Musical Ramble
Oct. 12th, 2004 12:03 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
coalescentI love my friends page. Geneva reviews Iron Council. Dan champions a cause. Tim writes about who he is. Me, I'm going to go on about music for a bit, but you should read their posts first; they're better.
I'll be honest: when, way back in the day, I bought Embrace's first album, The Good Will Out, it was more because I wanted some anthemic guitar rock but wouldn't allow myself to like Oasis (because, you know, ugh) than anything else. I wouldn't try to pretend to anyone it was a great album, but I was won over enough by some of the songs--'Retread', and particularly the gorgeous 'Fireworks'--to buy the second album when it appeared. Drawn From Memory was good, I think, by any reasonable standard; musically it was both confident and varied, from the upbeat 'You're Not Alone' to the poppy 'Hooligan' and the introspective title track. The third album, If You've Never Been, snuck up on me--after all, did the world really need a third album from Embrace?--but if it lacked the scale of the preceeding two, it offered some surprisingly mature, consistently thoughtful songwriting.
And so to the latest, fourth album, Out of Nothing, which is probably even less relevant to anything or anyone than If You've Never Been was. Embrace were surely a band of their time, and much as I loved that time it's hard not to feel that maybe they've outstayed their welcome. There are plenty of other bands you could fairly say the same about, of course (probably including, though I'm loathe to admit it, The Bluetones), but there's a lingering sense of self-doubt that comes with any album from which the first single is already known primarily as 'the one written by Chris Martin.'
From the start, Out of Nothing seems to owe more to The Good Will Out than it does to the two intervening albums. Opener 'Ashes' ('Now watch me rise up and leave/all the ashes you made out of me/when you said that we were wrong/life goes on/you blew me away') is an anthem in the mould of 'All You Good Good People'. 'Gravity' (that Chris Martin song, identifable by the Scientist-esque tinkle of ivories), meanwhile, is an update of 'Your Weakness is None of My Business.'
The first stumbling block is the third track, 'Someday', which seems to take it's cue from the last track of the first album, 'The Good Will Out'. Both songs are great and sprawling, with backing singers and choruses that are trying hard to be the Most Anthemic Thing Ever. So 'Someday' is not a bad song, as such, but it's the third anthem in a row, and it feels dangerously climactic, as though it should be the album's closing statement. The listener by this point is getting tired, and wondering if Embrace have forgotten how to write in any mode other than Epic.
'Looking As You Are', then, comes as something of a relief ... to start with. Unfortunately, whilst it's quieter, it's also a worse song, and drags on for at least two minutes more than it should. Then the opening bars of 'Wish 'Em All Away'--all Due South guitars and harmonica--almost make me forgive the album all its sins right there on the spot. But only almost, because the chorus, when it kicks in, comes perilously close to the E-word. The same is true of 'Keeping' and 'Spell It Out' and, well, you get the idea.
I like anthemic schmindie songs. I like Embrace's anthemic schmindie songs. I like most of the songs on this album, even--it's just that I think the most interesting is probably the non-anthemic 'Near Life', because it may be trying slightly too hard to be the bluesy, almost psychedelic parts of the Verve's oeuvre, but at least it's a change of pace. I need that. I don't want all-anthems, all-the-time; I don't want every track to be a potential single. I want an album I can listen to, not a record I have to dip into.
All of the above said, I'll also say this: the album was released at exactly the right time. Embrace write autumn music. Some bands write albums that you just know are meant to be listened to in the sun; Embrace do that for days with steely skies, and dry leaves rustling around your ankles.
I think Ed Harcourt could be said to do the same thing, which will do as a link even though his new album Strangers is a departure in exactly the way that Out of Nothing isn't. My standard Ed Harcourt story is that I put on From Every Sphere after a big party last year, at the end of august, at which half a dozen people had crashed out on various parts of my floor. I put it on thinking it was nice, melodic, relaxing music for a morning after a night before--and promptly got told that no, it was depressing miserabilist schmindie.
Maybe it says something about my character that I still can't quite see my critics' point. From Every Sphere is introspective, certainly, but depressing? No, surely not. Still, bear that anecdote in mind when I say that Strangers is verging on the upbeat. Pacy opener 'The Storm Is Coming' sets the tone, with agressive howls of guitar. 'Born In The 70s' is more jangly, and even has a tune you can hum along to. 'This One's For You' could even be described as bobbing along in a delightful fashion, and on 'Strangers' itself Harcourt sounds almost happy.
'Let Love Not Weigh Me Down' is the sort of song I'll always have a weakness for: quiet verses, epic string-laden choruses. It's not a million miles away from some of the anthems on Out of Nothing, but the key word is context; here it's a digression, not the norm. A couple of tracks later you're lost in the gentle acoustic strum of 'The Trapdoor', or the rambling piano of 'The Music Box'. I haven't listened to the album as much as I have Out of Nothing yet--the second half, in particular, hasn't really settled in my mind--but already I think I like it more.
Also this evening, I discovered that I've gone from having a free November to having a half-booked-up November, bemoaned the fact that MSN is not working, and finally finished The Name of the Rose. Now, hopefully sometime this week, for the film. Right now, bed.
I'll be honest: when, way back in the day, I bought Embrace's first album, The Good Will Out, it was more because I wanted some anthemic guitar rock but wouldn't allow myself to like Oasis (because, you know, ugh) than anything else. I wouldn't try to pretend to anyone it was a great album, but I was won over enough by some of the songs--'Retread', and particularly the gorgeous 'Fireworks'--to buy the second album when it appeared. Drawn From Memory was good, I think, by any reasonable standard; musically it was both confident and varied, from the upbeat 'You're Not Alone' to the poppy 'Hooligan' and the introspective title track. The third album, If You've Never Been, snuck up on me--after all, did the world really need a third album from Embrace?--but if it lacked the scale of the preceeding two, it offered some surprisingly mature, consistently thoughtful songwriting.
And so to the latest, fourth album, Out of Nothing, which is probably even less relevant to anything or anyone than If You've Never Been was. Embrace were surely a band of their time, and much as I loved that time it's hard not to feel that maybe they've outstayed their welcome. There are plenty of other bands you could fairly say the same about, of course (probably including, though I'm loathe to admit it, The Bluetones), but there's a lingering sense of self-doubt that comes with any album from which the first single is already known primarily as 'the one written by Chris Martin.'
From the start, Out of Nothing seems to owe more to The Good Will Out than it does to the two intervening albums. Opener 'Ashes' ('Now watch me rise up and leave/all the ashes you made out of me/when you said that we were wrong/life goes on/you blew me away') is an anthem in the mould of 'All You Good Good People'. 'Gravity' (that Chris Martin song, identifable by the Scientist-esque tinkle of ivories), meanwhile, is an update of 'Your Weakness is None of My Business.'
The first stumbling block is the third track, 'Someday', which seems to take it's cue from the last track of the first album, 'The Good Will Out'. Both songs are great and sprawling, with backing singers and choruses that are trying hard to be the Most Anthemic Thing Ever. So 'Someday' is not a bad song, as such, but it's the third anthem in a row, and it feels dangerously climactic, as though it should be the album's closing statement. The listener by this point is getting tired, and wondering if Embrace have forgotten how to write in any mode other than Epic.
'Looking As You Are', then, comes as something of a relief ... to start with. Unfortunately, whilst it's quieter, it's also a worse song, and drags on for at least two minutes more than it should. Then the opening bars of 'Wish 'Em All Away'--all Due South guitars and harmonica--almost make me forgive the album all its sins right there on the spot. But only almost, because the chorus, when it kicks in, comes perilously close to the E-word. The same is true of 'Keeping' and 'Spell It Out' and, well, you get the idea.
I like anthemic schmindie songs. I like Embrace's anthemic schmindie songs. I like most of the songs on this album, even--it's just that I think the most interesting is probably the non-anthemic 'Near Life', because it may be trying slightly too hard to be the bluesy, almost psychedelic parts of the Verve's oeuvre, but at least it's a change of pace. I need that. I don't want all-anthems, all-the-time; I don't want every track to be a potential single. I want an album I can listen to, not a record I have to dip into.
All of the above said, I'll also say this: the album was released at exactly the right time. Embrace write autumn music. Some bands write albums that you just know are meant to be listened to in the sun; Embrace do that for days with steely skies, and dry leaves rustling around your ankles.
I think Ed Harcourt could be said to do the same thing, which will do as a link even though his new album Strangers is a departure in exactly the way that Out of Nothing isn't. My standard Ed Harcourt story is that I put on From Every Sphere after a big party last year, at the end of august, at which half a dozen people had crashed out on various parts of my floor. I put it on thinking it was nice, melodic, relaxing music for a morning after a night before--and promptly got told that no, it was depressing miserabilist schmindie.
Maybe it says something about my character that I still can't quite see my critics' point. From Every Sphere is introspective, certainly, but depressing? No, surely not. Still, bear that anecdote in mind when I say that Strangers is verging on the upbeat. Pacy opener 'The Storm Is Coming' sets the tone, with agressive howls of guitar. 'Born In The 70s' is more jangly, and even has a tune you can hum along to. 'This One's For You' could even be described as bobbing along in a delightful fashion, and on 'Strangers' itself Harcourt sounds almost happy.
'Let Love Not Weigh Me Down' is the sort of song I'll always have a weakness for: quiet verses, epic string-laden choruses. It's not a million miles away from some of the anthems on Out of Nothing, but the key word is context; here it's a digression, not the norm. A couple of tracks later you're lost in the gentle acoustic strum of 'The Trapdoor', or the rambling piano of 'The Music Box'. I haven't listened to the album as much as I have Out of Nothing yet--the second half, in particular, hasn't really settled in my mind--but already I think I like it more.
Also this evening, I discovered that I've gone from having a free November to having a half-booked-up November, bemoaned the fact that MSN is not working, and finally finished The Name of the Rose. Now, hopefully sometime this week, for the film. Right now, bed.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2004-10-12 03:31 am (UTC)Grr. How dare you finish it before me? :-p
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Date: 2004-10-12 03:46 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-10-12 05:49 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-10-12 06:08 am (UTC)I haven't read Foucault's Pendulum (or The Island of the Day Before), but now probably will at some point.
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Date: 2004-10-12 06:14 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-10-12 07:13 am (UTC)I have Baudolino to read at some point, hopefully that's better.
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Date: 2004-10-12 07:19 am (UTC)(...You know, I tried to make a post about something other than books. I really did. Bah.)
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Date: 2004-10-12 07:30 am (UTC)But why? :)
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Date: 2004-10-14 08:34 am (UTC)But then i like big tangly webs of interconnectedness, including^M especially conspiracy theories, which is what 'Foucault's Pendulum' is full of. 'The Name of the Rose' is perhaps more accessible (and William of Baskerville is my absolute hero - ISTR there are strong hints he's actually William of Ockham, obviously with a bit of Sherlock Holmes mixed in, and William of Ockham is the man). I'd say the story was better in Pendulum, but the texture is better in Rose.
I did quite like tIotDB, but it's nowhere near as good as the first two. Perhaps it should be read chapter by chapter, alternating with chapters from 'Longitude' ...
-- tom
PS Oh good god! I've only just realised (well, be informed) that the librarian, Jorge from Burgos is of course a Jorge Borges reference.
PPS Name of the Rose, Roslin chapel ... THINK ABOUT IT!!!
no subject
Date: 2004-10-14 08:38 am (UTC)Word.
Oh good god! I've only just realised (well, be informed) that the librarian, Jorge from Burgos is of course a Jorge Borges reference.
Yeah. The bit at the end about the library being, to all practical purposes, the platonic library, is also quite neat. :)
no subject
Date: 2004-10-14 08:39 am (UTC)