Top CDs off the rack (Part 2)

"When you'd hide your songs would die, so I'd hide yours in mine." - Remy Zero

Hot Fuss
The Killers
2004

1. Jenny Was a Friend of Mine
2. Mr Brightside
3. Smile Like You Mean It
4. Somebody Told Me
5. All These Things That I've Done
6. Andy, You're a Star
7. On Top
8. Change Your Mind
9. Believe Me Natalie
10. Midnight Show
11. Everything Will Be Alright
12. Glamorous Indie Rock & Roll

They remind me a lot of the bright neon lights in Las Vegas. Showgirls. Drag queens. Cancan dancers. The likes. I have no idea why. Queer as Folk comes into mind too. Emmett. Hah. Brandon Flowers wears eyeliners. What a peculiarly funny family name. The point is, he might be the reason I have such imageries for their music. His voice somewhat resembles a transsexual “shim” performing in some fancy restaurant in Las Vegas. Flashing neon lights and tap dancers – clickity click – in tuxedoes with top hats and canes. Showgirls with high heels and big big orange feathered fans. Peacocks. Big plastic smiles. Something like that. I have always liked eyeliners. Regardless of the makeup on guys, really. Brandon’s animated eyes burn deep in my mind.

Frankly, I do not know where they are heading with their lyrics. For most of the bands out there, you know the kind of songs they sing. What and who they sing about. Break-ups, nasty ex-girlfriends, memories of yesteryear, you know. For The Killers, it remains unclear. Imageries I create for each song are quite random. They might not even mean the same thing as what the songs are talking about. I have learned their lyrics by osmosis. I listen to their album often while being stuck in traffic jams. Eventually, patterns of words form in your head and things start to figure themselves out. You do not need to huddle over a CD sleeve with lyrics printed in it. I learn the words to sing. Yet I do not know what they mean most of the time.

Maybe someone died in Jenny Was a Friend of Mine – homicidal or suicidal: “And then you whisper in my ear / I know what you’re doing here” and “There ain’t no motive for the crime / Jenny was a friend of mine”. Or maybe, it was just a break-up: “We took a walk that night but it wasn’t the same / We had a fight on the promenade out in the rain / She said she loved me but she had somewhere to go / She couldn’t scream while I held her close / I swore I’ll never let her go”. Offering some wisdom mixed with a tint of regret in Smile Like You Mean It: “Save some face, you know you’ve only got one / Change your ways while you’re young / Boy, one day you’ll be a man / Oh girl, he’ll help you understand”. Tired of life in All These Things That I’ve Done: “Another headache, another heartbreak / I’m so much older than I can take / And my affection, well it comes and goes / I need direction to perfection”.

Other times, I do not know what the story is about. “Somebody told me you had a boyfriend / Who looked like a girlfriend / That I had in February of last year” in Somebody Told Me. “It’s just a shimmy and a shake, uh huh / I can’t fake, we’re on top” and “It’s like a cigarette in the mouth / Or a handshake in the doorway” in On Top. “This is your last chance to find / A go-go dancer to disco now” in Believe Me Natalie. For me, it is really hard to pinpoint their destination. Even though it is clear, the jig of their music just sort of goes the other way, perplexing you a little. Their difference is what keeps me coming back.

I love Mr Brightside. What is not to love about him? He is my tragic doom; the song got me into an accident for being too uppity with it. I even name my laptop Mr Brightside. Yes, I name my gadgets. No, not my shoes. Somebody Told Me is the first single off their album but Mr Brightside is the one to catch my heart. Something to do with their music video too actually. Girls lifting skirts revealing panties and asses. You cannot go wrong with that. OK, I was kidding. What caught me for sure is the catchy rhythm and Brandon’s wonderful voice. He has a good voice that belches deep from the appropriate places. You can sense their music from miles away because of him. Best lyric: “Swimming through sick lullabies”. Like honey on your lips. Kiss me.

Their musical direction is different from the bands I am used to. It has something to do with including a synthesizer along with the usual guitars and drums. It creates a diverse feel towards their music. Their songs do some weird moves on you. Something that makes your legs twitches to the beat. If the drug is consumed too much, the anatomy may need a spacious ground to dance around, jump around. It happens. Just be careful listening to their album while driving.

They have done a very good job for a debut album. Most bands do not come out right with their first one before gaining talents for the next one. How will they perform in their next album, we shall anticipate.

Songs About Jane
Maroon 5
2002

1. Harder to Breathe
2. This Love
3. Shiver
4. She Will Be Loved
5. Tangled
6. The Sun
7. Must Get Out
8. Sunday Morning
9. Secret
10. Through With You
11. Not Coming Home
12. Sweetest Goodbye

In my opinion, Adam Levine is a good looking fellow. I have an instant attraction to guys with spiky hair. That was how he entered the scene. It may be some unwritten law of sorts in the world of hairstyling. Most of the guys out there, after wearing much of gelled up spikes, they proceed to shaving their heads GI style. Adam did so. I am not one to like shaved heads, to be honest. It seems too empty. However, sometimes it works on some people. It works on Adam when he switched looks at Maroon 5’s peak days. I suspect it is the aura he carries around.

That aside, it is his talent. My CD store guy highly recommended Maroon 5 when I went into his store one not so special day asking for their album. He raved it like no other. I wanted it. So here I am. My car stereo has recognised the CD well enough to copulate with it and have many beautiful babies.

Adam has a distinguishable and bright voice that stays in your head like a haunting nightmare. I love singing along with him. His muse is his ex-girlfriend, Jane. The album’s muse is his ex-girlfriend, Jane. It does not take a rocket scientist to figure it out; look at the album title. Such superiority she holds to conceive such brilliant work after everything has been said and done. I have always considered girls with songs (or albums) named after them. Such impact they caused on these masculine souls. Will I be of such painful/pleasurable memory?

When this happens, the songs are about Jane. And you do know in between the lines, Adam is singing about sex hidden well behind pretty words. Just like those pop boy bands out there, only in a slightly more matured way because you yourself have grown up. You see things more clearly now. Unlike, pop songs. You were young and you sang songs on top of your lungs and crooned along with the leads without knowing what the lyrics truly mean. Do that again now that you have grown, you will realise oh how so gullible you were singing about the desire to bed a girl. When the truth dawns: Oh shit. You were so innocent. Their music videos – This Love and She Will be Loved – have the most constant censorship ever it is ridiculous. The videos are practically rearranged and alleged sexual scenes are overlapped by other scenes making the videos a fucked up broken record. What is the point? Just do not air the video at all, fucktwats.

This Love carries the language of body language the strongest: “I tried my best to feed her appetite / Keep her coming every night / So hard to keep her satisfied” and “My pressure on her hips / Sinking my fingertips / Into every inch of you / ‘Cause I know that’s what you want me to do”. Do not ever tell your 9-year-old brother what he is singing during karaoke sessions.

Songs for Jane it is. Each song carries a different phase of Adam’s relationship with Jane. Before, during, after. Shiver, the arousing tease: “Immobilised by the thought of you / Paralysed by the sight of you / Hypnotised by the words you say / Not true but I believe them anyway”. She Will Be Loved, the confident promise: “Tap on my window knock on my door / I want to make you feel beautiful” and “My heart is full and my door’s always open / You can come anytime you want”. Harder to Breathe, the reluctant surrender: “Clutching your pillow and writhing in a naked sweat / Hoping somebody someday will do you like I did” and “Does it kill / Does it burn / Is it painful to learn / That it’s me that has all the control” and “Does it thrill / Does it sting / When you feel what I bring / And you wish that you had me to hold”. Secret, the silent affair: “I ask you how hot can it get / And as you wipe off beats of sweat / Slowly you say ‘I’m not there yet'”. Tangled, the guilty courtship: “You’re just an innocent / A helpless victim of a spider’s web / And I’m an insect / Going after anything that I can get”. Must Get Out, the momentary recess: “Try to guide me in the right direction / Making use of all this time / Keeping everything inside / Close my eyes and listen to you cry”. Sunday Morning, the hopeful comfort: “Back and forth we sway like branches in a storm / Change the weather still together when it ends” and “Singing someday it’ll bring me back to you / Find a way to bring myself back home to you”. Through With You, the reverse psychology card: “Do you remember the way we used to melt / Do you remember how it felt when I touched you / Oh ‘cause I remember very well” and “Heartache heartache I just had so much / A simple love with a complex touch”. Sweetest Goodbye, the sexual finale: “I’ll never leave you behind or treat you unkind / I know you understand / And with a tear in my eye / Give me the sweetest goodbye / That I ever did receive”. The Sun, the haunting demon: “The rhythm of her conversation / The perfection of her creation / The sex she slipped into my coffee / The way she felt when she first saw me” and “But I cannot forget, refuse to regret / So glad I met you / Take my breath away / Make everyday worth all of the pain that I have gone through”.

It is a sad song.

Adam holds something morbid in between his disguised words. Granted things can get in the line of pop and commercialism when it comes to Maroon 5. With Adam in the lead, it tends to sway towards the genres of R&B and Hip Hop. Yet, deep down, there is a sustaining animosity peeking over the shoulders. There is a wailing heartbreak muffled yet wanting out at the same time. Such contradiction.

It is a perfect gift for your ex. It is not enough to just pick a song or two from the album because you know each song speak a special moment somewhere along the journey. Maybe there is no such thing as ending with a bad note. Just a matter of singing it with the appropriate tone.

 

The Madding Crowd
Nine Days
2000

1. So Far Away
2. Absolutely (Story of a Girl)
3. If I Am
4. End Up Alone
5. Sometimes
6. Bob Dylan
7. 257 Weeks
8. Bitter
9. Back to Me
10. Crazy
11. Revolve
12. Wanna Be

Nine Days never would have gained popularity if not for Story of a Girl. Once in a blue moon, I will still hear the song airing on the radio stations for some nostalgic reasons. The whole world fucking loves them because of that song. They were a one hit wonder indeed. Although I have to say If I Am did a better job for me. Yes, it is the music video once again. I love the concept that binds close to the lyrics a little too literally. Favourite lyrics: “The answers we find are never what we have in mind / So we make it up as we go along / You don’t talk of dreams and I won’t mention tomorrow / We won’t make those promises that we can’t keep”. The song did not do as well as the previous and soon after, their name just dissipated into thin air, disappearing as quickly as they have first appeared. I bought their album for reasons I fail to know. They have a sophomore album but nobody really notices.

I feel comfortable with this band. There is nothing really spectacular or out of the ordinary with their music or lyrics. It is just normalcy and we all need something close to a flatline in our lives sometimes. Their music grabs you with their simple voices of humble beginnings and modesty. Their lyrics roll off tongues as easy as licking ice cream on a sweltering day and it sticks in the mind as sticky as melted ice cream oozing down crunchy cones onto childish fingers.

“If you leave where will you go / Before the regret you hold in your heart will start to show / If you leave how will you know / If our ever after ever had a chance to grow” from So Far Away. “Saw her running barefoot but the ground there never touched her feet / Watched her in the shadows while the tide came in and claimed our beach” from End Up Alone. “Hard to see past the window facing forward looking back / Over years spent tracing wondering how you left your track / Under water breathing burns your lungs and breaks your back / And you could be waiting right here for a day that won’t come” from 257 Weeks. “I want to drink deep from your well / I want to be the heart for which you fell / I want to be your shooting star / Across the heavens to be where you are” from Revolve. To name a few from my favourites.

However, it is not one album I would totally recommend to get. I mean, it is good to have it in your collection if ever you need something close to mundane and normal. It is just not a must-have before you die, in my opinion. Their music works, their lyrics click; they are mellow, they are OK.

 

Spiderman 2 Soundtrack
2004

1. Vindicated
2. Ordinary
3. Did You
4. Hold On
5. Gifts and Curses
6. Woman
7. This Photograph is Proof (I Know You Know)
8. Give It Up
9. Lucky You
10. Who I Am
11. The Night That The Lights Went Out in NYC
12. Meant to Live
13. We Are
14. Someone to Die For
15. Spidey Suite
15. Doc Ock Suite
16. She Spider

This is probably one of the best rock compilation soundtracks out there. I have never come across such perfected combination of rock songs. If this compilation is a creation of a full fledge bachelor, I will date this boy and fuck him silly. My very own rockstar.

I doubt I heard all the songs in the movie. I love the movie, by the way. I may have watched it in the cinemas more than once. I always tend to do that to my favourite movies. I have watched Konstantine in the cinemas three times, Revenge of the Sith twice on consecutive days and Return of the King seven times (excluding the times I watched at home). But I remember picking up the CD while I was browsing an awesome CD store in Singapore while I was down there for Linkin Park’s concert. And I remember thinking, “Fuck, this shit is fucking good!” I purchased the good shit probably a few dollars more expensive after conversions. But hey, it is worth the money. Good CDs (a.k.a good shits) are always worth an extra dollar or two. Or three. Or five. Or a hell lot more.

This is an album of all things punk rock and emo goodness. Dashboard Confessional and Taking Back Sunday, two of the most renowned emo rock bands are featured in this album so you cannot go wrong with it. Emo-wise. “Hope dangles on a string like slow spinning redemption”. Vindicated started off the soundtrack just right with such beautifully disastrous words. Almost halfway through the album, the lead’s voice broke in This Photograph is Proof. That was probably one of the best things I love hearing from this album. Such flaw is of such originality in its finest way.

Honestly, as much as I love Switchfoot, I do not approve of Mean to Live in this album. I do not know why. It just does not seem to fit in with the rest. The song seems to work better leading the pack of The Beautiful Letdown. I always find myself skipping that particular track. The music video sucks too. I like the original video better, where they sang in a room broken down by someone anonymous and jarring golden lights were conflicting with the cameras. However, Switchfoot can never go wrong with perfect lyrics. “Maybe we’ve been living with our eyes half open / Maybe we’re bent and broken” and “We were meant to live for so much more / Have we lost ourselves”

Have we?

Ana Johnsson’s We Are became an instant favourite to those who have heard it on television and the radio. In due’s time, it was commercialised and everyone labelled themselves for being a tragedy interpreting the song in their very own way. Basically, I think the song did good justice of the state the world has become of nowadays. And how humanity is not taking credit for all that it has done wrong. It is nature that we do not admit mistakes but instead find someone else to blame for. All our life it is a sick cycle carousel, pointing fingers at people every six degrees apart. However, the blame comes back in full circle because it is like fate’s serendipity for two meant to be couple. The blame is your lover. How ever can you hide? “What about the world today / What about the place where we called home / We’ve never been so many / And we’ve never been so alone” and “You wash your hands and you come out clean / You fail to recognise the enemies within / You say we’re not responsible / We are, we are”.

Did You by Hoobastank was a well-loved one too. I was one of the few people who were quite disappointed when they did not perform that track in their concert I attended a few years back. The guitar solos were mind-blowing and the lyrics were real meaningful and inspiring. Like a get-up-and-do-something-today-dammit kind of song. “Did you inspire the ones who knew you / Make a difference to those who knew you / Did you finally figure out what it is that makes us who we are today”.

Yellowcard’s Gifts and Curses: “Mary’s alive in the bright New York sky / The city lights shine for her / Above them I cry for her”. I have always loved songs about cities, just like I have always fallen in love with underground subways. It is the only crowded place I can tolerate and be in. Busy people with places to go. Yes, we are alone.

The ultimate emo song vocal-wish will definitely go to Someone to Die For by Jimmy Gnecco and Brian May. Geez. Someone cut them open and pour out the bloody black soul.

I love love love Mew’s She Spider. I have always been attracted to Mew’s musical directions. Their drums are strong and rhythms are electronic. Their lyrics are marvellous. “In right wing fashion we’ll nurture xenophobia / And be strong / In right wring fashion with paste and generosity / Because no one is safe / From someone’s somewhere’s sweet embrace”.

Other than that. “And when I come to the rescue I get nothing but left behind / Everybody seems to be getting what they need, where’s mine” from Ordinary by Train. The swooning voice of Adam Levine strikes again in Woman: “Leaving your smell on my coat / Leaving your taste on my shoulder / I still fail to understand what it is about this woman”. And as mentioned before in my previous entry, The Night The Light Are Out in NYC by The Ataris: “If I could have one wish tonight / I’d wish upon a satellite / And bring me back to you”.

This is definitely a soundtrack to get if this is the genre you are all for. Never mind if you find the movie awkward or distasteful. It does not have anything to do with the movie, really. Just pay attention to the songs. It is enough.

And as the local saying goes: “Jiwang sial”.

 

Garden State Soundtrack
2004

1. Don't Panic
2. Caring is Creepy
3. In the Waiting Line
4. New Slang
5. I Just Don't Think I'll Ever Get Over You
6. Blue Eyes
7. Fair
8. One of These Things First
9. Lebanese Blonde
10. The Only Living Boy in New York
11. Such Great Heights
12. Let Go
13. Winding Road

Rachel is the main reason I checked out the movie and soundtrack. She loves the movie a lot and straight after that, she raved about the wonderful soundtrack. So, I checked out the movie and loved it myself. I bought the soundtrack and fell deeply in love with it.

I will admit that it was not love at first listen for this album. It took me some time and some nurturing to get the love growing. Half of the time I was not paying attention to the songs. I will also admit that half of the artistes featured in this album are foreign to me. Sure, I am all for independent music but I am still an amateur in finding out about them. By the time I have heard of said indie artistes, they may have already hit commercialism with the tip of their toes. Shame on me.

In The Waiting Line by Zero 7. I have only heard two more tracks by Zero 7 – Destiny and Somersault. These songs – or shall we say Zero 7 herself - remind me a lot of the queen-sized bed bathed in soft orange light in my hotel room while visiting Taiwan. I fell asleep and dreamed so easily curled up in the too big of a bed, as if heavily drugged with ecstasy. She shoots you up to a far away galaxy. You may not want to return. Ever.

Fair by Remy Zero. I learned to love this song very very much. Granted what I have heard of them is slim to none but I am liking what I have heard so far. And by far, this is my favourite song. The lyrics are wonderful. I can feel the lead holding his heart out and singing close to the microphone, eyes closed savouring the caramel taste on the tip of his tongue. “So what if you catch me, where would we land / In somebody’s life for taking his hands / Sing to me hope as she’s thrown on the sand / All of our work is rated again”. As quoted above to be my favourite lines: “When I was sure you’d follow through / My world was turned to blue / When you’d hide your songs would die / So I’d hide yours in mine”. The mellow tone. The flattering words. The tranquil guitar strums. Fall in love again.

Colin Hay is heart wrenching in I Just Don’t Think I’ll Ever Get Over You. Period. “If I live till I was 102 / I just don’t think I’ll ever get over you”. His breaking aged voice and simple chords to support his sincere words of a past love so strong it is impossible to forget. How life is never the same anymore when the lover is gone. How even though it is degraded to mere regularity nothing is ever normal. How ever so kind he is to tell the lover to move on, it is alright, he can still make it with what is left of this bandaged heart. Don’t worry. Don’t worry. This song finds my way home after classes on cold evenings, hiding me under a jumper and a thick scarf. My mind hears a distant voice singing along with Colin once upon a time in an old car basked in orange glow. “Your face it dances and it haunts me / Your laughter’s still ringing in my ears / I still find pieces of your presence here / Even after all these years”. This song has been insignificant to me until it grew a face and ingrained a bright voice in my veins. He makes an unrelated song thicker than water to me.He makes me cry at times. Most of the time. Almost every time.

The Shins with the quirky lyrics: “Hail to your dark skin / Hiding the fact you’re dead again / Underneath the power lines seeking shade / Far above our heads are the icy heights that contain all reason” in Caring is Creepy. “Gold teeth and the curse of the town were all in my mouth” and “New slang with you notice the stripes / The dirt in your fries / Hope it’s right when you die / Old and bony” and “God speed all the bakers at dawn / May they all cut their thumbs / And bleed into their buns till they melt away” in New Slang along with boring tambourines and cheesy croons. How cute.

Other favourites are Blue Eyes by Cary Brothers, One of These Things First by Nick Drake, Let Go by Frou Frou and Winding Road by Bonnie Sommerville.

Simplified music held up high merely by the two weak arms of the guitar strings.

This album suits real well alongside the movie. I must say, Zach Braff did a pretty good job producing the movie and compiling these songs for it as well. If you are all for the spontaneity and originality of the movie, I am sure you will love this soundtrack as much too.

"You gotta hear this song. It'll change your life, I promise you."