Seven + 1?

So I completely forgot my complete infatuation with MGMT - Time to Pretend. What a great song about nihilistic, life-avoidance scenester lives.

This is our decision, to live fast and die young.
We’ve got the vision, now let’s have some fun.
Yeah, it’s overwhelming, but what else can we do.
Get jobs in offices, and wake up for the morning commute.

Hooray for beefy synth chords which pile up on each other like a drunken game of ’stacks-on’, a great hook which sounds like the smallest casio you can find screaming above an electronic choir and the best video clip i’ve seen in ages.

Seven Songs

It hasn’t been a busy month, just one of those months where copyright pales into significance compared to some massive life issues. Oh as well as being in bands, doing radio and working my guts off. Hence the lack of postings, but in any case I’ve managed to bash out a rough first chapter and I’m currently avoiding reading Senate reports, so I must be doing something right (?!?).

Thanks to (con)temporary:

“List seven songs you are into right now. No matter what the genre, whether they have words, or even if they’re not any good, but they must be songs you’re really enjoying now, shaping your spring. Post these instructions in your blog along with your 7 songs. Then tag 7 other people to see what they’re listening to.”

The Whitlams - Melbourne

Despite their over-wrought production and attempts at epic balladry, I am a Whitlams fan - mainly because of their over-wrought production. However, I’ve always hated this naff, trite attempt at setting my fine city towards some sort of musical accompianment, considering what The Whitlams have done previously, Melbourne pales in comparison to sterling efforts like Royal in the Afternoon. The worst offense in this song is the bridge, where a sachharine keyboard sits under some trite lyrics:

If I had three lives

I’d marry her in two

I’m dreaming of a time

That we sit when the music stops.

Then why did I get goosebumps when listening this song the other day? Because immediately following this bridge comes forth a verse which highlights Tim Freedman’s skilfull attempt at painting wonderful character sketches.

She has an aversion to conviction

She’s more confused than ever

Won’t pay her fines and wonders when the cops will get her

She calls her dog the bear and walks me with him to the corner in her pajamas

What a great summary of a person in a verse and I love that crapness and brilliance can be in such close proximity in the one song.

P.J Harvey - The Whores Hustle and the Hustlers Whore

I miss the 90s and there’s no-one who can encapuslate this era better than P.J Harvey. The song is a wonderful bookend to a decade which held festivals, moshing and CDs up like demi-gods.  I’m tempted to simply dump the entire song in here but i’ll be satisfied with half.

Speak to me of heroin and speed
Of genocide and suicide, of syphilis and greed
Speak to me the language of love
The language of violence, the language of the heart
This isn’t the first time I’ve asked for money or love
Heaven and earth don’t ever mean enough
Speak to me of heroin and speed
Just give me something I can believe

The whores hustle and the hustlers whore
Too many people out of love
The whores hustler and the hustlers whore
This city’s ripped right to the core

What desperation, what imagery and what a wonderful lyrical connection to the album title Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea. This is the guts of life. With a scungy guitar behind P.J’s voice giving it added impetus and authenticity by the time P.J starts her falsetto yelps at the end of the song, you’ve already ran a street scene in your head and seen the worst a city has to offer.

Joanna Newsom  -Peach, Plum, Pear

I’ve actually listening to Ms. Newsom non-stop but because I’ve got this song on two different albums, this one has stuck. It’s a bit more brittle than her other work, a bit more sad and contradictory and it’s got a certain depth of melancholy playfulness which goes deeper than any of her other work.  You can feel a scene leap out of her harp and on to the page of a children’s book but much like the Brother’s Grimm there’s adult seriousness here. The choral final lines of

Peach, plum, pear

Peach, plum

are a wonderful simplistic ending to such a complex song with it’s jarring bass and vocals which jump here, there and everywhere.

And we were galloping manic
To the mouth of the source
We were swallowing panic
In the face of it’s force

There’s something more here, which makes this such a great song.

James Brown - Sex Machine Pt. 1 and 2

I don’t really need to explain anything here but it’s simply the bravado, arrogance and the groove of James Brown. The horribly long, contrived and awesome leap to the bridge. The self-referential patter mid-song. And the groove? Again. Wow.

Against Me! - These Anarcho Punks are Mysterious

This song has aged for me immensley over the course of the year mainly because I’ve listened to it heaps, but there’s certain parts where it simply lifts. What makes this song special is that it doesn’t need production wank or driving drums to make the song lift. Regardless of the setting - acoustic, live, record - it simply does of it’s own accord because it’s one of Against Me!’s best songs. Especially when placed against the endearing but occasionally jarring Reinventing Axl Rose, this song stands superior.

Let’s try to keep
As much emotion out of this
As possible.
Let’s try not to remember any names.

All of a sudden,
People start talking about guns,
Talking like they’re going to war
‘Cause they found something to die for.

If you ever need a case against political aggression it’s these two lines. They should be remembered.

Feist - I Feel it All

Give me three simple chords, distorted to start a song and give me a groove which is undeniable to follow it up. There’s the voice with the brief whispers behind it, the descent into the chorus, the return to the theme and the high piano notes balancing against the rhythm section and Feist’s playful vocals throughout turning a simple song into an restrained exercise into space and vocal sound.

Kick drum on the bass drum floor

Good line. Don’t know why.

Mates of State - The Re-Arranger

This is an amazing song off an average album but it does what Mates of State do well. The syncopated organ bass, the vocal histrionics which fly across the song like soaring angels and the layered harmonies create a building base as the song continues. What I love about these guys is that they never settle for a simple pop song. At 2.30 the song explodes. A quiet re-arrange leaps into hundredstrongchoir territory with a thousand voices and a kick drum which tears through the centre. Then they bring it back with one of their classic restrained bridges before slowly building back up towards an elongated end which simply re-inforces what they’ve been doing amazingly all through this song. Harmonies, syncopation, beat and vocal scaling on a massive scale. Oh and I forgot the speedy start and brass intro which is in complete contradiction to the drawn out end and they manage to get there somehow. I don’t know how.

I was searching for my seventh song but I can’t believe I forgot this one. Amazing. Amazing.

cbf passing it on, I don’t think I actually know people in my blogroll apart from LF. LOLZ.