And so the post-a-day continues, one week in and with no intention of ceasing any time soon. Let the 3 Songs begin!
Song #1: How to Explain by The Cat Empire (The Cat Empire, 2003, Track 1)
Musically, holy shit this song is awesome. I will never even attempt to explain why The Cat Empire sounds so fantastic, but this song just is fantastic, and is easily one of my all-time favourites. Very impressive for the first song from the first album. This is where it all began. This music goes from slow, to fast, to slower to somewhere in between, before finally slowing to a stop. This song has some of the best instrumentation-vocals mixes I've ever heard. This song has bleeding trumpets! Just... no more words.
Vocally, this song is also marvellous. I believe that I can give the credit for this one to Angus, although it may be Riebl. I have never heard vocals as smooth and as flowing as in the first part of this song, keeping up perfectly with the music, to a level I cannot imagine. Throughout the rest of this song, the vocals match the music just perfectly, and although Angus doesn't have a great voice, he certainly knows how to use what he has. Bloody brilliant.
Lyrically, this song doesn't really have a plot, but is more focused on imagery. The premise of the song is basically the group attempting to explain how important their music is to them and what to does to them. I must say, this is a pretty damn good way of introducing the group, as this was the first song on the debut album. There is fantastic imagery here, such as the concept of "the beast", which brings the Cat Empire logo, a cat's eye with a crown, to mind. I think the "beast" is the concept of the urge to create music, although it could be the perfect song or some other such goal, as the first verse seems to imply that creating music is almost a religious experience. They go on to explain the sense of purpose music creates, the fact that music brought the group together, the concept of music writing itself and, of course, the sense of immortality created by writing music. Now, this is a fantastic set of lyrics, with great imagery and concepts, but one line has always taken me completely out of the mood the song is trying to put me in: "And a pair of balls for strength". Why the hell is that there? I always find myself just getting caught on that line, firstly thinking "did they really just say what I thought they said?" and also "Why? Why the fuck did they say that?" Meh. Damn good lyrics overall, though.
Song #2: I Don't Remember A Thing by Paul Kelly (Smoke, 1999, Track 5)
Musically, I have to admit this is nothing too impressive. The focus of this song is clearly the lyrics and the music takes a definite backseat, although I must say this is pretty much par for the course in regards to Paul Kelly. The music is a guitar and drum led beat, which picks up slightly upon the chorus. It's different, recognisable, so I suppose it does what it was meant to. Not much more, though.
Vocally, Kelly is pretty decent. He manages to always convey the everyman, someone who seems to always be fallible, capable of fucking up as badly as anyone else, if not worse, as demonstrated in this song, where I don't think any other vocalist could do the job. Any simpler voices would have grated, and any more refined voice would add unwanted melodrama to the situation.
Now, lyrically, this song is great. So, Kelly murders his wife... let me back up a little. Now, the entire premise of this song, as the title may imply, is that Kelly has complete amnesia of the situation he's found himself in, waking up to a pair of policeman coming for him. They seem to expect him to tell them bout the situation, but they have to take him to a house where someone has been killed, only for him to find a photo of himself with a woman and a note, which he apparently recognises in his handwriting, saying "I love you, darling, more than I can stand.". Yeah, I'm pretty sure he murdered his wife or girlfriend. I may be completely missing the point here though, as I really don't get why someone would leave a note at a murder scene, but everything else sums up "murder" pretty well. This is a really short song, with a short intro and no conclusion, but it works really well. Despite the cheery music, which I think may be to contrast with the lyrics, Kelly manages to convey his ignorance pretty well, as well as his complete confusion. A great little song with an enjoyable story, just like almost everything Kelly has made.
Song #3: She's So Ugly by The Hilltop Hoods (State of the Art, 2009, Track 4)
Before I begin this discussion, let me state my bias. I hate this song. I despise this song. I think this song is a stain on the discography of the Hilltop Hoods and Australian hip-hop as a whole. To put it simply, I don't like this song. For a previous in-depth analysis of this song, read my Top 5 Albums posts.
Musically, this song is bland as water. The sampled track is unnecessarily loud and repetitive, and really does little than just sits in the background making sounds. I'll be fair: the music isn't the worst part of this song.The music isn't good by any means, but it really kind of suits.
Vocally, the Hilltop Hoods are the best. This song isn't the best demonstration of their skills, but the fact the spoken language is their bitch is apparent all the same. I really have no problem with their vocal abilities and it is the standout part of this song.
Lyrically is the source of my hatred. I admit very quickly that I could be reading this song the completely wrong way, but I'm going to talk about this song the way I read it. Settle back for what I can only imagine is going to be a reasonably long paragraph. Now, this song has some high points lyrically. I enjoy the bragging at the beginning of each verse, and I respect the fact the lyric booklet actually uses the word "Mattafact" and I guarantee that word will be used at some point in this blog's future, fuck spellcheck. Problems begin with this songs key metaphor: comparing the music industry to a woman. Specifically, the fact the she's "been used by too many guys". Yeah. OK, I'm going to make some simple connections here. Let's presume, and this might just be my interpretation, that "used" in reference to the woman means sex. I'd like to think of an alternative, but nothing really makes sense, especially for this genre. This is disturbing. The implication, ignoring the music industry altogether, is that this woman is less attractive to the artists because she has had more sex. Again, I'd like to re-emphasise that I just can't think of an alternative interpretation. The thing that really crosses the line for me is the use of the word "damaged" at the end of the second verse. If you don't understand why using the word damaged to describe another human being, especially after they have merely had a great deal of sex, is wrong, I really would like to hear your point of view on this. Now, overall, I'm willing to write the majority of this off as a poorly thought out metaphor, put the theory that a woman is "damaged" for having had sex is an idea almost akin to Abbott (Aussie conservative politician for those who haven't had the misfortune of seeing, hearing or generally being aware of him) being against pre-marital sex. This kind of thought has no place in modern society, especially a generally secular society like Australia. And that's a mattafact.
Overall:
Musically, The Cat Empire are without competition. They sound like they spend every moment of their lives working out how to be awesome, and they pull it off excellently. Paul Kelly's simple song is a definite runner-up.
Vocally, I think The Cat Empire should win this category, as their smooth, smooth delivery just makes that song. Although Kelly is a wonderful everyman, I'm hesitant to call his voice anything more than appropriate, and I have to give the runner-up to the Hilltop Hoods.
Lyrically, Paul Kelly is a definite winner, with his excellent use of basic crime fiction tropes in a song, along with his almost cliff-hanger ending. The Cat Empire deserves second place, because their lyrics aren't disturbingly poorly thought out, unlike another group.
Winners:
1. How To Explain by The Cat Empire
2. I Don't Remember A Thing by Paul Kelly
3. She's So Ugly by The Hilltop Hoods
Man, that left a bad taste in my mouth. It's a shame that in comparing three of Australia's greatest musical entities, only one was at it's strongest and another was at it's definitive weakest. I honestly have no other way to interpret that last song, so if you feel I've been too harsh or not harsh enough or completely of-track, please talk about it in the comments, or just email me at theconceptofevil@atheist.com if you'd rather. I'm happy to hear out anyone. That's a mattafact. Now, Red Television will be celebrating one year of existence on the 16th. I don't know how I'm going to celebrate. Maybe a Top 10 Favourite Posts or other Top 10. I'll decide when it gets closer.
Feedback is welcome. Mattafact, it's encouraged. I will never get tired of that word.
H. Rourke
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