Tag Archives: with

#1419: Eels – Trouble with Dreams

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Very sure this right here was the first song by Eels I ever heard. Despite ‘Trouble with Dreams’ not being an official commercial single from the band’s 2005 Blinking Lights and Other Revelations double album, a music video was made for the track. It was that which I came across on the TV one day. According to Discogs, the promotional single was released in October 2005, so I’ll say I saw the video around that time. Earlier that year, Weezer had released Make Believe. They were on the TV quite regularly. And seeing ‘Trouble with Dreams’, I thought this was a new Weezer song and Rivers Cuomo had grown out a beard. I was ten years old, just bear in mind. But, no. This was Mark Oliver Everett, known as E in the music business. It was the shared thick-frame glasses look that fooled me. And Eels were a totally different group altogether. Maybe saw the video a couple, three times more before it disappeared from circulation? Some years later I remembered the song existed, downloaded it right away, and now I’m here to relay my feelings about it to you.

There are a lot of rock songs I’ve written about on this blog. You think of rock songs, they usually have electric guitars in them. Those are the usual go-to instruments you’d find in those types of musical compositions. Not in ‘Trouble with Dreams’, though. I’d consider the track to be a rock song. But replacing what would probably be electric guitars, if it were your usual rock band doing the usual thing, are a variety of keyboards. A celesta, what sounds like a harpsichord, organs, choir vocals which I also think are keyboard generated. It’s all about the keys in ‘Trouble with Dreams’. Sets it apart from a lot of songs out there, or at least in the collection of tracks I’ve written and will go on to write about. In the song, E sings about wanting to be with someone he’s affectionate for, but he can only dream about such a thing and can’t imagine the relationship happening for real. His dreams seem to always leave him hanging. So while he fantasizes about this ideal get-together, in reality, he’s spending a lot of days alone and apparently a little stressed out. If you’re a dreamer and found yours have come true, E makes sure to warn that they may not turn out how you wanted them to. You can see where the trouble with them comes into frame.

I think the mood of the track is perfectly complemented by the visuals in the music video. The spooky, minor-key verses – consisting of the ticking of a clock, the circular riff on the celesta and descending melody of the bass guitar – do give off man-aimlessly-walking-through-house-at-night-with-candle vibes, as E does in the clip. And then the soundscape opens up for the brighter, major-key choruses, it’s daytime, you open the door and see the blue sky and sun, before realizing you don’t like the outside so much. You shut the door and go back to your aimless wandering around the house. I really like E’s voice on the track, how he starts off sort of all mumble-like, before ramping up the intensity for the next line and then really bringing out the melody what I’d guess you’d call the choruses. Has a fine husk in his voice, nothing like Rivers Cuomo. And I say ‘guess you’d call the choruses’ because those melodic parts just sound like the culminations of the respective verses they appear at the end of. By the time all the verses, of which there are only three, are over, there’s still two minutes of the song to go, so the band shake out the jams for the rest of the song out until layer-by-layer it dissipates and the celesta and bass guitar play into silence. Really enjoy this one. Good for a Halloween playlist. And I should listen to Blinking Lights… again one day. It’s been years since the last time.

#1300: Green Day – Stuck with Me

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Green Day’s Insomniac will be out for 30 years this coming October. Not like I can say its initial release was something I was aware of at the time, being that I would have only been six months old. But having been a fan of the band since 2005 and followed their work up until the Uno! Dos! Tré days, becoming familiar with the majority of their discography in the process, I can firmly state that Insomniac is my favourite album. I don’t think this should be any kind of breaking news to anyone reading, ’cause I’m fairly sure I’ve said the same thing in a previous Green Day-Insomniac post. But if you are a first-time reader, then, hey, my favourite album of Green Day’s is Insomniac. It’s still their most in-your-face straight-out punk record they’ve done, filled with self-deprecation. That attitude strikes a chord with me. And ‘Stuck with Me’ is a highlight from there.

Me and ‘Stuck with Me’ go way, way back. Most likely back to those days of ’05 when I was really getting into Green Day at the time. Their official website allowed you to watch all of the music videos for their singles through Windows Media Player. The track, being a single from Insomniac – second after ‘Geek Stink Breath’ – got a music video of its own. One that I can only describe as the artwork for Insomniac come to life contrasted with a monochrome performance of the band playing the track in a small room. I didn’t have the greatest of Internet connections back in those days. When it came to watching music videos on Windows Media Player, a lot of the time was spent waiting on buffering so maybe an additional few seconds could play before it would stop again. I want to say ‘Stuck with Me’ was one of the rare, rare moments when the video played the whole way through without stopping. But that might be my mind playing tricks on me. But simple and plain, it was those repeated views/listens that got me into the track, and it’s stuck around in the mental plane ever since.

All this time, I’ve never sat down and pondered on what this song could be about. A quick skim through the lyrics, I get a sense of someone who feels comfort in being something of an outsider. Or someone who spits in the faces of the upper classes or phonies and takes great pride in it. They’re all right being the “scrub” they might be perceived to be. But at the same time, they’re also not all right. Perhaps mentally, physically, it’s not really stated. Most likely the former, when considering the subject matter of other songs on the record. Whatever lyrically is going on, it goes hand in hand with the constant rush of energy the music provides. The opening downward riff is an instant hook. And if you’re looking for some good bass guitar work, it just so happens that Insomniac is arguably the record on which bassist Mike Dirnt played a lot of his best lines. Before the last chorus on ‘Stuck with Me’, Dirnt gets his own almost-solo on his instrument accompanied by an appropriate thrashing on the drums by Tré Cool. Like a lot of good punk songs, it’s over before you probably want to get a little more into it. I think it gives more than enough in the time it lasts for. I could listen to it all the time.

#742: The Used – Light with a Sharpened Edge

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It’s been a while since I’ve discussed The Used on here. The last time I did was concerning the song ‘Hard to Say’ from In Love and Death. Though that is still my favourite album by the band, I removed that track from my iPhone quite a while ago. Plus there’s something about the tone of my writing before that two year break I did from here that I cringe about. Seems to me like a completely different person.

In that post I say “I don’t know how it happened, but I somehow listened to [this album]”. Thinking about it now, I remember exactly how I came across Love and Death. The video for ‘Take It Away’ was on MTV2 once upon a time and I thought it was one of the greatest songs I’d ever heard, being the teenager I was at the time. I downloaded the album not too long after. It was my go-to for a some time. Now, there are a few songs that I can’t make it through seriously. There are some tracks on the record where a lot of screaming is involved and I’m not emotionally attached to those in the same way I was in my adolescence. But some songs on there are just great and I have no problems with listening to them today. Two of them I’ve already written about. ‘Light with a Sharpened Edge’ is another.

This is my favourite track from that album. It’s that piercing guitar riff of the introduction that just gets me every time, it’s an instant hook. It’s in 6/8 (or 3/4, however you want to look at it). The strings on here are a thing of beauty. Vocalist Bert McCracken sings really nicely on top of it, easily reaching those higher notes with the natural register of his voice. Again, it’s another case where I’m not too sure what he’s singing about. Skimming through the lyrics in my head as I type, I’ll say it’s him having some sort of self-identity crisis and trying to find a place for himself in this world. And another thing I’ve always admired about this album is its production. It is an emo album to the full; there’s no two ways about it. But there are these little oddities and samples thrown into each track that make themselves apparent with each listen. Very atmospheric too. If there was another album I would compare it to – t’would be Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge by My Chemical Romance. The same themes of love and death are explored in both albums. They were released a few months apart from each other. It’s a strange coincidence. I’ve always preferred The Used’s album by a mile.

#604: Jakobínarína – I’ve Got a Date with My Television

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The song next up on my phone is ‘I’ve Got a Date with My Television’ by Jakobínarína, the eighth track on the band’s only album The First Crusade. They were an Icelandic group who split up just as things were on the rise for them; that was eleven years ago. They’ve been lost in time as a result. They made good stuff though in the short time the band members were together. Some of which I’ve written about in the past.

‘My Television’ is somewhat of a commentary on the fixation on celebrity culture and the tendency to put too much trust into what famous people are doing with their lives instead of thinking about ourselves. The way this commentary is done is very simple. I may have even put too much thought into it. References to Oprah Winfrey advice on ideal body weight and David Beckham’s looks are made. The song’s chorus lyric ‘TV friends don’t stab you in the back/Keeping me on the right track’ sum up the song’s message. There is a strong sarcastic sense that is meant to be provided by the lyrics but you wouldn’t be able to tell with the almost glitzy sheen of the instrumental. Especially that (keyboard?) jingle in the introduction and the strings that arrive during the coda.

I own The First Crusade in CD format and unfortunately the lyrics for the tracks weren’t included in the liner notes. A bit of a shame really, seeing as the song’s lyrics in the bridge are in a completely different language. Or a mix of a various languages. All I can make out is ‘Guten abend’ and ‘Guten tag’, the rest I can make the sounds of… but I don’t know what he’s saying. Generally I think it’s just to show that television fascination is a something that happens all around the world. At least in the countries that speak the languages vocalist Gunnar Bergmann Ragnarsson sings during that part.

#595: The Beatles – I’m Happy Just to Dance with You

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So when George Harrison wasn’t too confident in his songwriting in the earlier years of The Beatles’ musical reign in the 60s, John Lennon and Paul McCartney would write songs for him to perform the lead vocal on. They did that on Please Please Me with ‘Do You Want to Know a Secret?‘, and two albums later did so again with ‘I’m Happy Just to Dance with You’.

The song is the fourth track on A Hard Day’s Night and is the only song Harrison takes lead vocal for on the album. Both Lennon and McCartney didn’t think much of it. Lennon was quoted as saying he never would have sung it himself. Still what is considered a throwaway by the two main songwriters has always been up there for the best songs on the album in my eyes.

It lasts for just under two minutes but it sure has a melody that can stick. Paul McCartney plays a bassline that never seems to stay in one place; John plays an unusual rhythm guitar pattern in the verses that jolts along with the rhythm. Harrison’s voice suits it perfectly and it was probably for the best that neither Lennon nor McCartney sung it. Though their backing vocals – aided by hefty natural reverb – are greatly utilised. They add a sense of mystery I feel. Especially along with those chord changes in the chorus.

It’s a track about wanting to dance with a girl and blanking anyone who tries to interrupt. Not a lot of depth to it, but it doesn’t sound dated one bit.