Earworms

A place where songs are considered and garble expunged.

[earwormsblog]

I've Gone and Moved

This blog was a layout experiment - you can find the real Earworms here.

[earwormsblog]

Offer together PANGEA

Right from the off with the swingy acoustic guitar, this lairy, snarling track evokes memories of Neutral Milk Hotel's In the Aeroplane Over the Sea.

Post-intro, the full force of together PANGEA kicks the backdoor in (careful), and we're immediately swallowed up by what is essentially a really simple composition, but one carried out wonderfully, violently well. The constant back and forth of the guitar, coupled with the sparse, deliberate lyrics, creates a sense of moodiness and self-involvement which descends on us. And it feels great. "I'm haunted / and unwanted / and talked down to [...] if you have a kiss for me and only me, I'll take it"

The momentum is constant, and, clocking in at under two and a half minutes, it really is a fleeting hurricane - gaudy, unapologetic and just that right amount of immature.

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But  Dads

Lower-end production gleams charm and the types of sincerity you can only remember identifying with when you were an angsty teen in this track from Dads' new album I’ll Be the Tornado. The drawling vocals exacerbate this sense of moodiness, and it’s all drawn together by the heavy conclusion to the song, which offers at least some sort of release to this quite lonely ditty - "I wanna be a part of your inside jokes / I wanna know about each pill you take and / where deep in your body it goes".

It is, of course, self-indulgent moodiness, but in the most honest, unaffected way.

Liken to: Modern Baseball, American Football, Pavement

[earwormsblog]

Non Mi Aspettare Sabina

Okay so this, from Sabina's first solo album (see Brazilian Girls for previous work), actually came out in March. But hey, I've just heard it (recommendation from my Barber, Andy).

Non Mi Aspettare is modern, seductive and oh so effortless. A quaint repeating harp lick opens the song, before making way for a swaying, hypnotic bass line - which continues throughout. 

It's only the chorus where this hypnosis is temporarily lifted and the song blossoms into heightened harmonies, despite the feelings of regretful attachment which are ever-present, though importantly never over-powering: "The world is your oyster / but an oyster needs the sea / I'll go with the boys my love / Until you find that you need me (you need me)".

Sabina's inter-weaving of languages is seamless; such is the ebb and flow of the song, and its ability to engross, it's hardly noticeable on first listen. Being useless at languages, I'm unsure as to whether the lines add anything, or whether she's just showing off, but it definitely works.

Sabina possesses some of the sassiness of Soko, the instant allure and fascination of Nico, but has managed to forge an identity of her own. This is partly due to the sense of assertion and confidence throughout the track, as well as fact that she quite specifically says she knows what she's doing: "If you don't know what you're doing love / then you should come with me".

Listen to everything you can by this woman.

[earwormsblog]

Heart Heart Withered Hand

"HEART HEART LISTEN TO YOUR HEART AND I LISTEN TO MY HEART AND ALL I HEAR IS MY BODY DYIIIIING"

I’m writing this partly because I’m excited about going to see Withered Hand again this evening at Kraak in Manchester, and also because it’s just one of those songs that always energises me, even if it’s just in a ‘ugh you’re an idiot now go away’ kind of way. 

Heart Heart is at the top-end (in terms of liveliness) of WH’s back catalogue (and the album version on New Gods is even quicker, too!), and demonstrates Dan Willson’s amazing broad writing abilities, as well as proving WH’s competency as a complete band. This is a purely anthemic, noisy and imposing track, which, when placed in contrast to WH’s often acoustic, more melodic and lyrically-focussed tracks, shows a seemingly more impulsive, communal side. 

I used the word communal very deliberately; it’s not just that the chorus and bridge and sung with more than one voice, but the ‘dow-ow-ow-ow-oo-woahohoah’ bits have something fundamentally social about them. The descendence into verbal noises rather than words speaks to a feeling, rather than something necessarily verbally coherent. The whole song is a driving, constant sprint towards a finish line, celebrating the fleeting moments of carelessness with friends with a potent sense of rebellion and youthful vigour.

Much like those moments, though, before you’ve even caught your breath, the song’s over and you’re all that’s left, reaching for the repeat button.

[earwormsblog]

Obsessions For Saving Time Silhouette Society

OFST is a wonderfully fraught lullaby whose low-key, sparse instrumentation encourages us to traverse wintry landscapes. Graceful vocal delivery, unimposing beats and the later introduction of a second guitar part have a slightly The XX feel, though Silhouette Society seem to have found a sense of isolation all their own. 

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Angela Surf City The Walkmen

I'll be honest. I never really got into Lisbon. The album, not the place. That was till I heard this song, and it kick-started my growing love affair with the album. 

Angela Surf City in an uncompromising track which is quintessential Walkmen: concise, upbeat drums, a rhythm that you cannot ignore, and that guitar sound that unashamedly oozes style.

Each first half of the verse is basically a breather between the (you got it), breathless second half and chorus. Despite its playful sound, ASC sounds like a song borne out of frustration: "Angela, what's the difference? Today's a day life any other". Angela is the constant lust for excitement and difference, yet such is the monotony of life, it's hard to see past sometimes.

It's a song about wanting to break free from an unremarkable life: "I was holding onto you / for the lack of anything to do", and the result is an effortless, breathless and remarkably exhilarating ride - The Walkmen at their best.

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Heart of a Wrestler Heart-Ships

Complete devastation. That's what greeted me when I found out that, with the imminent release of their debut album, Foil, Heart-Ships were also calling it a day as a band. I was practically stalking this band whilst at uni in Leeds, and had the pleasure of reviewing their EP a while back for MBMB. However, Foil is such an assertive, commanding masterpiece, it's hard to envision a better parting gift, and Heart of a Wrestler, a track they've been playing live for yonks, is typical of the album's demonstrative tenor.

This song is preoccupied, if not a little obsessed with the concept of time. We're almost taken back in time with the opening choral singers, and such is the nature of time, the base musical ideas of the song are repeated throughout, but, perhaps tellingly, never feel repetitive. 

Singer Ryan Cooke tells the story of a man remembering his past, and the defiance with which he has managed to not just emerge with, but has imparted: "he's desperately missed (he's desperately missed) / and his young son stands - clenched fist". It feels like an incredibly masculine song, but it is one which, despite this, is focussed on the potential for rebellion within us all - it's primarily a song about humanity.

The sense of the irrepressible is lyrically typified by the chorus: "you've taken some heavy hits in your time you've been in some fierce grips / you've got the heart of a wrestler, a heart that never submits". Despite the relentless passing of time, the protagonist has emerged as strong as ever.

The very gradual layering of instruments gives provides a perfect stage for this narrative, and it's easily to tell that every hit, every note and chord is completely deliberate. As well as lyrically, though, the slow escalation of Ryan Cooke's vocal intensity leaves us perfectly poised for fever pitch at the middle 8 where the song truly takes off, and, whilst still maintaining a measured level of control, really begins to become cathartic.

It feels strange thinking of this band in the past tense, but I guess that makes this song all the more fitting. Despite the band's demise, this song, and Foil as a whole, will stand defiant and phenomenal. 

Listen to Foil here. I implore you.

[earwormsblog]

Arrival in Nara Alt-J

Okay so let's firstly pretend that this isn't the first post on a new blog, but is actually just a foray like any other that we're all used to and comfortable with, okay? Great. 

Secondly, I will come to the whole of This is All Yours at another moment in time, so no context today.

Belter of a song.

The almost-waltzy, tinkering intro is so brittle you almost forget to breathe; with more than a shade of Agnes Obel, the dancing piano part errs on the right side of twee (like squash that's almost too strong, but just okay), and, just for a moment, it's almost like you're in a scene from Ewan McGregor dog-loving flick Beginners.

Despite its fragilities, the extended intro feels incredibly assured, and leads into quite an up-heaving set of lyrics. Describing the apparent drowning of a girl, the sparse set of lyrics have the same confidence as Radiohead on In Rainbows (thinking Codex), and follow the idea that less is more. And it actually is in this instance. Its sparseness is affecting, and instrumental and vocal harmonies are typically well-composed, helping to fashion the swathes of loneliness surrounding the whole song.

Such is the depressive (which isn't always bad, I hasten to add) and oppressive nature of the lyrics: "She never finds her bearings / sucking splash into her lungs", coupled with the stiflingly consistent triplets of the intro, we are plunged into an empathy as we, too, are struggling for breath. The usual Alt-J 'ooooos' further hypnotise, and the repeated final lines "And though I cannot see / I can hear her smile as she sings" hammer home just how beautifully pretentious this song is.