Hello lovely people! Song of the week remains sporadic but more importantly, it remains. Originally I was going to talk about my resurrection of last years' summer playlist and rediscovering wonderful joyful tracks in the sun but I turned out to be a modern-day Cassandra in my warnings of a fools' spring so I have pivoted to a new theme. What's the theme? Quick, keep moving, we don't have time for questions.
First, an update on how my Death Cab listening has been going. I have now made it through two (2) more albums, so I'd say it's going really well, and I'm discovering LOADS more songs I love. I have also realised that at some point I will have to go backwards from Transatlanticism and hit some of their older albums too, but I'll worry about that when I get there. Codes and Keys from 2011 was really enjoyable, which is only surprising because it's regarded as both the band's and the fans' least favourite album. I suppose part of that is because it innovates quite a lot on their sound -- Gibbard talked about wanting to move away from their comfort-zone of guitar-centric music, and use a lot of more technological sounds, as well as vintage keyboards. They were also quite inspired by LCD Soundsystem and David Bowie's later work -- all of which is stuff I really enjoy, so it makes sense that it worked for me! It does definitely have a really different sound, but I appreciated their innovation, and when I gave myself time to get used to the music I really loved it. Some of my favourites were St Peter's Cathedral, Monday Morning and Doors Unlocked and Open.
I then got on to Kintsugi, which I think is a bit more of a return to form, but still with a different edge that keeps it exciting. There's a kind of sun-burnt tragedy that soaks through all the songs, a sick-green afterglow of something that burnt too bright. Some of my favourites were Little Wanderer, El Dorado (which I particularly love), and Black Sun. Across all the songs I've mentioned from Death Cab, if you do listen to any of them, I would particularly recommend you listen to the percussion. I think it's one of the most interesting & unique parts of their music, and why each of these songs really work for me. You'll be rewarded if you do so!
In my continued quest to not rely on spotify quite so much, I unearthed my old mp3 players from the depths of my bedroom last week, and it's been a fun discovery. Once I was able to work out how to make it work (it's been a long time...), I was rewarded by the treasure trove that was which songs I had already uploaded to it. It's basically a glorified thumb drive with a little screen and battery, so I could've just as easily plugged it in to my laptop and scrubbed through the songs real quick, but the whole point of this is the EXPERIENCE over EASE so I plugged in my wired headphones (genuinely, what do they make those things out of, mine have survived multiple washing machine trips and they still sound just as "good" as before), and listened through. I was immediately greeted by the shoulder-lowering calm-inducing melody and soft acoustic sounds of Desafinado, by Tom Jobim (here, performed by Stan Getz and João Gilberto). I have no recollection of this track, and neither of my parents have owned up to uploading it for me, so I suppose I will treat it as a gift from the universe.
Finally, before I actually get in to where I was going, one further update -- I can't remember if I've mentioned this previously, but I've been really enjoying Twenty One Pilots again. I think for a good stretch of time in my childhood I would've immediately answered that they were my favourite band, and in fact multiple of the albums I found uploaded in full on my old mp3 players were from them (Vessel; Blurryface). However, I sort of fell off the bandwagon around Trench (which I did see them perform live but didn't love at the time), and then heard about one song from Scaled and Icy and decided that was enough for me. So I just stopped paying any attention to any music they put out, and had completely written them off. That is, until recently, when I decided perhaps I had done so too easily. Returning to their old music and loving it all over again re-piqued my interest in their new music, and guys. Breach was kind of a great album. It's not all hits, but there's a lot of them on there. This meant I was perfectly poised to listen to Drag Path when it was released recently, and I really think they're so back. In looking stuff up to write about this track I saw apparently it went mega-viral on TikTok (I am now unfortunately reaching genuinely concerning levels of out of touch), so maybe they're back for real. I feel like they really dropped out of the cultural conscience for a while there, and it'd be cool for them to be back. Although when Blurryface went mega-viral it pissed me off, so who knows. The monkey paw curls...
So have you guys ever heard of country music? The thing is that the more every person I know has absolutely no interest in country music (and some, actual distate), the more I wish to write about it. I will not tire until everybody has a neutral-to-positive view of country music. Somewhat inspired by the boiling frustration I experienced as [name redacted] complained that hockey players were all dislikeable because they're all red-neck hicks. Guys they suck for a lot of reasons (and believe me, there's a LOT) but that's not one of them. Due to how that's not a reason for people to suck.
I've already talked about him before, but I love Tyler Childers and his new album was FANTASTIC and I'm just now having the chance to talk about it. Dirty Ought Trill has this feeling of controlled danger to it, lying just under the imminently danceable kickdrum and twanging strings. If you are not listening to country, you are missing out on instruments being used in different ways like this, creating a fabric with a different texture than you're used to. Also, it fucks severely. Another track off this album I've been listening to non-stop is Eatin' Big Time. On top of the music itself, I love the images Childers pulls from for his lyrics. The whole opening verse where he describes killing, cleaning and eating a deer is so incredible, so alive, and brings a different set of experiences to music than I've seen elsewhere. There's a lot of different ways to read in to these lyrics, and whether you believe they're about addiction, spirituality or oral sex, they're all interesting!
Now I love Tyler Childers, but as I mentioned, I was aware that I've already picked him for my song of the week before, and I like to try at least a little bit to have diversity in my choices. But fear not, I have an additional country song I have been very obsessed with in my back pocket. It's just as deep and interesting as Childers' music, or almost so. Everyone, please listen to Save a Horse (Ride a Cowboy). It's a song I really genuinely love despite the, well, everything about it. And it's not just me giving them a home town discount! Walk with me here, and I'm going to have to ask you to suspend your disbelief a little bit. Save a Horse (Ride a Cowboy) is a powerful queer song. Evidence: we know good and well that Cowboys Are Frequently Secretly Fond Of Each Other, we've all watched Brokeback Mountain, we can all extrapolate from there.
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