Anyone hear any fuss being made about "Up All Night"? Nah, me neither. I ask because it's ten years old this year. "Up All Night" being Razorlight's first album released in 2004. I like "Up All Night", it's a pleasant listen. Most tracks play into one another, I like it when an album does that. Too bad Johnny Borrell became quite unbearable in the following years. It is the best Razorlight album, no doubt about that.
The album includes "Don't Go Back to Dalston", a minor key track apparently addressed to Pete Doherty, then a member of The Libertines, to go a bit easy on the drugs. There are two halves to this song. The first half being distinctive verses and choruses, and the other being a long coda with the refrain "Come back, come back, come back" repeated numerous times. That half is longer than the first.
Borrell said the song was barely written, he just envisaged it in his mind after waking up from a hangover. It kinda shows. Still good though.
After a year and a bit of waiting, "Do You Want To" was Franz Ferdinand's 'we're back' single in 2005, their first one from their then upcoming second album "You Could Have It So Much Better" with Franz Ferdinand. The band went on to shorten the name.
I remember the first time I watched the "Do You Want To" video well. And the second time.... and the third. And so on. That's because (after, again, premiering the day before on Channel 4) it was repeated every hour on MTV2. The band pretend to be drunk, or just act really stupidly, at a casual gathering. It seemed that they were pleased that everybody's favourite Scottish
band had returned, after what seemed like a long, long... long year and a
bit. It was very hard to hear the same thing over and over without getting a bit sick of it; fortunately it isn't an annoying track.
The anticipation towards a night out is the subject of many songs. Take this one, for example. That is what "Do You Want To" is about too. But in this case, Alex has his eyes on someone that he wants to take out for a night in the town. That someone is the listener... and we are very lucky to be chosen. With the infectious "doo doo doos" and the memorable chorus, it's very hard to refuse Alex's offer.
"The Day I Tried to Live" is a track, and also was a single, from Soundgarden's album "Superunknown", which celebrates its 20th anniversary this year. The band plan to reissue the whole album along with b-sides, outtakes and some cool t-shirts. You can pre-order the bundle here!
The song is another one of those which I heard for the first time when its video (above) appeared on MTV2. I liked it from that moment on. The descending bass riff at the beginning and its weird time signature (it changes from 7/4 to 4/4 throughout) was what caught my attention. The song also showed me how amazing Chris Cornell actually is as a vocalist. "Cochise", "Black Hole Sun", "Original Fire" - all those sung by him were some tracks that I'd seen on the TV before "The Day", but they never exhibited the range the man possesses. At some point in "The Day", Cornell's sings in a low register before screaming like a banshee in a split second. All in what is probably one take too. It is incredible.
Apparently, people have taken this track to be something of a suicide kind of thing, but Cornell stated that it is simply about getting out of the house and doing normal things instead of being a recluse. It is meant to be optimistic. He said so here almost twenty years ago. I will continue to listen to it with that mindset.
Noisettes are a band who came along near the end of the 'indie rock/post-punk' revival that was happening in the mid-noughties. Their first video that they made for "Scratch Your Name" came on MTV2 one day, but it was one of those really rubbish ones that bands do before they become loaded. So it didn't really do the song justice. "Scratch Your Name" is a proper rocker though, with a cool riff and a lot of effort put into the vocal delivery by the lead singer. It shouldn't be a big deal but Noisettes were also one of the few indie bands with a black member in it too, which was a cool thing to see.
"What's the Time Mr. Wolf?" was the band's debut album released in 2007. The album was exclusively streamed on NME's website, and that was the first time I heard "Bridge to Canada". I've never actually paid attention to the lyrics but looking at them as I type to you now, the song appears to be about missing a loved one whilst being on tour. I always thought that there was some weird irregular time signatures used in the chorus, but it's all 4/4. It's just the way the chords are played. I can't explain it properly to you, if you listen to it you'll know what I mean.
Noisettes aren't very good anymore. At least to me. They had an indie rock sound with their debut which they could have expanded upon and added more depth, but instead they went in a totally different direction. THE POP ROUTE. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed "Don't Upset the Rhythm" and "Never Forget You" when they were about... but it wasn't the same. Shingai didn't even play the bass in the music videos anymore. The drummer left, probably because he couldn't take it anymore, and the band remain to be a two-piece. The band have three albums to their name, but I'll stick with the first.
Ah. The third single from Razorlight's second album from 2006.
I like this song, no matter how many people may not like Johnny Borrell's voice or as a person. The song was released as a single in December 2006, months way after the actual album was released.
I had actually heard the song before it was released as a single. In primary school, I had a friend and we were into the same music and we would talk about songs that were out and whatever. Baring in mind, we were about eleven at the time. He had this huge musical library on his computer, and I would always request songs for him to send to me through MSN. I don't know if that annoyed him or not, because I asked for a lot of music. I will just assume that he was cool with it. He invited me around his house one time, so he probably was.
The video always confused me though. I have no idea what's going on. It probably should have just been a perfomance video. It does feature Guy Pearce, and Scorpio from Gladiators though.
This is the first song I heard by Morning Runner.
I was watching music television one day. I think the channel was The Amp -which was a really good music channel; I don't know why it got removed - and I watched the video for it.
But you know how it goes. Time moves on, and songs get older and older until they eventually fade away and are hardly ever played again. I never forgot about the song though. I wasn't able to watch the video again until sometime in 2010. I downloaded the song, and I can have it on repeat whenever I want.
It's got that "Rush of Blood" Coldplay type vibe. Apparently it influenced Chris Martin to write songs with Coldplay for "X&Y", so obviously it must be good.
The song was released as the band's second single from their debut album "Wilderness Is Paradise Now". Their debut was also their last as the band then split in 2007. People may also know this band for "Gone Up in Flames", a song in FIFA 07 and the theme song for "The Inbetweeners".
Until tomorrow.
Jamie.
P.S. I created a Twitter account, so if you want to follow me please do @JamieKManteaw.
If Arctic Monkeys were the newest and biggest thing in 2006, then Klaxons can defintely take that title for 2007.
The band was immensly hyped up during the latter stages of the former year, and arguably the one that started the 'new rave' genre which a whole load of otherbands were soon labelled as. That whole thing died out around 2008.
The video first appeared on MTV2 in 2006. It was released as the band's official single in June, and it was one of the reasons why I got excited over them, and understood what is was that made the NME express so much praise about them.
The flashing lights, the use of the samples from a standard Casio keyboard that I've used when I was doing music in Key Stage 3 and the calm, singalong verses that are contrasted with the shouted out chorus. The video is almost seizure-inducing, especially watching it with all the lights off in the house.
But that just made it so much cooler. My sister and I watched it whenever it came on, and she loved it too. You just want to dance and bust out the robot during the vereses, and then when the chorus comes just start doing whatever the fuck you want to do. It's great stuff.
The album it's on, 'Myths of the Near Future', was released in the first month of 2007, and loads of people liked it. I have it, so I can agree with them.
That is my decision for yesterday's post. As the saying goes, 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it.'
But on the topic of my iPod, I was wondering what I could do to bring some consistency to my new blog.
I don't just want to come on here one day with nothing to write about. I've been looking through the songs that I have on my 'portable device' and wondering... 'damn, this is the music that I've enjoyed throughout my life.... where does the time go? blah blah blah nostalgia'.
So I'm going to guide you, in alphabetical order, through the songs I have, how I discovered them and whatever.
So number one.....
The Futureheads - A to B
OK. The Futureheads are a four piece band from Sunderland, consisting of two brothers and two other guys. I've listened to them for about... nine years now, ever since their debut album came out in 2004. I think the first song I heard by them was 'Decent Days and Nights', when I was watching good old MTV2, when it actually played a wider variety of better music. It is now called MTV Rocks, but it doesn't rock at all. Not. at. all. But anyway, I liked that song and I remember I went shopping with my mum in Tesco one day, and we were in the CD aisle and I saw the front cover of The Futureheads album. I saw it, and the conversation as I recall went a little something like: Mum: "What's that?" Me: "It's an album by a band I listen to." Mum: "Do you like them?" Me: "Yeah, sure." Mum: "Alright, well then put it in [the trolley]." And I've never looked back since. I wouldn't say that The Futureheads are one of my all time favourite bands, but they have really good, catchy songs with great vocals and punchy instrumentation. Check out some other stuffbythem if you want. Their latest album 'Rant' was released last year, but is only acapella.... so get that if you're into that kind of stuff. Did you like this blog entry? Comment on it, and I'll try and make these as daily as I can. Until next time. Jamie
