Video reblogged from HAIL THE PAGES TURNING with 4 notes
ok i’m definitely kind of obsessed with this song now.
I’m seriously angry that the NYC Lana Del Rey show is the same night as the Tori show in DC. If Lana was up against anyone but Tori, she’d win. Video Games may end up being my top track of the year, it’s been haunting me for the last couple months and it resonates more and more as time goes by.
The opening instrumentation alone is stunning, and then the vocals come in and the song becomes devastating. Initially the chorus didn’t work as well as the verses for me, but the contrast of the lyrics and the world-weary defeated tone of the vocals pushed me over to loving it.
Source: hailthepagesturning
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Austra- Lose It (Paper Bag Session)
When I saw Austra a few weeks ago, the one disappointing part of an otherwise great show was that she let her back-up singer handle the high notes in Lose It instead of doing them herself. That makes it especially nice to see her go for them here, even if the notes aren’t flawless.
The song itself loses none of its catchy-ness or power in this stripped-down form, and performing it in this way exposes the melancholy and desperation of the lyrics. The Kate Bush comparisons I saw in some reviews of Austra always felt gratuitous to me (I love Kate a lot, but not EVERY female singer owes a debt to her), but this shows there’s at least a tiny bit of merit to them, even if Austra’s facial expressions are no match for Kate’s.
Audio post reblogged from Still a Weirdo with 35 notes - Played 40 times
[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]Liz Phair- Canary
I know Divorce Song, Flower, and Fuck and Run get all the attention but Canary and Shatter are the real heart of Exile in Guyville. The dissatisfaction and loneliness caused from living up to everyone else’s expectations and wishes is expressed in a devastating way here, and it’s one of the best examples of how Liz’s limited vocal range can work to her advantage.
Source: dustoffvarnya
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Joanna Newsom- Peach, Plum, Pear (live from Paris 2010)
This is one of my favorite Joanna Newsom songs, and although it’s a fan favorite, I think its genius is often overlooked because, at least in studio form, it’s lacking some of the musical complexity of her later work, and like most of “The Milk-Eyed Mender” album, the vocals are painful to listen to. Luckily, the most recent live performances of the song showcase a much-improved vocal performance and a powerful new arrangement. The drums kicking in at :45 propel the song forward even more than Joanna’s nimble and skilled harp playing, while the strings and trumpet* provide a beauty and sadness that matches with the lyrics and serves as a nice counterpoint to the pound of the drums. The 2-minute instrumental that concludes the song allows Joanna’s stunning harp skills to take center stage and ending this song on such a quiet and delicate note after building the sound up for much of the song is an unusual choice but one that is entirely fitting.
Lyrically, I find this much easier to interpret than most of Joanna’s songs. At its core, it’s about a relationship gone wrong and reflecting on how and why that happened. The first two verses are fairly self-explanatory: She runs into an old flame in a store, and finds them oddly attractive again initially, but the guy gives her the brush-off (you’re well on your way) and it makes her self-conscious and upset. I’m less certain about my reading of the third verse:
And the gathering floozies
Afford to be choosy
And all sneezing darkly
In the dimming divide
But I can picture the scene she describes in the first two verses, and then add in some friend(s) of the man coming up, looking at her disdainfully (although that attitude is shared, as evidenced by the floozies line) and sneezing to get his attention and break up the conversation, even as he’s trying to get away from the situation. The next verse is my favorite, with simple but stunning lyrics:
And I have read the right books
To interpret your looks
You were knocking me down
With the palm of your eye
She’s smart, she knows he’s trying to get out of this encounter and to push her away and down, but just because she knows that’s what he’s doing doesn’t mean it doesn’t hurt or work. What an evocative and poetic way to express something simple. These lines are some of the most relatable and emotionally charged in the song, and that comes through in Joanna’s delivery.
The next verse begins her reflection on the relationship and what went wrong in earnest, using an extended metaphor comparing the two characters to horses. She lost control of her feelings and the relationship, unexpectedly going from wild horse to rider (I was riding its back when it used to ride me) and things began to get away from them as they rushed towards love or a deeper relationship (galloping manic to the mouth of the source) even as that freaked both of them out (swallowing panic in the face of its force)
As the song moves toward its conclusion, Joanna disarms the listener with lines (And I was blue, I am blue and unwell) that are completely direct, which are moving precisely because of that directness and simplicity. The following line made me bolt like a horse concludes the metaphor from earlier (although its actually a simile at this point) and reveals that it was she that ran away from the relationship after her issues got the better of her. In the next verse, she accepts that the relationship is finished though and gives up on the reignited hope she had upon seeing the man again (Now it’s done, watch it go), and acknowledges that he’s different now than he was then. The final verse is the one that carries the most weight in the song though, and serves as a melancholy conclusion to the entire story:
Am I so dear?
Do I run rare?
And you’ve changed so
Peach, plum, pear
Peach, plum
She questions herself, wondering if she’s as special as she thinks she is and if she’ll always be running away from intimacy or if it was just with that person. The repetition of you’ve changed so in this verse represents the narrator talking about herself, not the other person, and acts as a reassuring answer to the questions. Peach, plum, pear represents the stages of her sexual life and the relationship that’s the subject of the song. A peach is often used as a metaphor for a young, beautiful woman (Don’t tell me you’ve never heard some old man refer to a girl as “a peach” before.) and they’re juicy and fresh like a new relationship. Saying something is plum (a plum job, for example) is saying something is good, but doesn’t carry the same connotations of newness and innocence. She’s older and more mature, but still desirable, and the relationship was still good as it moved out of that initial phase where everything is exciting. Ultimately though we end up at pear, since everything’s gone pear-shaped, or awful. Pear-shaped is not a descriptor you want applied to you, and ending on pear shows that she feels used up and unattractive, but the repetition of the line that ends on plum reveals that she hasn’t hit that point yet and can regain the confidence lost in this encounter. There’s always hope for the future, even if that relationship is finished.
*Sidebar on the subject of the trumpet: Joanna Newsom has a VERY hot trumpet player. I saw him outside after her show in Philly earlier this year, and wanted to hit on him, but I couldn’t think of anything to say beyond “Great show, man” and “You’re really hot” so I didn’t go talk to him. Sorry that story’s so lame, I wish I had been cooler too.
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[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]Best Coast- Goodbye
So I know that Best Coast is all anyone’s talked about the last couple days and the full-on backlash is about to begin, but Pitchfork is actually right about this record. It’s a lot of fun and a very good indie beach album. The simplicity and obviousness in its lyrics are indicative of pop genius, not stupidity, since the key to a good pop song beyond a great hook is relatable lyrics, and
I lost my job
I miss my mom
I wish my cat could talk
Everytime you leave this house, everything falls apartWell, I don’t love you, and I don’t hate you
I don’t know how I feel
are absolutely things everyone has thought or felt at some point. (Come on, you know you wish your pets could talk. My sister and I frequently talk about what our dogs would sound like, complete with accents and goofy speech patterns, when we get bored.) The same holds true for the lyrics of the rest of the album. Even on first listen, these songs felt familiar, because the lyrics are things I think every time I’m in a dysfunctional relationship, which is you know… a lot of the time. The simple repetitive lyrics fit with the musical tone of the record, which sounds less like the “classic indie pop” Larry Fitzmaurice makes a vague comparison to in his review, and more like 50s/60s girl group pop updated for 2010 and given a little stoner haze in the production.
Do I think the record is going to be an enduring classic? Absolutely not, but it’s enjoyable to relax and chill with, making for a light and fun counterpoint to the heavier, pretentious, and drama-laden songs I usually listen to. This record is so unpretentious that it almost loops back around and becomes pretentious in its simplicity, which is the source for a lot of the negativity around it I think, but let’s just listen to some music that’s fun and focus on just enjoying things for once. I almost can’t believe I said that, since I’m king of over-interpreting stuff (see: all my Tori Amos posts), but sometimes it’s nice to listen to something and appreciate it at face value, and that’s what Best Coast songs are designed for.
