Travelling all day today - to possibly the only place on Earth I've mistaken for both a TV studio and a Caribbean island - so here’s a little bit of music to get you by. This has been stuck in my head for a week now after I heard it live on the radio in a coffee shop, so I am apologetically passing the earworm on to you. If nothing else, it’ll annoy Spielbergo that I’m once again peddling WWB music, though in truth I think it’s a pretty uplifting song, the fact it’s sung from the perspective of a suicidal dumpee notwithstanding.
More to come when I reach Granada.
4 comments:
Saw them last night, awesome :)
The highlights were an astonishing version of My Backwards Walk, which built brilliantly from a single guitar to an astonishing wall of noise, with the lyrics nevertheless coming through perfectly; and an entirely acoustic version of Poke, standing at the front of stage with no mike, and with the fans in the audience providing some great backing vocals for the ooohs.
More disappointing were a couple of my favourites from MOF, Good Arms vs Bad Arms and Keep Yourself Warm, which although the music was brilliant, his voice really struggled with (not to mention that on the latter he does evoke the spirit of Duritz and completely fail to get within spitting distance of the tune). To be fair though, they are incredibly hard songs to sing (speaking as someone who does so quite frequently).
I enjoyed all the new songs to varying levels, shall grab the new album asap (and perhaps their first).
Correction: when I said latter I meant former; he did attempt to keep to the tune for KYW, but clearly had trouble switching back and forth from his falsetto.
I was never too impressed with Good Arms vs Bad Arms; it's too self-indulgently miserable even for me, which is saying something. In fact one of my favourite things about MOF is that the second half is so much better than the first. It's only really I Feel Better and The Twist (with an honorable mention for Fast Blood) that really give you an idea of where it's going from Head Rolls Off onwards.
Third album is on order, but obviously will have to wait until I return from Granada.
Yep, I agree that it's pretty self-indulgently miserable, but I can totally see where it's coming from; I think it usefully and honestly articulates something that can easily be felt, and at the same time makes you wince and realise how ridiculous it is. Kind of a wake-up call. I think the most telling line is 'I'm not ready to see you this happy', with the emphasis on the 'I'm'.
On the whole though, yep, second half better than the first. I do sometimes find Poke very difficult to listen to, but that's mainly because it's so searingly poignant, in a similar way to some Crows songs.
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