Well, it's mid-Semester break, so time for a little bit of a blog post before the public holidays end. Now, I have no idea if I'll be bothered to put another post up in this beautiful fortnight, but I'll see what happens.
I have a question for anyone out there willing to answer... why do spammers like Ben Folds? Seriously. Anyone who's willing to scroll down just a bit will see a short post regarding a search for Ben Folds' songs. Nothing remarkable, right? Well, the spammers of the world thought otherwise. So far, I've had eight spam comments on that one post. I don't know how it looks, how many "comment deleted" marks readers can see, but I'm not just deleting negative comments, I'm just deleting spam.
Was there a keyword in there? Was there something that put my Blog in the sights of spammers? What was it? I've had two other comments in the history of this blog (one of which was spam). Why eight over the past week or so? Why?
Anyway, I'm not going to do something that takes too much effort now, as it's only midday. I'll wait until night to make a fool of myself by attempting to review something. I just reread my "Showbiz" review, and I realise exactly how I'm going to feel by the end of any album. So, for now (as the title, which will probably give a lot away, suggests) I'll be going back to my bread and butter, "3 Songs".
Song #1: Look What You've Done by Jet (Get Born, 2003, Track 4)
It's been a while since I've done a 3 Songs post, and as such I'm looking at a previous one so as to recall my format. Oddly enough, that one also started with a Jet song. I'll put a link to it here, and it should open in another window, but I admit that I didn't really talk about Jet as a group very much. Since that review, I have purchased another Jet album, Shaka Rock, but that doesn't really matter here. Jet have taken a lot of shit, both in music criticism, and just in what I've gleaned from public opinion. Honestly, I like them. Sure, it's hard to take the artists behind "Are you Gonna be my Girl?" seriously, but I enjoy the upbeat, lively tunes they make. However, they also make slow, sentimental tunes that are rather mediocre. Knowing my luck, of course this track is one of the latter.
Let's talk music. This song has been compared to tracks by both The Beatles and John Lennon's solo career (in the "copyright infringy" way, not the good way), and I do see the comparison. When I pressed the next button on my MP3 player and heard the opening bars, I was terrified that I would be comparing a Beatles song. Unfortunately, this was Jet. The music, however, is surprisingly solid for a slow Jet song. It picks up a little momentum when it needs to, and the intro with just the piano does draw more attention to the lyrics, which is clever, but not a good idea considering the lyrics.
Vocally, Carter isn't horrible, and does have a voice strong enough to switch from the overly sentimental to the accusing, and isn't jarring in the least. It is, and this may sound odd, a little boring. After listening to the first few lines, you just start to drift away, focusing on the instrumental aspect, or the previous song, or what you're having for lunch. It works in rock, when you're being all but shouted at, but this is clearly sung in his "album filler" voice. The song was wildly successful, however, so I must default to thinking that this opinion is held by few but me.
Lyrics. Well...the lyrics are vague. Not "insert your own situation here and think of it every time the song comes on" vague. Annoyingly vague. Okay, both are annoyingly vague, but the point is I don't know what the hell is going on in this song. I'm thinking breakup (although death and acceptance of end of something else are still possibilities), but who broke up with who? What happened? What was the relationship like? I can grasp that the not-narrator part of the relationship was controlling, considering "Give me back my point of view", but this just raises more questions. The line that breaks it for me is "You've made a fool of everyone." HOW? How can EVERYONE be fooled by a relationship ending? Although the line is appropriate for the date (Happy April Fools), I can't make heads nor tails of this song. I'm sure it has a story behind it, but I really shouldn't have to do research to understand a chart topping pop song, should I?
Song #2: Typhoon by The Bamboos (4, 2010, Track 12
My introduction to The Bamboos was during last years ARIA awards, when both The Bamboos and The Herd were beaten out by The Hilltop Hoods for Best Urban Album (that is what I call a "win-win" situation). I liked the short piece of music they played by The Bamboos, so I completely legally downloaded "4". I like it, but it's kind of hard to pin down any identity to the album or the group, because the work is just so varied.
Now, Typhoon. This is an instrumental piece. So... it's lively, cool, classy and a hell of an album ender, although I sort of follow the idea that the last song on an album should be a bit of a cooldown, and this is definitely not that. The idea that best describes this tune is car chase music. Probably from the late 70's, because of that disco-esque beat. I can't really say much about it. Although it sticks with the same core beat and rhythm, I would never call it boring, and by the end you're still paying attention. Listening, Jet? Listening?
Song #3: Walking the Dog by The Rolling Stones (The Rolling Stones, 1964, Track 12)
...So...
Let's start with the music.1964. Do you really need to know more? There's a guitar, drums and ... clapping and whistling? Why? Just... c'mon Hudson, you can do this.... the music is probably the best part of this song. That is saying so very little. Let me put it this way: this song was on The Rolling Stones debut album. I am utterly amazed they had a career after this. This is so... horrid.
Vocally, this song is like dragging a strangled cat across a chalkboard. Jagger may have many redeeming factors, but this song just crushes me. The vocals are mangled, forced and just repellent. I... have no more works. There ARE no more words.
OK, I can talk lyrics. The lyrics are by far the worst part. They are either the most miserably dull story ever told, or the most confused and undecipherable metaphor in music history. The best comment in regards to this song is "drugs". My question is whether this is in response to the question "What does the metaphor of 'walking the dog' pertain to?" or "Why was this song made?" I have to stop writing to turn it off. Just... no.
Overall:
Musically, I have to give this one, hands down, to The Bamboos. Jet is decent, but whenever I compliment the music, I feel like I'm just saying so in comparison to other Jet songs, which isn't really the spectrum 3 Songs runs on. The Rolling Stones deserve no compliments.
Vocally, Jet wins by default. The Bamboos offered an instrumental piece, and as such can't really win this, so The Rolling Stones, although deserving no compliments, come second.
Lyrically, Jet wins again by default. As neither of the other groups produced listenable lyrics, I'm going to pick The Bamboos to come second just for being generally awesome.
Winners:
1. Look What You've Done by Jet
2. Typhoon by The Bamboos
Losers:
Humanity, because of Walking the Dog by The Rolling Stones. (I'm aware they didn't write it, but they sure destroyed it.)
It's over. Leave. Don't listen to Walking the Dog. Goodbye.
Feedback welcome.
H. Rourke.
No comments:
Post a Comment