So it's been almost a year since I've posted on here. I guess I just got busy. I've often had ideas for things to write about on this blog but just never really sat down and done them. I want to get back into this again though. There has been a lot of music I've wanted to talk about over the last year, and I thought to get me back into the swing I'll talk about one of the many tracks I've been obsessively listening to recently.
If you've read my first ever (admittedly long winded) post on this blog you'll know I'm quite a huge fan of a band called Eels. There isn't one bad release from this band in my eyes, because of the sheer diversity and honesty of each work. If I were stranded on a desert island with just one discography, it would be Eels.
So sort of around the start of this month I suddenly started listening to their album, 'Tomorrow Morning' a lot...
A brilliant collection of very simple, and still very honest songs. This album is very sparse on the guitar, unlike their previous guitar-heavy work, and is substituted with more string sections and pianos and synths, yet not leaving me wanting more guitar, as the album is so amazingly produced, with E's flawless musicianship at the helm.
Now the track (One of many actually, but I must only choose one) I've found myself going back and playing a lot is
'Looking Up'
The song starts with some gospel-like reverberated piano off in the distance, as if someone has begun playing in the middle of a large concert hall or church. The bass guitar comes in soon after with a quick walking bass line, along with some offbeat tambourine, and at this point we've already figured out where this song is going. I love how very sudden this song comes into the album, with no indication previously that this sort of thing could ever appear in a work of this style. It feels so spontaneous.
The song is very strangely mixed, almost 'un-produced', like the band set a single microphone in the middle of the room and just performed the song with the rest of the instrumentalists. The piano sounds off in the distance, and the bass seems to dip in and out in volume, but the vocals and the tambourines and percussion sound the clearest and the closest. It seems almost like old folks figuring out how to record their gospel choir recital with limited equipment, but of course the microphone must stay closest to the vocalists smashing their tambourines.
As brilliant as this track is, something feels off about the whole thing. It sounds like typical gospel sounding music, the tropes are there so to speak, the 'woop's and the offbeat-ness, but it feels like more of a modernisation of a gospel music. With the addition of the guitar and the drum kits it's like a modern church band taking over and tackling this style instead of a traditional gospel choir.
After a lot of listens, and putting this song in context to the entire album, it almost begins to make sense stylistically why it's there. Throughout the album in the songs leading up to 'Looking Up', to me there feels like a theme of desperation (Baby Loves Me/What I Have To Offer), almost madness, or an existential crisis (I'm A Hummingbird). Then as we reach 'Looking Up' it's almost like the narrator of the album has just said 'Fuck it, let's have some fun', resulting in this song.
So those are my thoughts. And I actually managed to finish a post without abandoning it after a paragraph, woo!
Thanks for reading, maybe I'll not leave it a year again till next time.
I've always liked
listening to 'demo' versions, or 'old' versions of songs. I find it
interesting to hear how a song started its life musically, and how it
developed into the final, or more updated version you'll hear on a
main album release. Although some of my friends hate listening to
demo versions, and just see them as poorly recorded versions of the
songs they love. However you see it, here are just a few thoughts.
I'm a massive Beck fan,
and I have a respect for each of his very different albums. About a
month ago I started listening a lot more to a song 'Cyanide Breath
Mint', from his fourth album:
'One Foot In The Grave'
One of his
more folk rock sounding releases, which is quickly becoming a
favourite of mine.
This song is great, I
love the way the vocals come in as if Beck is starting the song
halfway through a verse, it's quirky, which is why I and many fans
love Beck's music. I love the chorus to this track too, it's very
upbeat, and even somewhat goofy sounding, but in a good way. That's
just how early Beck was, especially lyrically.
Recently, I listened to
one of his unofficial releases:
'Quodlibet'
Which contains some B-sides, rare live versions, and other stuff. It begins with a
re-recorded version of 'Cyanide Breath Mint', and it is really really
good. I don't want to say yet that I prefer it to the original 'One
Foot In The Grave' version, but I've found myself wanting to play
that one more now. I think it's more of an improvement of the
original, there is more of a rhythm on this version, with a shaker
over the track, some nice electric guitar licks, which sound great
and amplify that goofy feeling I mentioned earlier, and just seems
more produced, not that I'm saying more professionally produced music
is always better, but it gives more space for the other instruments
in the song.
Thinking about
demo/original versions of songs, there are a few cases where I
actually prefer parts of a demo version, as opposed to the final
album version. When I was about 13, and getting into a Canadian punk
band Sum 41, I would go absolutely crazy internet shopping for all of
their albums, and singles, and live albums, and DVD's, anything that
existed by them. On the singles there were often demo versions of
songs, so I'd listen to those, as well as everything else, all rolled
together on my crappy old iPod nano.
They had a song 'All
Messed Up' on their technically second album:
'Does This Look
Infected'
(Their third if you count their first release as an album,
which I do). But when listening to both the album version and the
demo version, I found there were parts of the demo I preferred to the
album version.
The album version:
Mainly intro guitar riff at the start, on the album
version it's more distorted and sort of 'normal' sounding, but on the
demo it sounds a little more, high pitched, and 'spacey' sounding. This worked better in
my opinion. Another thing was the instrumental, after the middle 8,
at 1:45 on the demo version (1:42 on the album version). On the demo
it's a lot more simplified, with just a roaring guitar, and a cool
little drum fill, but I think this works well, it's straightforward,
and feels like something you could jump around to. I do like the
instrumental on the album version too, especially the drums, and the
sort-of bass solo, but they both have a place for me.
The demo version:
So that's all really, demo versions can be cool, don't overlook listening to them if the chance ever arises, you may hear something on them that the artist decided to leave out later on, but you think sounds cool. I personally want to get round to listening to Green Day's 'Demolicious', consisting of demo's from the '¡Uno!', '¡Dos!', '¡Tre!' sessions, in my opinion some of their best work ever.
But that's enough about that for now. Keep your mind open to old things.
"Everybody's talkin' 'bout blowin' up the neighborhood."
So I'm just sitting
down listening to my limited vinyl edition of:
'Start Static'
by
American punk band Sugarcult. It's their third album, and I guess in my
opinion, it's a pretty good album, which is why I still listen
to it quite a bit. But also in my opinion it's not their best. Don't
get me wrong, I do like a lot of it, but it just has quite a few
misses here and there.
But I digress, I didn't
mean for this to be a review.
For a long time since
becoming a Sugarcult fan, reading up on their history, listening to
the back catalogue, as well as their latest release, *sigh*,
'Lights Out', I've been somewhat baffled, if that is the correct
term, as to why their first two releases:
'Eleven' and 'Wrap Me Up In Plastic'
the latter probably being my favourite album, are hardly
ever mentioned in the band's history, their Wikipedia page, their
website or anything. It makes me wonder, what has made them literally
disregard their first two albums, to the point of actually pointing
out that 'Start Static' is their first album, when in fact it isn't,
it's their third.
What confirmed this
realisation to me further recently was a tweet I read on the lead
guitarist of Sugarcult, Marko DeSantis' twitter page. Something about
that day being the day they released their 'second' album,
'Palm Trees and Power Lines'
which is actually their fourth, after
'Eleven', 'Wrap Me Up In Plastic', and 'Start Static'.
I actually just tried
to find the tweet but it isn't there anymore for some reason.
Interesting.
But really the band
have no reason to disregard their first two albums, they are good
albums in my opinion, and they're still listed in their discography
on several websites. But it's as if someone is constantly holding
them all at gun point saying: “DON'T ACKNOWLEDGE YOUR FIRST TWO
ALBUMS OR I'LL WASTE YOU.”, or as if the memory of their first two
albums has just been completely wiped from their brains, and any
mention of 'Eleven' and 'Wrap Me Up In Plastic' to them just causes
mass confusion. I really don't know. It could just be the band simply
being ashamed of their early work so much they don't care to mention
it, but still, I don't see why they would.
One other possibility,
and I'm still unsure how possible this could ever be, but it could be
a label decision. Maybe labels Fearless and V2 decided “We don't
want their fans hearing this sh*tty old music that doesn't sound as
'clean' and 'perfect' as their other albums, let's try and make them
cut it out.” I'm unsure as to how much integrity either label have,
but I'm just making speculation after speculation here really.
The
only way I'd ever find out the answer would be by personally asking
the band,
“Why does it seem your older music doesn't matter
anymore?”,
And whatever the response should be, as a fan, I will respect it.
But also as a fan, I
will continue to respect their first releases, and where they came
from.
Some months ago, after returning to uni from the Christmas holiday me and my housemate were sat in his room listening to music one night, when this song started playing, I asked him what it was, because I liked the sound of it. It was a song called 'Numbered Days' by an alternative sounding band called Eels. I'd never before heard of the band name Eels, but he continued to play me some of their other songs. I really liked what I heard, and recognised the obvious 'My Beloved Monster' who many will know from its brilliant use in the film Shrek, as well as 'Souljacker Part I' which was apparently in the film Hot Fuzz but I don't really recall hearing it. But anyway, I decided to go out and buy some Eels albums, half knowing what to expect, so I picked up their first four releases:
'Beautiful Freak' 'Electro-Shock Blues'
'Daisies Of The Galaxy' and 'Souljacker'
I went through them each on a long coach journey home one weekend, and at first I thought, "Hmm, these are pretty good, there's a lot I like." and I sort of set them aside for a while and forgot they existed. When I saw Souljacker lying on my desk one long night at my uni house as I was cleaning my room, I thought "Might give this another listen." and this time it absolutely blew me away. The sheer cool and talent this guy possessed was amazing, and this prompted me to go buy his entire back catologue, almost all of which was genuinely not disappointing is the slightest.
Which finally brings me onto this album:
'Hombre Lobo: 12 Songs Of Desire'
(Link below)
This is the seventh album in the Eels discography, released June 2009. It was described by frontman Mark Everett as a sequel to the Souljacker album, featuring the protagonist 'Dog Faced Boy' who is now grown up and experiences 'various types of desire throughout the songs'.
When I played this for the first time, the first few seconds of the first track, 'Prizefighter' instantly made me feel, "Yes, this is going to be a good one." and so the song went on, and turned into this heavily electric guitar led rock and roll jam, and I loved every second of it, the blustery sound of the guitars the heavy grain on E's voice to personify this grown up character now appropriately and assumingly named 'Hombre Lobo', it was just purely awesome.
So it moved on to the next song 'That Look You Give That Guy', it took a few listens for this to grow on me, but now I feel really connects with me, listening to the lyrics more closely. It's a fragile, hopeless romantic song about wanting a girl or a guy to pay attention to you instead of this other person they like instead. You feel you're semi intimidated of them because maybe you think they're better looking or they're more interesting than you, whilst at the same time wanting to be someone else to get this guy or girl to notice you. I've been there, it's a horrible feeling being stuck in the background of someone elses flirt sesh, to the point that I've just had to walk away, because it's been unbearable. "Why can't I be like that and have her/him like me instead?". It's a hard place to be, but the underlying moral is that if you have to change yourself to be with someone. They're not the one.
'Lilac Breeze', the next song on the album is a short, punchy number. The protagonist sings about being desperate for sex, very subtly hinted to in the lyrics, but sung in desperation nonetheless. I've never really 'wanted' sex in my life. Mainly because I was a little nerd in secondary school in stayed in every night playing video games and listening to music instead of being out with the popular kids having sex up trees in the park. This meant I was never really exposed to that sort of thing, and didn't grow a 'desire' for it. I really love the arrangement in this song, it sounds very 90's indie in the verses with the short stabs of very gainy electric guitar, although it could be a bass guitar, I'm still not entirely sure. I love how it works with the punchy drum beat, as E's rusty voice fills the gaps inbetween. Seems somewhat poppy in a sense, and strangely feels like it would fit in a musical, but maybe I'm thinking too much into it...
And then we flow back into another more gentle track, 'In My Dreams'. I really related with the lyrics in this song. In the verses, 'Hombre Lobo' sings about these wonderful times he has with this girl, in some detail, but the final line of every verse ends 'In my dreams', implying it never happened, and it was all obviously a dream. I spent two years liking a girl, who told me about three times, she didn't want to be with me, but I could never take the hint. I was literally obsessed with her, I would try and call her and hang out with her every single day, and it was extremely unhealthy, and like the protagonist, I would dream about her most nights, have these times where I was just simply 'hanging out' with her, and feel so happy in this dream, but then reality would rip me away from it, and I'd wake up, really really depressed. It's happened recently with someone else I spent a long time liking too. But that's what dreams like to do, remind you what you really want, get you feeling so close to it, and then pull you away at the last second, as if your brain has just flipped you the bird and had a mild chuckle to itsself. We've all been there when we've loved, or thought we loved someone.
Back to the hard stuff, the next song 'Tremendous Dynamite' comes in like the slam open of a door. This right here is 'Hombre Lobo''s rightful theme song. Beginning with the howling first line 'I am, El Hombre Lobo', E's, again, very gainy voice brings this character back to life, singing about his strong desire to find a girl on this very night, 'On the prowl for a restless night'. The verses being sung in this creeping tone, as he describes his attempts to get her as a full blown 'fight'. When the electric guitars come in to a blustering frenzy as he screams 'She's Dynamite', clearly having a great degree a lust over this woman that he can't control. The arrangement of songs on the album at this point seem very similar to that of Souljacker's. These big loud rocky tracks, intersperesed between more mellow songs of heartbreak and desperation.
Again, we move into a more downbeat mood, with 'The Longing'. This is a simple, confused song, again about obsession with somone you think you love. A feeling I've had for certain people as I explained before. 'Surely there are other things to life, but I can't think of one single thing'. This was exactly my attitude for a good couple of depressing years of my life. Trying to find more to life, but wasting all my time, and efforts, and energy on this one person that there was no hope with because I was again, quite literally, obsessed with them. I was constantly thinking about them, everything I loved about them in detail, it was seriously unhealthy, and it's not a good place to be in. Obsessing over the wrong people is dangerous.
Now this next song, 'Fresh Blood', takes on a slightly different sound, with some electronic sounding elements, maybe a low synth or something, but this has most recently become one of my favourite songs on the album. Another song of heavy lust, 'Hombre Lobo' sings of his desire to find this mysterious woman, I'm guessing the same woman referred to in previous songs, especially 'Tremendous Dynamite'. She seems to be this all powerful figure, that he is desperate to sink his teeth into. This song had me literally head banging the other day when it started really growing on me, the "Whoo!"'s and "Howl"'s gave me genuine chills, as the real 'wolf-man' was beginning to show in the protagonist.
'What's A Fella Gotta Do', fades slowly into a sharp rocky riff, setting the tone for this next track, as a fast drum beat kicks in, one of my favourite drum beats. This song lyrically is very similar to the second track 'That Look You Give That Guy', another song about not wanting to be your 'worthless' self, and wanting to be different to get this person to notice you, but this time set against more aggressive sounding music, almost like a part two to 'That Look...', maybe after trying so hard to subtly try to make this person want you, and then getting frustrated, even angry and trying everything you can to get on their radar.
Nearing the end of the album now, the protagonist is beginning to accept, that he can't have everyone, he realises that he cannot change someone's heart. 'My Timing Is Off', is about his realisation that maybe she's not ready to love him yet, and maybe, he's not ready to love anyone else either. I've been in a similar position where I've thought I was ready to have a girlfriend or whatever and could totally handle a relationship with someone, but it turned out I was just desperate, because everyone else was in a relationship, and I was just stuck with the 'single crowd', depressed and alone. But I realised I just wasn't ready, and wasn't mature enough for a serious relationship with someone. It's never good to rush into a relationship with someone if you know you need to sort your own life out first, I've decided to be single for a long time, because I have my own personal problems to sort of myself, and if I tried to force myself into a relationship any time soon, it would not go down well at all, because I'd still be riddled with esteem problems that would not ensure a healthy relationship, and cause it to crash and burn.
'All The Beautiful Things', is another song I strongly related with. The protganist is losing hope, wondering why nobody wants him. 'I know I'm a lovely guy', he sings. I've always thought I was a reasonably nice person myself, I don't start fights or arguments with people for no reason, I'm not violent, or a jerk, I respect everybody for who they are, and I've learnt all of this from watching people throughout my life do the exact opposite. I know how to be a genuinely nice person, but being like this sometimes just gets you nowhere, which I think a lot of guys and girls have found. You have to be all flirty and sexually aggressive to get someone to like you I've found in most cases. A lot of you will have found this, and might agree with the whole 'Girls just want bastards' theory. I can't speak for all boys and girls, but it is very common, and it sucks. There are genuinely nice people out there, who are ready to love someone, but it seems no-one is interested in them.
This next track is one of my favourites, 'Beginner's Luck'. 'Hombre Lobo' has found someone new, someone he has new hope in, and he is ready to spend his life with, he just needs her to know he loves her, and hopefully make her realise she loves him back. I really love the bass line in this song, reminds me of an 80s indie rock/pop group like The Smiths or The Housemartins. But the chorus is the really great part of this, E's rusty yet passionate vocals again against the blustery guitars make an incredible final rock moment, and the final hint of hope for the protagonist.
The final track 'Ordinary Man' connects with me, and how I feel now. I don't want to be someone I'm not to try to make someone want me, because they aren't the person I need. The protagonist talks about how he sees himself as no ordinary man, but that maybe someone could appreciate him. At first this for me didn't feel like a fitting ending, but hearing these lyrics in detail suggest that Hombre Lobo is now moving on, and it felt like an appropriate ending to the album.
Overall, to me, on the surface this is just an album about a guy wanting a girl, but as well as this, it's about people's need for love. Love is a basic human need. This character thinks of himself as lesser than everyone else, further illustrated by his name 'Hombre Lobo' meaning 'wolf man' or 'werewolf'. He's this misfit 'weirdo' in a 'city of cold hearts' who in the end just wants to be loved, and this album shows that even those seen as lesser in society need and deserve love. Everyone does.
