Tag Archives: world

#1125: Ween – Right to the ways and the rules of the world

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Maybe the best way to listen to The Pod is through the way its broken up on its vinyl releases. Split up into four sides, having the time to digest one of those at a time with some breaks in between would probably allow a new listener to at least digest the 15-20 minutes that each side of vinyl provides. I didn’t do this. When I was fully on my Ween exploration in 2015, I dove headfirst into the album on Spotify and listened to it the whole way through. All 76 minutes. That first time was a slog. I don’t know if you know, but the album is known for having extremely shitty production, even though a lot of the songs are classics. At least to us Ween fans, anyway. ‘Right to the ways and the rules of the world’ is only the seventh track on there. On that first listen, it felt like I’d been listening to the album for much longer than when the song arrived. And it also felt like it went on for a lot more than the mere five minutes it lasts for.

Now of course I’m used to it all. The track is a slow, slow one though. Coming after the little non-song of ‘Pollo Asado’ (a very popular one for Ween people), ‘Right…’ is what I believe to be a mimic of those old, melodramatic ’70s progressive rock songs by bands who would write about things like folklore or traditions of the past… myths and legends and the like. Gene and Dean Ween take on this melodramatic route, singing about nothing but a bunch of silliness – brilliant imagery though, gotta be said – all of which is crowned by the aloof harmonies that recite the song’s title phrase. “Monsters that trinkle like cats in the night/The cosmic conceiver continues his plight.” Those are just the first couple of lines.

The screeching organ that blares throughout is the melodic linchpin throughout the song, really hammering home that sort of medieval type of sound that I think the song’s going for. Something of a vocal chameleon, Gene Ween puts in another captivating performance. Increasing in intensity throughout, it culminates in the final verse where he lets out a shriek and then falls into a fit of laughter as the instrumental continues. Some people may argue that the song takes some momentum out of the album’s proceedings. Whatever “momentum” that may be, going through this album can feel like being in a state of purgatory sometimes. It’s just as essential as any other track on there, I feel. The production is so murky, you could almost choke on it. But the song at the core of it stands strong.

#840: DJ Shadow – Midnight in a Perfect World

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Mood music at its finest. Took me a real long time to finally get this track. I’d had Entroducing….. in my library since 2014, and my initial reason for downloading it was because I needed some instrumentals for my uni radio show. Plus it’s regarded as one of the best instrumental hip hop albums of all time, so I thought it was worth the time. One – I don’t think I used any tracks from there on my show, and two – I sat through it once and as time went on I pretty much forgot all the stuff on there. I kept the album on the laptop though. It’s meant to be a classic, so maybe I would get it some day.

Fast forward to 2019, and I was going through my library deleting songs/albums that I really didn’t listen to. Needed to free up some space. Entroducing….. was next up, but I listened through it just to come to a final decision. And for whatever reason, maybe it was that I had gotten older and paid more attention to albums, I don’t know. But I definitely liked the album a lot more. ‘Midnight in a Perfect World’ was the clear standout. It’s so good that its keyboard/piano sample appears twice on the album, the first time in ‘Transmission 2’. ‘Midnight’ is so calming, so nocturnal and atmospheric. I had to add it to my phone immediately. And thus it saved the whole of Endtroducing….. from being deleted.

I went to Berlin with a few friends a couple months after that all happened. It was pouring rain from the moment we landed, and once we got to our accommodation and unpacked our things, we went to go around for a walk. Just to get a grasp of the new surroundings and stuff. The rain fell, the skies were grey, it was quiet too, barely any cars around and we weren’t talking so much. And suddenly that loop from ‘Midnight’ just started playing in my head over and over. Seemed to be the perfect music for that moment in time. I’ll always think of Berlin and its not so great weather when I hear this song.

#771: Kanye West ft. Bon Iver – Lost in the World

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So pretty much two months from now, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy – Kanye West’s magnum opus, arguable to some – will have been out for 10 years. I wonder how West will commemorate it. Probably with a Twitter rant of some kind. He probably won’t. He has admittedly said that he doesn’t care for the album that much and considers it a backhanded apology for that VMA incident in 2009 that made him one of the most hated people in America. I was 15 years old when the album came out, but somehow completely missed the GOOD Fridays campaign that led up to it. For all I knew, ‘POWER’ was the only song he’d released before it. I want to say that I remember the exact first time I listened to it in full… I can’t. I do remember listening to it a lot in those first few days though. I was just glad he was rapping again. A decade has passed and it’s a bit of a bummer, a bit scary too.

‘Lost in the World’ is the final track on the album in which Kanye is present. Very much the climactic point of the whole record. It’s largely based on the song ‘Woods’ by Bon Iver, and I think West bought that band’s leader Justin Vernon into the studio to re-record some lines as well as just add some vocal embellishes on there too. The whole message of the track? Basically, being a rapper in this crazy world and dealing with the struggles that come along with it. And it’s done amidst this massive musical backdrop of pummeling percussion, synthesizers, vocal samples, live choir-vocals…. the lot. The track is essentially its chorus repeated with elements built on top with each iteration, apart from one sole verse from West full of contradictions that was later confirmed to be inspired by Kim Kardashian.

The only thing that bugs me about this song is that following outro, and the album closer, ‘Who Will Survive in America’ is its own separate track. ‘Lost’ feels horribly incomplete without it. If the birthday skit with Chris Rock was appended onto the end of ‘Blame Game’, why couldn’t the same be done with ‘Lost’ and ‘Who Will Survive’? Whatever. That’s just a minor thing for me. I’m there are a lot of people who appreciate the separation. Despite this minuscule issue I hold, there’s no denying that both tracks are worthy of their place in closing out one of the greatest hip-hop albums of this century.

#658: The Strokes – Ize of the World

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It’s an emotional time. This is the last entry in the “I” section. This has taken two years to do. And I started this again having gone on a bit of a hiatus. I’ll go on a bit of a break after this one. I’ll certainly be back a lot sooner though. So many more songs to go. Plus there are barely any songs for ‘J’.

And to close it out is ‘Ize of the World’, the phenomenal track by The Strokes, found on First Impressions of Earth in 2006. There are a lot of times on this album where Julian Casablancas pushes his voice to the brink. It’s the first one on which he properly screams, or at least properly goes for those high notes with his chest. He goes for those types of vocals on ‘Vision of Division’ where, in my opinion, he doesn’t sound too great. However, it’s on ‘Ize’ where he executes those really well.

It’s a very intense track. Like it’s the backing music to the end of days or something. When I was younger I had these images of my head of people lying awake in bed, fearing of near-death, trying to make up for lost time but it’s too late as the city gets wiped out and there’s nothing left.

That’s really not what the song is about though. It’s more Casablancas’ feelings on modern society, how we survive in these dire times and what we could do to better ourselves. His points and observations are set to great guitar interplay between Albert Hammond Jr. and Nick Valensi (as is the usual in any Strokes song); the track alternates between calm verses and powerful choruses before building in intensity as it nears its end before ultimately disappearing out of existence. Kind of takes your breath away the first time you hear the studio trickery. I think it’s one of the most important songs on this album.

So that’s it. The I’s are done. Hope you enjoyed reading each entry. J’s will come soon. See you lat

#655: R.E.M. – It’s the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)

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If I were to take a guess, I think I sing this song the same way that the majority of people who know it do. The first three lines are easy as pie, then every verse that follows is just a lot of words smushed up together into a one note melody which is then followed by the very memorable chorus.

‘It’s the End of the World’ is one of R.E.M.’s most well known tracks, one of their most played too – to the point that it may be overplayed for some people. But I only started properly listening to R.E.M. last year. I had heard the song maybe two… three times before? I’ll say five at most. And that was when its video was shown on TV. And in Chicken Little. Actually listening to it with headphones was a very different experience.

‘End of the World’ is the sixth track on R.E.M.’s fifth album, Document, released in 1987. It is not my favourite album of the group’s but this song right here is one of its highlights. The uploaded video above takes all the weight out of the audio quality though which is a shame. When those thunderous drum rolls come in at the beginning, the energy never dips from there. It’s four minutes of relentless, driving momentum. And though I never succeed in enunciating every syllable in the quickfire verses, it’s always fun to try. As said earlier, it doesn’t really matter because it has a hell of a chorus that’s not related to what goes on in those verses in any way.

Going through R.E.M.’s discography (which I had to when I found out they were actually very good) there were a few things I picked up on, especially in their earlier albums. They had a knack for great melodies. And the triple vocal harmonies of Michael Stipe, Mike Mills and Bill Berry added a layer that made the band’s songs even better when they were utilised. Melodies and harmonies are present on this track… a few countermelodies too. There’s always something new to pick up on in this track every time I hear it. It’s such a thrill. It’s quite disappointing when it starts to fade out at the end, wish it could go on for ages.