Nothin' before 94

#19

Queens of the Stone Age- Songs For The Deaf

‘Queens of the Stone Age’ have status as quite a standard Foo Fighters-esque, Nirvana-influenced rock band of the 21st century, however I don’t really believe that to be true, the general attitude of the album is a whole do-whatever-the-hell-you-want attitude. I love the whole satirical-radio-show theme running through the album that is just there to take the piss out of the average radio station with stuff like “we play the songs that sound more like everyone else, than anyone else”. The whole concept of the album is just this, the whole thing is meant to represent a journey in the car, tuning in and out of radio stations, except with all the songs being their own.

The first song, in short-hand just called ‘Millionaire’, begins the whole album. This song shows that they aren’t really a generic rock band because there isn’t really any hooks in the song at all, and there is a gap in the middle of the song that seems just a tiny tiny bit longer than you expect. The whole song is just listing all the different types of music that we are bombarded with on the radio, in quite a shallow way, and just the shallowness of culture with things like “Space flunky, four on the floor, fortified with the liquor store”. This is followed on with the big hit of the album - “No One Knows”, which I’m sure anyone reading this has probably heard before, this just stating a general confusion about the world - they talk about religion but then in the end… “no one knows”, there are rules that are made to be followed when even the people making them don’t really know what they’re doing, this is probably the most generic of rock songs on the album, but then in a way it isn’t really with the structure of it, and all the sections, and the radio chatter at the end. The whole thing speeds up after with ‘First It Giveth’ with a great fast-moving feel and an awesome ‘Queens of the Stone Age’ style to it, slow smooth vocals over a heavy-ish backdrop. This one seems to be about a dependency on drugs, providing a slight link to ‘No One Knows’. ‘Songs for the Dead’ has a brilliant groove to it, and a very deathly tone within those backing vocals. The song is pretty self-explanatory, as if it is coming from the mouth of ‘death’ itself. The guitar work in this song is pretty cool too, I always find ‘Queens of the Stone Age’ to have the best sort of rock guitar improvisation, because it is always an unconventional way of using a conventional rock style. The work on the drums is pretty cool too. It’s just a very cool song.

‘The Sky is Fallin” maintains that ghostly vocal style that seems to be made use of throughout the album so far. This song has more of an epic feel than the songs of before it. It seems a little bit more emotional too, the lyrics and music, the lyrics just being about how he’s been wasting his life being pessimistic, and how he only has himself to blame. This one really shows off Josh Homme’s vocals which are actually quite underrated. ‘Six Shooter’ comes after another satirical radio break which mentions “all death metal, all the time”, and it seems like quite a satirical song about pointlessly aggressive music like death metal, with lyrics like “fuck this road, well fuck you too, i’ll fuckin kill your best friend”. A lot of this album likes to make fun of different genres of music. ‘Hanging tree’ comes after this, with a different vocalist, who I quite like the sound of, he really fits the feel of the song. The song has a really mysterious meaning too, very spiritual-sounding, but cool at the same time. I do like it, but can’t really say much about what it may be about. ‘Go With The Flow’ is another of the album’s hits, and it could well be the catchiest on the album, seeming to be about a relationship that seems to not really be going well, except for the sex. However the fact that the sex feels right questions whether the relationship is actually not going well, or whether it matters that the relationship isn’t going well - “don’t say it doesn’t matter anymore” etc. Musically it’s probably the most enjoyable song on the album.

‘Gonna Leave You’ keeps this relationship theme with a break-up song that isn’t the conventional sort of break-up song because it has some unconventional ways of saying things that are usually said in songs of this kind. Musically it’s not the best song, but has some nice harmonies to it. ‘Do It Again’ is another song linking to the relationship theme, about the sex itself in the relationship. The way the drums and guitar work together in this song are really rather catchy in quite a laid-back way. The song ends with more humorous switching through of radio stations, this includes a lot of christian stations, a lot of preaching. This is something that leads well into ‘God is in the Radio’ which is plainly about the influence of the media, as if the media is the most popular ‘God’ that the western world worships - “God is leaking through the station”, “I know that God is in the radio, just repeating a slogan”. The whole song is a very laid-back rock song, that gives Queens of the Stone Age their label of ‘Stoner Rock’, some nice soloing, nice vocals, really cool how they calm the song down near the end, then bring it back in with an unconventional psychedelic-esque solo in the end. And then they use reverb effects in a clever way to make it seem like you are walking away from the band playing the song at the end.

‘Another Love Song’ is then satirizing love songs, and all the cliche things they say in them about break-ups. There isn’t very much going for this song to be honest other than that, it has a very poppy structure, the backing vocals are nicely done, that’s about it. The radio break at the end of it is quite oddly humorous too, this leads into ‘Song for the Deaf’ which has a very dark atmosphere in it, especially in the start and in the verses, some of it seeps away in the chorus. The way Josh Homme sings is rather dark, combined with that bassline and guitar riff. The song seems to just be about how it feels to be deaf, in the same way ‘Song for the Dead’ was quite self-explanatory. Musically this is probably the most interesting song, with the spoken-word parts, the riff, the vocal harmonies, the harmonies between the guitars too, and the melodies in general. The song then ends with a radio break, a minute of silence which is supposed to be an actual song for the deaf, or how a deaf person would hear a song, and then a weird version of ‘Feel Good Hit of the Summer’. ‘The Mosquito Song’ ends the song very calmly, with an acoustic-guitar-and-vocal arrangement. The song sounds like it is about cannibalism, providing a link between humans and animals, which I think is what they were trying to go for. The second half of the song has an orchestral arrangement which ends it in an epic way, with some very spanish-sounding melodies. The last line of the song is then “Huh, what?” which is just a humorous idea of what a deaf person would say after listening to this album.

Genre: Stoner Rock

Recommended Listens: “No One Knows”, “God Is In The Radio”, “Song for the Deaf”

Have a Listen!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVV_3Z1mp_c

#20

Elliott Smith- XO

The album released when Elliott Smith started to get quite some commercial recognition after a few songs of his were included in the soundtrack of Good Will Hunting and he was signed to a major record label. This did change the dynamic of his music slightly, not so much as ‘Figure 8’ is a move in the commercial direction, but still moreso than ‘Either/Or’. The production is a lot more cleaner than previous releases, but the Elliott Smithness of it all is really maintained, making it, in my opinion better than the majority of his earlier releases, as the music here is interesting as well as the lyrics. You can feel that the lyrics are about his development here, away from drug addiction, trying to change etc.

The album starts out with an Elliott Smith style in ‘Sweet Adeline’, acoustic guitar and vocals, except produced 10 times better. This song introduces the whole theme of the album being about forgetting his past and moving forward - “burn it backwards, kill this history”, he also tells a story which gives the idea of him seeing the best in people, which is also a change! Musically this song is brilliant in an unconventional pop-song way, the way a wall-of-sound just crashes into the song’s atmosphere is great to listen to. It would surprise anyone on first listen, even a fan of Elliott Smith’s work before this. It moves into ‘Tomorrow Tomorrow’ which is a lot more reminiscent of his work before this album, the only difference is the proficiency in multitracking his vocals, this one aimed clearly, but at the same time quite enigmatically at the music industry. He never mentions it in an obvious way but lines like “Noise is coming out, and if it’s not out now then tomorrow… they took your life apart and called your failure’s art”. The guitar-work on that song is beautiful too. ‘Waltz #2’ after this goes a bit more deeply sentimental - the song being an ode to his mother who’s death affected him. The whole song however is more universal about companionship and family in that line of “I’m never gonna know you now, but I’m gonna love you anyhow”. It’s a beautiful song in those minor piano melodies.

An even more piano-orientated song comes after in ‘Baby Britain’, in a song about self-mutilation in the form of drugs, smoking, alcohol, and how people would probably be so much better off without them, but people decide to do them anyway - “For someone half as smart, you’d be a work of art”. Musically this song isn’t as interesting as others, nice pop song though. ‘Pitseleh’ after this is a lot more intimate, and one of the most beautiful songs on the album - about a relationship where his girlfriend and him had to give up each other, because they plainly don’t fit together well, no matter how much they did love each other. Musically and lyrically the song is one of the most beautiful. ‘Independence Day’ maintains this beauty well, except turning it slightly warmer and happier. It’s a lovely uplifting song, saying that there’s always going to be a day in your life when everything comes to a nice conclusion, fitting perfectly together, and he’s telling someone who is feeling down to look forward to that day because he’s sure it’ll come. The acoustic guitar-work in this song is one of the best even if it can be a bit repetitive.

‘Bled White’ comes out of nowhere with quite a bit of power, but Elliott Smith-power of this album, which is loud, bright chords. Lyrically this speaks about a town that’s completely been “bled white”, how nothing is new, and everything is just at a standstill, and everyone drinks their sorrows away. This city provides a metaphoric, slightly hyperbolic link to western culture. ‘Waltz #1’ provides a very subtly beautiful and highly fragile sound, a sound I love from Elliott Smith. This is very much about looking back at the problems in a past relationship, the problems that were put off while he was in the relationship, it’s really quite an emotional and sentimental song, it really captures that reflective emotion. ‘Amity’ provides a complete and utter contrast, and it is actually about another girl that he had an attraction to, but the music shows it to be a lot more light-hearted than the girl spoken about in ‘Waltz #1’. Seems like it’s about a rebound from what was spoken about in ‘Waltz #1’, the brilliance is that the music really represents that along with, or even moreso than the lyrics. The emotion really seeps in to the album when it gets to ‘Oh Well, Okay’ in the way that the lyrics are about looking back on a past version of himself and wishing he were as happy as he was back then. The emotive melodies through this song are lovely.

‘Bottle Up and Explode!’ is actually quite an epic for Elliott Smith, it has that quality to it, with the synth strings. It plainly is about bottling up your feelings, self-explanatorily, but it represents it well in the music. It is plainly saying that letting your emotions out when you want is a step towards being yourself. ‘A Question Mark’ is a lot more ‘rockin’ and light-hearted than most of the album, it comes close to the feel of ‘Amity’ moreso than any other on the album, it plainly is talking about someone who took things at face value, and the world didn’t treat them well for it. ‘Everybody Cares, Everybody Understands’ is a little ballad, which isn’t that interesting until the final part, when it jazzes up a little. The song is about people who look after others in their profession, and how wrong he finds that as deep down people are selfish, and the job is plainly to do with pretending to understand, a bit of a weird thing but it relates to him spending time in a mental facility. ‘I Didn’t Understand’ finishes the album beautifully and with complete melancholy. This one being like an apology about his older self to an older lover and how he used to just ‘not understand’ the way thinks worked in life. Though he acts as if it was a past him, even though quite a few lines are written in the present. It’s just a beautifully harmonised apology for the pain he’s caused people in his past.

Genre: Singer/Songwriter

Recommended Listens: “Waltz #2”, “Independence Day”, “Waltz #1”

Have a Listen!

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL1x1z5LTzxlU-_xQmOorhY5piA5-FMmsZ

#21

The Flaming Lips- Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots

A complete step in a different direction for ‘The Flaming Lips’ here, you could see them developing into this in ‘The Soft Bulletin’, but this album is pure quirky, highly electronic, quite repetitive, chilled out music, with a bit of emotion packed into the melodies. The album is very much a concept album, with a very weird concept. Are these robots humans, taken over by technology? Why does Yoshimi need to battle them? The main focus of the album however seems to be the narrator saddened by these robots, causing an obstruction to his life, and saddened by the fact that they need to be fought, weird, but still cool. I talk about the ‘concept’ but really most of the songs just seem to be questioning ‘life’, trying to find answers, Wayne Coyne trying to ‘find himself’ etc.

The album begins with ‘Fight Test’ which seems to be on one hand, beginning the big ‘battle’ that the album is about, however along with that the ‘fight’ is used as a metaphor for just getting up and doing something difficult in life. And most of the lyrics just seem to be feelings surrounding this metaphor. This song is just a lovely little pop song. After this comes ‘One More Robot/Sympathy 3000-21’, a song about the robots having emotions, which is what makes me think of these robots being humans, overcome so much by the information age that they are pretty much robots. Or maybe it’s less than this, musically I love the chilled feel they have in this song, with a quick-moving bass line underlying some resonating synth chords, and an emotive vocal melody. This sort of feel is maintained through the album and it’s pretty brilliant. The emotive refrain at the end of the song is pretty lovely too, even if it does sound a bit video-game-y.

‘Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots Pt. 1’ is a brilliant, catchy pop song with a little bit of psychedelia thrown in. It’s probably one of ‘The Flaming Lips” catchiest songs. This gives the feeling to me of Yoshimi getting ready for this ‘battle’ which could be interpreted in two ways - plainly fighting these ‘robots’ that I talked about before, or fighting a disease - “she’s taken lots of vitamins” - the robots are pink so it could well be breast cancer, i dunno. You can hear a sense of melancholy in the song, could well be Wayne Coyne’s voice. ‘Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots Pt. 2’ has got to be the coolest and weirdest song on the album, full of odd effects, and brilliant drumming, the entire album has a really cool drumming style to be honest. I think this song is supposed to represent the actual ‘battle’, and what a cool way to do that. ‘In the Morning of the Magicians’ comes after this beautifully, it starts with the cool style the album has, of the very electronic-sounding drum beat, combined with a interesting bassline - then moves into actual song territory. The song really consists of two verses separated by lovely little instrumental refrains. Each verse is just about, maybe one of these robots, struggling to understand the normal concepts of life and humanity.

‘Ego Tripping at the Gates of Hell’ is just the epitome of the album’s style. A really repetitive, memorable bassline, an emotive vocal melody, resonating synth chords hanging over the atmosphere, along with little synth flourishes, all brought together by this very electronic drum beat. The song seems to be about coming to a very late stage in your life, realizing how much of it you’ve wasted waiting for something to happen that was never going to happen, and not realizing what was actually happening in the present. ‘Are You a Hypnotist??’ has that same feel ‘Ego Tripping’ has, except with much weirder lyrics, and much more of a tense feel. I’m not sure about whether the lyrics fit with the concept, but it seems to be about putting so much trust into other people that can just ‘trick’ you and manipulate you I think. The lyrics work with this whole ‘battle’ theme, but can be interpreted on a more universal level, that’s what’s good about lyrics like that. ‘It’s Summertime’ has a beautiful atmosphere to it, however there is a large underlying melancholy to it, a really nice one though. The lyrics seem to be a juxtaposition about how the weather is so nice, but your mood isn’t. Really odd, but still a lovely little song, with that great drum/bass combination.

This leads to ‘Do You Realize??’ which is very clear in what it’s trying to say unlike ‘It’s Summertime’. The whole song is really upbeat, and it serves as just a reminder for all the things that people seem to forget about life. The first time I listened to this song it was a brilliantly interesting song. All these things aren’t bad or good however, they are just true and we must live by them. This song seems to fit with the whole ‘questioning life’ aspect of the album, and it just lets us know all the things that we know are true. ‘All We Have Is Now’ adds to this profoundity, telling us we will never be ‘part of the future’, that we will forever be in the now, something I believe to be half-right, half-wrong, not sure what to think about it, but it’s still something that needed to be said somewhere! The song sounds ever so docile, and I love that aspect of it, it is really hazy and dreamy, and that is a brilliant atmosphere to create. There is a lot of emotion packed into it too, I love all the dreamy electronica. ‘Approaching Pavonis Mons by Balloon (Utopia Planitia)’ is a great little end to the album. It gives the feeling of a victory against these robots, in the use of the brass sounds, except in much more of an emotional way. It does this purely musically,  it does sound very video-game. But it works as an end to the album just the same.

Genre: Neo-Psychedelia

Recommended Listens: “Fight Test”, “Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots Pt. 1”, “Do You Realize??”

Have a Listen!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehSaXAfg-ck