…and pyatnitski gently weeps
1 Like
Welp.
I think this puts the knife in any cool sequence where I actually get points.
2 Likes
In 10th place with 3 points
Green Day - Jesus of Suburbia
I often think that Green Day haunt me. Whenever I’m forced to confront them, which seems to happen with regularity, I always remember someone making me listen to Kerplunk on the school bus in ~1992. I smiled politely and kept my counsel, mentally consigning them to the dustbin. When American Idiot came out and they were ubiquitous I was slightly outraged. Honestly, these people, still? Now more time has passed since then than did between Kerplunk and AI!
That said, this is perfectly decent stuff. US pop-punk has never been my bag but as an older, mellower individual I can hear that Green Day also know how to write a tune. In fact I think they may have stretched to two for this one. It’s a fair example of the rock ‘epic’, with a couple of ska-y breakdowns added to really flesh it out. Truth is I was happy listening when it came on. If I could only live my life again, revisit that grey evening in northern Manchester…
“Not that bad,” I’d say, somehow suddenly wise beyond my years. “Maybe in 12 years they’ll get somewhere. And maybe 17 years after that I’ll be able to truly hear.”
(I can’t actually remember but chances are it was a grey evening).
4 Likes
See
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This is one that would have scored higher as a submission for me.
I love the key changes in this song. It’s essentially 5 songs in one, and they all flow so well together
This is going in my big book of greatest walrus write ups
3 Likes
Yeah I loved this album when it came out and this was possibly my favorite.
Blah
Yes I am the dumb. For a second I thought this was from 21st Century breakdown which I like more as an entire album.
Cant believe I fucked that up.
In 9th place with 4 points
Jozef Van Wissem, Jim Jarmusch & Tilda Swinton - The More She Burns the More Beautifully She Glows
This was the song I had the most trouble with and I remain surprised to see it so low, but, as with TOOL, the ‘excitement’ metric can’t lie. It’s ten minutes of abstract feedback drone and ?lute? picking with Tilda Swinton speaking over the first bit. The trouble is I can break it down like this:
- Tilda Swinton’s voice + feedback drone—excellent
- ?Lute? picking + what Tilda Swinton says—annoying
And you’re not going to get that far if you annoy me. I also think it’s bad that I can separate the different elements so clearly.
I do really like the guitar, though. He keeps it on the edge between control and noise for almost the whole track, coaxing out some beautiful stuff. I think it might be Jim Jarmusch on feedback, who once got Neil Young to abuse a guitar for the soundtrack of Dead Man, and possibly picked up some pointers. If it is then he should ditch the Dutch loser and get Swinton to read something proper out. Then we’d be talking.
2 Likes
God Damnit! I skipped a bunch of way better songs to submit something that wouldn’t immediately identify me. This was mine.
eta: The lute is the best part, you philistine!
3 Likes
I guessed as well!
In 8th place with 5 points
Smetana: Vltava (The Moldau)
With classical music then I’ve largely worked my way slowly outwards from the 1960s. Sadly for the submitter I’ve only recently got my head partially round Romantic music, mostly after I heard some Scriabin on the radio a few years back. By that point, a generation or so later, the Russian lad was running this sort of big hearted, teary eyed tunesmithery face first into the noisy mess that the 20th Century was about to get really stuck in to. Which is to say, once again, that Smetana is not (yet) my bag.
It’s undeniably lovely stuff, a big sweeping melody fest dripping with arational love for Má Vlast (My Fatherland) and, in particular, the Vltava river which flows through Prague. It has that bit you get with all the big guns where, after the orchestra sort-of noodles about extremely pleasantly for a while, the conducter straightens up, everyone locks together on a TUNE and you go, “oh, nice, it’s that one!” And it is.
3 Likes
This was me. Glad to have avoided a nodium in a category I was ill-suited for.
2 Likes
In 7th place with 6 points
NOFX - The Decline
But seriously, this is a legitimately impressive (and dead serious) effort from a band that made a living playing 2 minute songs about farting.
This is exactly what I meant earlier, you can hear the effort to not just do the same thing they always do all the way through. But, even more than that, the way they clearly had something they needed to say gives it an urgent, earnest edge that fair old melted my cold hearted heart.
You can also hear them hitting their operating limits a few times, but they don’t panic too much and just skip to the next bit. There’s the obligatory ska-y bit (see Green Day earlier), a few riff showcases, a sort of Pearl Jam-ish slow bit, a messy solo, all sorts.
But the part that really saw this song better the previous 3 was the last 3.5 minutes, where they coalesce around a horn riff, suddenly grow a percussion section, build, switch the riff to guitar, start shouting and then ride the resultant juggernaut hard for the sunset. That bit is pretty great.
3 Likes
your mama
4 Likes
Not me, and surprised to say I am still alive. I don’t expect that to last much longer…
1 Like
[The recording of The Decline was a] nightmare! Recording this fuck was a total nightmare. Writing it was a total nightmare. I’m glad we did it but I wouldn’t do it again. We went back to the studio 3 different times and added stuff and remixed and remastered 4 times. It ain’t no rock opera like The Song Remains the Same or nothing. We got the idea from Subhumans, not Rush. Why an 18 minute song? Just to do something different. We’ve done enough short songs, time for a long one. Anyway, my advice, never try this song at home.[4]
i legit think it’s really well written. the music is you know, a 19 minute punk pop/rock song. but the lyrics are really impressive for a not-so-political band.
Also they really captured what I thought of the tool song:
“It’s hard to enjoy yourself while bleeding out the ass”
4 Likes
Great stuff from bottom to top so far. Doing treadmill and listening along. Tough finish for Tool and Green Day.
4 Likes