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Posts tagged Beeches
Top 49 Songs of 2006: #19-10
25 years ago
in Best of 2006, MP3s
#19
Emmy The Great
‘Paper Trails’
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I’ve really tried to get into the music of Emmy the Great, but I can’t seem to do it. Maybe I’ve been hearing the wrong songs or something, but all of the tracks that I’ve picked up from various blogs haven’t done very much for me. All except this one anyway. It’s quite a feat for an artist I don’t particularly like to get to get a song in my top 20 songs of the year, but ‘Paper Trails’ somehow gets there. I can’t even tell you what it is that I like about it. Possibly the song itself, but it makes so little sense that it’s probably not. It could be her voice, but if it is, why don’t I like her other songs? It’s all very confusing really. Rest assured that this is a fine song though, and certainly worthy of it’s place here.
#18
Sky Larkin
‘Keepsakes’
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I wrote earlier on in the year that ‘Keepsakes’ was one of my favourite songs of the year, and the fact it’s made this list confirms that very little has changed. It’s not their most complex song, but it’s the one that I’ve enjoyed more than any of the others in the past year. There’s something a little creepy about the whole thing, but it’s mainly just an outlet for Katie’s increasingly powerful voice.
#17
Play Radio Play
‘Jello’
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Website
Myspace
The first time that I heard the early parts of ‘Jello’ I genuinely thought that I was listening to The Postal Service. Nearly everything comes across as uncannily similar: the song structure, the random electronic bits and the vocal is pretty much a perfect Gibbard. Of course, this leads to an ineviatble question of why I’m including a song so highly here if it’s just a rip-off of another band. I’m not even sure if I can answer that question entirely though. I just really like the song. It’s simplistic and some of the words are a little awkward, but it’s just incredibly catchy.
#16
The Light Footwork
‘Coastlines Are Landmines’
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The Light Footwork seemed to arrive entirely out of nowhere with an already perfected sound. Primarily the creative outlet for Jay Underwood and Becca Wilhelm, they combine the musical sounds of Beulah with the songwriting finesse of Stephen Malkmus. If I was putting together an album list for the year, there is no doubt that their debut release, ‘One State Two State’ would feature very highly, if not in the number one position. I don’t think I’ve played any other complete albums as consistantly in the past year. Anyway, ‘Coastlines Are Landmines’ is just one standout song on an incredible album.
#15
The Elected
‘It Was Love’
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“I’m still not a big fan of ‘Sun, Sun, Sun’, but this song is just about my favourite of any song that The Elected have put out. If there’s one thing Blake Sennett can do well, it’s sounding melancholy while doing his best Elliott Smith impression. An entirely depressing story about two people who stay together because they know no better (”I just put up with you / Kid, I stayed because you wouldn’t leave”). I don’t know if it’s supposed to be positive or not when Blake describes this time as “It was love / Or at least the closest I got”, but it certainly doesn’t seem that way even if it’s supposed to be.” – originally posted June 2.
#14
Pony Up!
‘What’s Free Is Yours’
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I discovered Pony Up! toward the end of the year, and have since obtained a lot of their material. To be perfectly honestly, a lot of it isn’t all that interesting to me. What is interesting to me though are perfect pop songs, and ‘What’s Free Is Yours’ certainly falls into that category. An upbeat song from a slightly bitter woman who is changing her perception of the past to make the guy she’s broken up with seem like the bad guy (“I don’t believe / you’d be here if you could / But then again / you never said you would / I make up promises you never made”). It’s this perfect capturing of the quirky little things that people do that allow Pony Up! to have some fantastic songs. They just need seeking out amongst all the rest.
#13
Pocketbooks
‘Cross The Line’
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“‘Cross the Line’ is the first song released from their new batch of recordings, and it’s easily cemented itself in place as one of my favourites of the year so far. Full of lovely imagery (it opens with “I’m asleep on a train on the Zone 2 boundary”) and basically continues as a back and forth conversation between the male and female vocalists. This takes on a nicely self-aware twist when she starts calling him on the honesty of his lyrics (”As a kid I would run through the fields and orchards” / “What about your hayfever though?” / “I’d climb the branches to the top” / “What, with your vertigo?” / “Look, I’m making all this up”). Extra points also have to be awarded for being the first song I’m aware of that actually slots in the term “Oyster card” without being entirely tacky.” – originally posted November 4.
#12
Beeches
‘Make Your Own Luck’
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Proclaimed as “a fucking excellent song” by at least one attendee gig Beeches played for AFoR a month ago, ‘Make Your Own Luck’ is my favourite song of theirs and one of the best I’ve heard this year. Musically it comes across as a crazy drunk person, jumping from energetic bursts of aggression to slowed down gentle parts and back again. Lyrically, it’s a hell of a lot of fun. Essentially the story of man singing to his new step daughter after he met her mother at “the filming of Trisha” before they “married on Kilroy”. Of course, it’s all rather whimsical, but who can resist it when it leaps into high gear for the second time?
#11
Jenny Owen Youngs
‘Fuck Was I’
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Firmly a part of my “big in 2007″ list is Jenny Owen Youngs, something that was made stronger by a recent signing to Canadian indie label Nettwerk, who will be re-releasing her 2005 album ‘Batten The Hatches’ early next year. Despite initially being kind of indifferent to it, ‘Fuck Was I’ quickly became one of my favourite songs of the year. Pretty much the anthem of any breakup, mournfully looking back and asking “what the fuck was I thinking?” All sung by a wonderful voice with a gentle strings arrangement in the background, sad songs really don’t come much better than this.
#10
Born Ruffians
‘This Sentence Will Ruin/Save Your Life’
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The world has been decidedly short of slacker anthems since the loss of Pavement, so a song like this from Canada’s Born Ruffians fills in the void perfectly. Two and a half loud, noisy minutes about the things the singer wants from life (a girl, nice car, a meaning to his life) while seemingly accepting that he’s too lazy to do anything about it. This certainly isn’t an epiphany song, more one that proclaims what will never be had. Making the whole thing rather a downer to be honest.
And with that we’re down to the final nine songs that make up best songs of 2006. In my opinion of course. If you read the blog regularly you can probably guess a few of the songs that will make up the top end of the chart, but hopefully there will be a couple of surprises in there too. Be sure to come back tomorrow to find out what they are.
Top 49 Songs of 2006: #49-40
05 years ago
in Best of 2006, MP3s
Here we are at my first end of year listings as a blogger. It’s all very exciting and all, and I’d like to think I’m doing things a little differently. There will be absolutely no album list anywhere on this blog. This is because I don’t tend to listen to albums anymore. Yes, I know this makes me some kind of charlatan, but I may as well be honest about it. I’m all about the quick burst of the song these days. As such, over the next five days, we’ll be running down my favourite 49 songs of 2006. Now, I know this list isn’t perfect. There’s probably a bunch of songs from 2005 in here too, but if I only discovered them for whatever reason in 2006, they made the list anyway. Seeing as this is a lot of songs to write about, I’m only going to cover some of them. On others I will just use the original comments I posted earlier on in the year. Not that it really matters, as it’s the mp3s that people want, not my rambling comments. Anyway, I now present Another Form of Relief’s first annual Top 49 Songs of the year:
#49
The Victorian English Gentleman’s Club
‘My Son Spells Backwards’
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“Cumbersome name aside, this three-piece from Cardiff are putting out hyperactive music that falls somewhere in between new wave, punk and electro pop. Their music jumps all over the place, and yet it’s still all alarmingly melodic and catchy, the kind of thing that wouldn’t be out of place on a number of Pixies albums. ‘My Son Spells Backwards’ is so catchy and cheerful you probably won’t catch on at first that it’s all about a special needs kid. Clocking in at under two minutes, it’s an incredibly efficient little ditty, not wasting even a second of the song. It jangles, it rocks, and it features that favourite of mine, duelling vocals. This was included as a b-side on their last single, given an indication of how solid their material already is if this can be spared as a secondary song.” – originally posted April 10.
#48
Odeon Beatclub
‘Take It Off’
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Odeon Beatclub are another band to come off of the production line for great music that is Glasgow. Having spent time supporting the likes of Snow Patrol and Babyshambles, they are building quite a cult following in their native land, and if there’s any justice in this world, that will spread south of the border too. There’s nothing all that new to be heard here, but for solid, catchy songs, you don’t need to look any further than ‘Take It Off’, their single from earlier this year.
#47
The Foundry Field Recordings
‘Buried Beneath The Winter Frames’
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Isn’t it perfect that in the same year as Grandaddy decide to call it a day, their natural successor seems to appear out of nowhere? Of course, that is a little unfair on The Foundry Field Recordings, but there is certainly a hell of a lot of Grandaddy in their sound. Their album was full of the kind of randomness that made that band a joy, and while ‘Buried Beneath The Winter Frames’ may tone down the eccentricities, it’s probably their most catchy and accessible song.
#46
Pants Yell!
‘Your Feelings Don’t Show’
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I used the term “dorky charm” when I first wrote about Pants Yell!, and that term seems to sum the band up far more concisely than anything I’d be able to write in this paragraph. A delightfully simple tale about running into an ex-girlfriend and then wondering in the back of your mind whether the meeting was an accident or not, but being far too spineless to actually ask if that was the case. Pants Yell! have an entirely catalogue of songs like this, and singling one out for this list was pretty hard, but ‘Your Feelings Don’t Show’ just about manages to edge the others out.
#45
Beeches
‘Sin Nombre’
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I discovered Beeches earlier on in the year when they sent me some of their music, but it only really clicked with me how great they are once I saw them live a little while later. These guys know how to put on a hell of a show, giving their songs even more life than they already have on the recorded versions. I even had the honour of having them play at Another Form of Relief’s first promoted gig in December, where they put on a fantastic set, even if not many people were there to watch. Like a lot of great songs, ‘Sin Nombre’ didn’t really grab me immediately, and it was only after several listens to their CD that it won me over. I still couldn’t really tell you what it’s about, but it certainly sounds good.
#44
Battle
‘Tendency’
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“We may as well get the lame comparisons out of the way now, so yes, Battle do sound rather like Bloc Party, particularly on ‘Tendency’. Please don’t let that put you off though, as it sounds like one of those rare good Bloc Party songs. The guitars jerk all over the place, the bass drives and the drumming keeps it all in line. All this while Jason Bavanandan belts out words in such a manner that it sounds like it could actually be physically painful for him to do so. This adds to the urgency of the song though. As for the song itself, it’s a suitably downbeat tale about how crappy life can be at times. “I know I dance like a drunken arse / Every weekend, it’s my only vice / Let me drink myself to death / To forget about the rent” asks Bavanandan, sounding as if it’s what he really wants to do. Ultimately though it’s a love story about loving a girl, but knowing that it’s probably not going to work out as it only really goes one way. I like the whole realist point of view this gives the song, rather than the usual optimism or complete pessimism that usually appears in songs of this nature.” – originally posted June 27.
#43
Nathan Asher & The Infantry
‘Turn Up The Faders’
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“‘Turn Up The Faders’ is hands down one of the best songs that I have heard this year. It also confirmed exactly what the comparisons had promised: somehow this young, unsigned band had a sound that evokes both Bright Eyes and Springsteen. Asher’s vocals are very similiar to Oberst’s, partly shaking yet also full of power. He drives through the song with such urgency that you’d think that lives depended on it. This is supported ably by some excellent instrumentation, including a fantastic piano breakdown toward the end of the song that could have come straight off of ‘Born To Run’.” – originally posted May 19.
#42
The Amateurs
‘Things You Only Know If You Don’t Drive’
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Delightful twee pop from Edinburgh that would be far too easy to compare to Belle & Sebastian. With male-female vocals and a truckload of cute little references, it’s just a joy to see British bands actually trying this kind of thing. The song itself is exactly what it says in the title: all about how buses come in groups and what shoes to wear in the rain. It runs out of steam a little bit before the end, but it’s still so wonderfully catchy that it’s impossible to ignore.
#41
The Young Knives
‘She’s Attracted To’
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The Young Knives seem to get a lot of flack, but I think they are one of the best of the current crop of “popular” British bands. Of course, me being the unaware person that I am was entirely oblivious to them until I was dragged to see them at a festival in August. They won me over very quickly though, putting on a great high energy performance, which included this song. It’s probably not their most developed song, but it’s the one that I enjoy the most. A simple tale about liking a girl but hating her parents, it’s just a hell of a lot of fun.
#40
Math & Physics Club
‘Darling, Please Come Home’
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“‘Darling, Please Come Home’ builds on the promise of last year’s two EPs, bringing us a simple tale of a lost love. Nothing here will sound all that different if you’re already familiar with twee pop, but the point here is that MAPC are as good as, if not better, than any other band working in the genre at the moment. It’s percussion is steady, the guitar work gentle and Charles’ vocal manages to somehow be incredibly restrained and while still emotive. If this is an indication of the rest of the album, we could be looking at one of the best of the year.” – originally posted October 5.
Feel free to join me again in the coming days as we’ll be counting down ten songs each day with the final nine being revealed on December 30.
Wed 6th Dec (that’s tonight!): Live music from It Hugs Back, 4 or 5 Magicians, Beeches and The Rox
1Okay, so I’m at panic stations about all this now, particularly the fear that nobody will turn up. If you’re within a reasonable distance of Tunbridge Wells (it’s in Kent), please come along to this. You’ll get a fantastic night of great new music brought to you by this very blog. I’ll even guarantee that it will rock. Hard. Full details below our lovely poster.
Another Form of Relief presents..
IT HUGS BACK
4 OR 5 MAGICIANS
BEECHES
THE ROX
Wednesday 6 December
8pm / £5
MP3 It Hugs Back – Miss Being Young
MP3 It Hugs Back – Wear You Down
MP3 4 Or 5 Magicians – Forever On The Edge
MP3 4 Or 5 Magicians – Tour De Force
Beeches
05 years ago
in MP3s
Beeches are a London four-piece who have gone through a number of changes to get where they are. The name of the band has changed, and members have come and gone, but that hasn’t stopped the band putting out some fantastic music in their current form. While it may be easy to dismiss them as ‘yet another London rock band’, it would be somewhat foolish to do so. While some of the obvious influences are here, there’s also a healthy dose of Americana thrown in.
The stories these songs tell sometimes border just the other side of surreal, the vocal delivery often has a laconic feel not heard since the heyday of Pavement and yet somehow the songs still manage to rock pretty hard. Particularly impressive is ‘Make Your Own Luck’ where the song regularly jumps between flat out rock and more gentle interludes without either side feeling out of place. Compare this to the lazy drawl, playing and lyrics (“So I thought, same old journey once again / I am arriving whenever I get there”) of ‘Arriving Whenever’, and you’ve got a band that can effortlessly drift between a number of different sounds.
MP3 Beeches – Arriving Whenever
MP3 Beeches – Boat 97
MP3 Beeches – Swift Goodbyes
MP3 Beeches – Make Your Own Luck
All songs taken from Beeches’ 2005 album ‘Then We’re Agreed’. You can download the entire album, as well as some more songs, from their website for free. Beeches will be playing at Another Form of Relief’s live music showcase on December 6 in Tunbridge Wells. Further details here.
