Hello, this is ceadsearc, an amateur musician residing in the sunny island of Singapore. In this Music Column, just simply titled "The music column", I write to share with you (the world) my personal views on music in general. I will cover the good, the bad, the ugly, the spectacular, etc, and share my opinions on music. Please feel free to respond!
Anyway, for starters, I'm the keyboardist and lead guitarist for our own band from school, called Ragamuff - we have a few videos on Youtube, so just search for "Ragamuff". Most of the videos are just covers of stuff - radiohead, muse, etc - the like. I write music as well, and some of my own songs can be seen on my Myspace. Please check it out and do take a listen, thankyou.
Congrats to Elbow for winning the Nationwide Mercury Music Prize
After Elbow won the Mercury prize for their LP, "seldom seen kid", sometime in September this year, I went down to That CD shop to get the album, having heard a few tracks on Youtube and the like. I was pretty impressed with the album. There is a startling amount of emotional depth in the music and lyrics, accompanied by vividly poetic imagery and quite startling wordplay. I cannot judge conclusively whether they deserved to win the Mercury Music prize not having heard the others, but what I do know is that - the album is one of the standouts of the year - and fully deserving of the award.
Elbow - Seldom Seen Kid - review
Guy Garvey has a very unique voice - it is warm, gravelly, rich, and at the same time possesses a unique timbre that is probably on the opposite spectrum of Jason Mraz - it is very deep, yet possesses a wide range - he hits an A effortlessly on the track "One day like this". And his voice gives definition and character to Elbow's music, characterised by very vividly poetic imagery from Guy Garvey, startling wordplay (see above) - the lyrics are written almost stream-of-consciousnesslike, as beautiful as real poetry. "We made the moon our mirrorball / the streets are empty still"...very evocative. The music of SSK (seldom seen kid) is richly textured, with bells, strings, keyboard effects, piano, guitars, even distorted guitars, full of variety - which contributes to the "dramatic effect" of the songs on SSK.
"The bones of you" is a typical Elbow song of 6/8 - "mirrorball" is one of the standouts, a lovingly lush track featuring an oscillating Piano riff moulded with some diminished chords, starting off soft, before heading dramatically into the chorus with swelling strings accompanying it, as Garvey sings "everything has changed"... "Grounds for divorce" is another standout, the first lead single, which is a tribute to Elbow's friend who passed away, also known as the 'seldom seen kid' - this phrase drawn from this song. It features a catchy verse hook "I've been working on a cocktail called grounds for divorce" (how cool is that line?!) - before moving into a chorus which is rather "dark", before going into a full-blown Led-Zeppelinesque riff of distorted, heavy guitars bending notes and playing blues, while the bass echoes playing a blues riff of its own. It's that kind of thing - an eclectic blend.
"Audience with the pope", and "the fix", featuring Richard Hawley, feature more Jazz-styled arrangements, somewhat bossa-nova like, and quite alluring in its own sense. "Loneliness of a tower crane driver" is a sombre brooder in 6/8 time, featuring swelling strings, heart-wrenching soaring vocals.
Which only brings us to the best two songs of the LP - "Some riot" features an extremely beautiful, sorrowful melody about a friend who had destroyed his life ("booze turns (him) into a terrible totem") with a very evocative, lush piano riff, featuring chromaticism, in 6/8, before the vocals cry out in impassioned singing "It's breaking my heart, it's breaking my heart" in a beautiful tune, so perfect in its sadness and melancholy.
"One day like this" is the standout, an anthemic song of garguantuan proportions, of a love between two, and its emotions. A joyful ode to life and to love and to all good things glorious and beautiful and wonderful and loving, its radiance and grand majestic joy comes as warm sunshine after the rain that is "some riot". It features an octave riff of strings, piano, guitars, the entire band basically (and more + strings) that hammers the riff home, before the melody starts - and what a tuneful melody it is - it arches up and down and up and down again very gracefully "what made me behave that way", before building into a full chorus, which is THE ode to joy: "holy cow i love your eyes / and only now I see the light / lying with you half-awake / oh anyway, it's looking like a beautiful day" - Extremely tuneful and happy, it outlines the F major chord, before the C7 chord (on a Bb harmony) - either way the effect makes for a graceful tune, before the song moves on to some whimsical lyrics "laughs politely at repeats...kiss me when my lips are thin" - and at the end, there is the Hey-Judesque refrain where everyone sings along - see the Youtube video at Glastonbury, where they all sing 'throw those curtains wide, one day like this a year'll see me right". Yeah - it is what happens when one day in a year is so happy and joyful.
Rating: 9/10
Other stand-out tracks which you must download (or buy, or search on Youtube)
#1. Glasvegas - Daddy's Gone
This song is still stuck in my head - It is extremely tuneful, and melodic - in a natural sort of way, not in a forced kind of "I'm-too-clever-for-my-own-good" manner, but in one that makes you feel that the song is almost discovered, rather than written - ie. the tune is perfect. It is about a boy's relationship with his dad and the abandonment he feels, and the sadness and the melancholy is reflected well in the tune, which is rather sing-song, but there are traces of bitterness and sadness amidst the cheerfulness of the sing-along tune, which reflects the subject matter. It breaks out into a full-blown "he's gone, he's gone, he's gone, he's gone" - in brusque Scottish accents. The music is very simple - a wall of sound of guitars and guitars and more guitars - with a dotted (boom, cha - cha) drum pattern featuring just a bass drum and low toms, no fancy riffs and what-not, but it accompanies the melody perfectly, allowing the tunefulness of the melody, which is the biggest standout point of this song, to shine through. It has been compared to 'Jesus and Mary Chain' - though I don't know any of their music. But Glasvegas on its own is great.
Rating: 9.5/10
#Bonus: Daft Punk - One More Time
Okay, by right this shouldn't be here - because it is such an old track and really so familiar, having been a #2 hit in the UK, and one of the staples of dance music throughout the world. But it is still incredibly infectious and fun to dance along to, and sing along to, and it is a celebration of everything good, joyful, fun, and raving - "music's got me feeling so free, i'm gonna celebrate - celebrate and dance are free" - amazing.
Rating: 9.5/10
#2 - British sea power - Waving Flags
British sea power (BSP) is an indie band from Britain, and their early music has frequently drew comparison with Joy Division - the standout track "Fear of drowning" sounds extremely joy-division like, due to percussive drums, bass notes that vary from the guitar chords, a punk beat, etc, - but in their latest album "Do you like rock music?" they have moved more towards a big sound, think arcade fire - and Waving Flags is a good example. an ode to immigrants, it is rather evocative and moody and anthemic as well, and urges everyone to 'wave flags'. "we're all waving flags now, waving flags, so don't be sad" - yeah, an anthemic cry to invite people, i suppose. Good.
Rating: 7.5/10
#3 Klaxons - Golden Skans
Voted NME single of the year 2007, it features a falsetto "la-la" ostinato motif that runs throughout the song, and an infectious rave beat that pounds ever so insistently that makes you want to go up and down ala a rave, while the music - im not sure waht it really means - but it is nice nevertheless. Great.
Rating: 8/10
#4 Kaiser Chiefs - I predict a riot
An old song, of 2005, but is still unmistakably fresh, original, grandiose, powerful, monstrous - you get the idea. The bass drums pound insistently a heavy rock beat, while distorted power chord guitars play the descending guitar riff moving up and down - the vocals come in talking about watching people "get lairy", and being "not very pretty I tell thee / moving through town is quite scary" -- before ensuing into a Football-stadium-anthem-like "La-la-la" section designed perfectly for massive crowds to sing along / mosh along to - think Football-stadium we are the champions/ never walk alone - before the chorus blares, about 'predicting a riot'. Very formulatic but it works wonderfully, especially at large gigs, as the standout anthem of the Kaiser chiefs. See also 'Ruby;.
Rating: 9/10
#5 - Kings of leon - Sex on Fire
One of the big hits in UK now - sex on fire has a really nice vocal performance from Caleb of KOL. Go check it out.
Rating: 7.5/10
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