there’s a sense of happiness and freedom, now that it’s been found.

I’m sure I’ve made some statement in the past referring to how this specific album by Supergrass is where they really wore their glam-rock influences on their sleeves. It’s apparent throughout the whole record, and ‘Seen the Light’ is one prime example. The way Gaz Coombes enunciates his lyrics (“Now that our eyyyyes have seeeeen the liiight, uuuuuuh”) the general tone behind the music. It’s a clear Marc Bolan/T.Rex tribute. Not that I’m complaining though. The whole track is a feel-good affair filled with very humorous moments, like the freaky/weirded out guitar(?) solo, a ‘baa’ from a sheep that makes a random appearance and an Elvis Presley impersonation, again by Coombes, that caps the whole track off. Fair to say, I think the group were in very high spirits when they were recording this.