Thursday, February 14, 2008
Top 50 Songs of 2007 (#s 20-16)
20 "Apartment Story" The National Boxer [Beggars Banquet]
"I'm getting tired / I'm forgetting why"
The whitest band you know. Upon first listen, this sounds like the definition of music for cubicle weary suburban white people. It's sad, but not too sad. Interesting, but not too interesting. But just as your everyman, who from an outside perspective seems like they have a comfortably boring life, needs to inject some adrenaline and spontaneity into his/her life, they also need to crawl deep inside something familiar from time to time. This song defines that feeling to me. The stress that consumes me and separates me from the realization that I have it better than so many other people stays real and absurd when I listen to this song. The mumbling middle class ruins everything for themselves, waiting for it only to get ruined further, but it never does. We follow mindlessly rushing away our lives, until we feel our hearts burst into our throats in the final chorus and we finally get it kicked into our head violently (and how necessary that modifier is) to make us slow down, calm down, and stay inside for one more moment of clarity. Then we better the face the real day, without perfectly produced melodies and guitar apexes.
19 "Smother + Evil = Hurt" The Kissaway Trail The Kissaway Trail [Bella Union]
"A thought less is a thought more needed."
I imagine our protagonist regaining consciousness on a boardwalk, a cut on his upper lip. He wipes the salty sleep from his tired eyes, shakes the past from his weathered hair, and rises triumphantly. In his peripheral, a boy's golden balloon slips from its owner's frail hands, and like the clouds capture the latex sphere, our protagonist is magnetically pushed toward the sea, which is still tame in the morning light. Just as his feet splash into the water and it looks as if he's about to let the ocean envelop him and take him away, he cuts a 90-degree angle and marches through the beach front, the camera turning with our protagonist, revealing a chorus of angels walking in unison with him, determined and hopeful. We can only see profiles, as if they have been beaten down to halves of once whole beings, divine or otherwise. As the stroll gets longer, our protagonist and the angels become more awake, seemingly gathering energy from their endeavor, never exhausting themselves. Our protagonist stops, sees something we cannot. He falls to his knees. The angels surround him, closing in him more with each note surpassing the group overhead. Our protagonist struggles with what will surely be his final decision in his life, but we know not what this decision is. Tears well up in his face, the angels dissemble in even flow, and he might never know if what he did was indeed the right thing. We never do.
18 "Leyendecker" Battles Mirrored [Warp]
Moment @ 0:42
I like this record. I don't love it. It's fun to listen to and will mess with your head in the best way experimental melodic music can, but it never reaches down deep into your head or heart. It's more concerned with robotics than humanity, and I can't even fully support that. This track, however, was lifted into the light for me to see courtesy of a rap remix that I don't particularly like, but at least it brought Battles into a human tint for me. Ortiz raps on top of the creepy snaking guitar and awkward beat, "I don't know what you call this, hip hop, rock, I just know it feel good...and it's New York." I've only been to NYC once (a year ago), but I couldn't agree more. And it's not just that the place is awkward, creepy and snaking, and I am constantly worried about what's coming up next when I'm there, suffocated, and belittled by architecture. No, I also feel a profound appreciation for the behemoth city when I'm there - something that I know only become strengthened when you reside there, as a few of my close friends can attest to. It slides under your skin, becomes a part of you and your identity, it's unlike anything else ever created by man, to the point where you wonder if the city is living on its own, ready to attack or be your guiding light depending on its mood, your mood, and your neighbor's mood on any given day. It's surreal and still connected to me like living tissue.
17 "Sad Song" Au Revoir Simone The Bird of Music [Our Secret]
"I want to remember the places that we left."
I hate it when unassuming songs with just a tinge of distinct personality ultimately come out flat and uninspired. With just a few tweaks on the melody, that's what could have happened with this song. And that's what makes it that much more powerful. It crawls into your ears with a beautiful set of layered keyboards and lilting multi-girl vocals, just soothing enough to calm you down, but as it approaches the chorus, it melts your torso into oblivion, reminding you of the power of suppression versus melodrama. There's nothing chaotic or exorbitant about this song, it's just pinched and perfected enough to make for the best song you could forget about so easily if you don't a) listen to the lyrics, b) watch the accompanying music video - link above, or c) listen on headphones absurdly loud. Plus you better catch those synthesized horns at the end, or David Lynch (the band's supposed #1 fan) will never dance with you. You know you want to hear a sad song, because we're all alone at various points in our lives, leaving only our memories to work in filling our minds. This song makes sure you can do that and still have a solitaire rock out party. Get your sad on.
16 "Our Life is Not a Movie or Maybe" Okkervil River The Stage Names [Jagjaguwar]
"She glows just like grain on the flickering pane of some great movie."
Okay, so I'm taking that quote out of context. He's talking about how there's no scene like that in the epic non-movie that is our life. But it's just my personal favorite of a ridiculous number of exquisitely crafted cinematic couplets. This is without a doubt the best lyrically written song of the year, with depressed passion, inescapable romanticism, desperate longing, and all at the cost of compulsively shredding vocal chords along the way. It's a harsh realization, waking up and realizing the lack of filmic qualities in our day-to-day anti-conflicts, fake resolutions, and bitter and regret-filled character developments. This isn't exactly the subtle understatement that is usually lauded for its simplicity and not needing hordes of attention called upon it, but it's the sound of a band not softly or silently walking away from or into a life they begrudgingly accept. No, this is the sound of hostile takeover by a crowd of youthful mavericks, refusing to see the light of day be extinguished by placidity. There must be a fight for that which does not exist. If we don't make a sound, how will we ever be heard? It's not about change, it's about calling out for it, even at the dimmest possibility of insurrection and climactic glory.
Next week: #s 15-11.
¶ posted by chris at 5:08 PM
20 "Apartment Story" The National Boxer [Beggars Banquet]"I'm getting tired / I'm forgetting why"
The whitest band you know. Upon first listen, this sounds like the definition of music for cubicle weary suburban white people. It's sad, but not too sad. Interesting, but not too interesting. But just as your everyman, who from an outside perspective seems like they have a comfortably boring life, needs to inject some adrenaline and spontaneity into his/her life, they also need to crawl deep inside something familiar from time to time. This song defines that feeling to me. The stress that consumes me and separates me from the realization that I have it better than so many other people stays real and absurd when I listen to this song. The mumbling middle class ruins everything for themselves, waiting for it only to get ruined further, but it never does. We follow mindlessly rushing away our lives, until we feel our hearts burst into our throats in the final chorus and we finally get it kicked into our head violently (and how necessary that modifier is) to make us slow down, calm down, and stay inside for one more moment of clarity. Then we better the face the real day, without perfectly produced melodies and guitar apexes.
19 "Smother + Evil = Hurt" The Kissaway Trail The Kissaway Trail [Bella Union]"A thought less is a thought more needed."
I imagine our protagonist regaining consciousness on a boardwalk, a cut on his upper lip. He wipes the salty sleep from his tired eyes, shakes the past from his weathered hair, and rises triumphantly. In his peripheral, a boy's golden balloon slips from its owner's frail hands, and like the clouds capture the latex sphere, our protagonist is magnetically pushed toward the sea, which is still tame in the morning light. Just as his feet splash into the water and it looks as if he's about to let the ocean envelop him and take him away, he cuts a 90-degree angle and marches through the beach front, the camera turning with our protagonist, revealing a chorus of angels walking in unison with him, determined and hopeful. We can only see profiles, as if they have been beaten down to halves of once whole beings, divine or otherwise. As the stroll gets longer, our protagonist and the angels become more awake, seemingly gathering energy from their endeavor, never exhausting themselves. Our protagonist stops, sees something we cannot. He falls to his knees. The angels surround him, closing in him more with each note surpassing the group overhead. Our protagonist struggles with what will surely be his final decision in his life, but we know not what this decision is. Tears well up in his face, the angels dissemble in even flow, and he might never know if what he did was indeed the right thing. We never do.
18 "Leyendecker" Battles Mirrored [Warp]Moment @ 0:42
I like this record. I don't love it. It's fun to listen to and will mess with your head in the best way experimental melodic music can, but it never reaches down deep into your head or heart. It's more concerned with robotics than humanity, and I can't even fully support that. This track, however, was lifted into the light for me to see courtesy of a rap remix that I don't particularly like, but at least it brought Battles into a human tint for me. Ortiz raps on top of the creepy snaking guitar and awkward beat, "I don't know what you call this, hip hop, rock, I just know it feel good...and it's New York." I've only been to NYC once (a year ago), but I couldn't agree more. And it's not just that the place is awkward, creepy and snaking, and I am constantly worried about what's coming up next when I'm there, suffocated, and belittled by architecture. No, I also feel a profound appreciation for the behemoth city when I'm there - something that I know only become strengthened when you reside there, as a few of my close friends can attest to. It slides under your skin, becomes a part of you and your identity, it's unlike anything else ever created by man, to the point where you wonder if the city is living on its own, ready to attack or be your guiding light depending on its mood, your mood, and your neighbor's mood on any given day. It's surreal and still connected to me like living tissue.
17 "Sad Song" Au Revoir Simone The Bird of Music [Our Secret]"I want to remember the places that we left."
I hate it when unassuming songs with just a tinge of distinct personality ultimately come out flat and uninspired. With just a few tweaks on the melody, that's what could have happened with this song. And that's what makes it that much more powerful. It crawls into your ears with a beautiful set of layered keyboards and lilting multi-girl vocals, just soothing enough to calm you down, but as it approaches the chorus, it melts your torso into oblivion, reminding you of the power of suppression versus melodrama. There's nothing chaotic or exorbitant about this song, it's just pinched and perfected enough to make for the best song you could forget about so easily if you don't a) listen to the lyrics, b) watch the accompanying music video - link above, or c) listen on headphones absurdly loud. Plus you better catch those synthesized horns at the end, or David Lynch (the band's supposed #1 fan) will never dance with you. You know you want to hear a sad song, because we're all alone at various points in our lives, leaving only our memories to work in filling our minds. This song makes sure you can do that and still have a solitaire rock out party. Get your sad on.
16 "Our Life is Not a Movie or Maybe" Okkervil River The Stage Names [Jagjaguwar]"She glows just like grain on the flickering pane of some great movie."
Okay, so I'm taking that quote out of context. He's talking about how there's no scene like that in the epic non-movie that is our life. But it's just my personal favorite of a ridiculous number of exquisitely crafted cinematic couplets. This is without a doubt the best lyrically written song of the year, with depressed passion, inescapable romanticism, desperate longing, and all at the cost of compulsively shredding vocal chords along the way. It's a harsh realization, waking up and realizing the lack of filmic qualities in our day-to-day anti-conflicts, fake resolutions, and bitter and regret-filled character developments. This isn't exactly the subtle understatement that is usually lauded for its simplicity and not needing hordes of attention called upon it, but it's the sound of a band not softly or silently walking away from or into a life they begrudgingly accept. No, this is the sound of hostile takeover by a crowd of youthful mavericks, refusing to see the light of day be extinguished by placidity. There must be a fight for that which does not exist. If we don't make a sound, how will we ever be heard? It's not about change, it's about calling out for it, even at the dimmest possibility of insurrection and climactic glory.
Next week: #s 15-11.
¶ posted by chris at 5:08 PM
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Uhhh...it's Friday. Where are the songs???
This is a pretty solid group of 5. That ARS song is stunning. Stunning. But you already knew I thought that.
This is a pretty solid group of 5. That ARS song is stunning. Stunning. But you already knew I thought that.
Ha. I'm an idiot. I just realized it's not Friday. It's Thursday. But it feels like Friday because I'm heading up to see all y'all tonight! No work tomorrow and NO PARENTS this weekend!!
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