Another Form of Relief

Today we have a video that falls into the “who on earth thought this was a good idea” camp. There are a lot of whimsical songs on the new Ben Folds album, Way to Normal. You Don’t Know Me really isn’t one of them. Sure, it sounds upbeat enough, but we’re dealing with a couple realising they know sod all about each other here. You’ve also got Regina Spektor floating in and out of the song, giving it a certain dignity.

As such, a video seemingly about nothing more than cross-dressing bandmates doesn’t seem like the most appropriate theme. I have nothing against the video itself, however silly it all is, it’s just about the least appropriate song from the album to use with it. The whole album is surprisingly better than I expected. I was ready not to bother after the whole Silverman snorefest, but it’s a decent attempt to get the feel of the old Five back.

Continue reading Video: Ben Folds – You Don’t Know Me

Unlike the Ben Folds Christmas song I featured on day 8, this one actually sounds like it was recorded when Ben hadn’t been smoking the funny cigarettes. Whether that is a good thing or a bad thing is up to you to decide.

This song was actually recorded for The Grinch soundtrack, so if you listen with that in mind, the whole thing becomes pretty self-explanatory. It’s all about being driven insane on Christmas Eve by the people outside singing Christmas songs over and over. Which thankfully, people don’t really tend to do. God, that would be irritating if they did. Anyway, you can also substitute the narrator of the song for any miserable git that dislikes Christmas (like myself), and it works just as well.

MP3 Ben Folds – Lonely Christmas Eve (expired)

To vary from the downbeat festive songs a little, today we have a cheerful song from Ben Folds all about Santa getting stuck in someone’s chimney and dying. Okay, maybe not quite as cheerful as I intended. Unless you hate Santa or something. Which would make you very strange person indeed. Anyway, the song comes from the more zany end of the Ben Folds catalogue, with both Ben and his “grandpa” relating the story of the fateful night when “Santa got his fat ass stuck”, and it’s all rather good fun.

Oh Santa, he’s a big fat fuck
Went down the chimney, got his fat ass stuck
Oh honey call the lawyers fast
’cause Mrs. Claus is gonna sue my ass

MP3 Ben Folds – Bizarre Christmas Incident (expired)

Only three songs for the “leftovers” section this month. As we head toward the end of the year, the number of indie releases seems to wind down making finding new material a little harder than usual. Still, this brings the advantage of letting me go back over some of the great records I may have missed over the course of the year. Any recommendations for small albums that I may have missed over the past year?

MP3 Pocketbooks – Cross The Line (expired)
I first wrote about Pocketbooks more than four months ago and I still haven’t been able to find a picture of them in the time since. I’m starting to think they may not actually exist, or that they are cartoons like Gorillaz or something. Anyway, who cares what they look like when they throwing out top notch low-fi twee indie pop? ‘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.

MP3 Ben Folds – Such Great Heights (expired)
For the 57th cover of The Postal Service’s ‘Such Great Heights’, Ben Folds decides to take a stab at it. This was actually an in-studio radio performance so the production values aren’t really the highest, but it’s an interesting cover none the less. As it’s Ben Folds, obviously a piano plays a very heavy part in the preceedings, with him almost pounding the poor piano to death over the course of the four minutes. Which unfortunately leaves it feeling a little more overbearing than it should. Other than that, it’s a pretty straight up cover, aside from one odd changing of one of the lyrics to include the word “shit”. Which is just a tad jarring on first listening.

MP3 Via Audio – We Can Be Good
Via Audio are a New York indie pop band who have been making music for about three years but everything seems to be coming together for them now. Chris Walla of Death Cab For Cutie calls them his “new favourite band” and Jim Eno of Spoon liked them so much that he offered to produce their record. That record (‘Say Something’) is still in the mixing stage, but the band have made a couple of songs from it available on the internet. ‘We Can Be Good’ is my favourite of these. It’s a simple pop song about a girl trying to tell a guy that they would be great together. It’s full of lovely harmonies and some instrumentation that borders on precious. These guys will certainly be ones to watch over the next year or so to see what else they come up with.

I Control Music?

Well I probably don’t, but it’s certainly starting to feel that way. Over the past week or so, four of the unsigned artists I’ve written about on Another Form of Relief have signed pretty important record deals. I already mentioned Kate Nash signing to Universal. On top of that, we have Play Radio Play signing to Island, Jenny Owen Youngs signing to Nettwerk and Los Campesinos! signing to.. someone. Of course, my original comment was meant in jest and I have no delusions of grandeur about this place. I think it is somewhat indicitive that blogs in general are (as Frank Debarge would put it) the ‘tastemakers’ now. That or I just have an uncanny ability to write about those who will hit the big time anyway. Either way.

So the heat is back with a vengeance, making sitting at my computer for prolonged periods rather unpleasant again. Which gives me an excellent excuse for the roughly fortnightly covers post!

MP3 Ben Folds Five – She Don’t Use Jelly (expired) (The Flaming Lips)
Ben Folds Five covering The Flaming Lips may seem like a pretty strange thing, but somehow Folds and his merry men got away with it. Taking a whimsical song and making it, well, whimsical with a piano, lets the song remain just as fun as it originally was, while also stamping it with the typical Folds kind of sound. The end result is such that you probably wouldn’t know it wasn’t one of Folds’ zanier songs if you had no clue about the original. I’m actually starting to think that Folds should release a covers album. Given how often he pops up in this feature, I’m guessing he’d have enough to fill one even without recording any new material.

MP3 Johnny Cash – Hurt (expired) (Nine Inch Nails)
Actually, speaking of strange choices for covers, on paper Johnny Cash covering Nine Inch Nails seems just about the craziest thing possible. So how on earth did he end up putting together an absolutely fantastic song that, dare I say, kicks the ass of the original. Cash’s version is just so full of emotion, so raw, that it’s just about perfect. Hell, I’m not even a Cash fan and this is just about one of my favourite songs. His voice, the subtle build of the guitar, it just doesn’t put a foot wrong from start to finish.

MP3 Elliott Smith – Thirteen (expired) (Big Star)
I just realised that this week’s edition is slightly morbid, featuring almost the very last songs of both Johnny Cash and Elliott Smith. Smith’s offering of the Big Star classic is a solid enough end to his career, even if it doesn’t come close to his best work. Taking a nostalgic song and running it through the Smith-o-matic leaves us with an incredibly mournful song, which is quite some feat given very little actually changes within the song itself. I often find that the critics of Smith pick on his voice as being the problem with his music, but anyone who can change the very nature of a song simply with their voice must be doing something right.

I’ve got some good stuff coming up over the next few days, including a bunch of new bands that are making some great music, and maybe a closer look at a couple of albums I’ve been sent lately. I’m still not sure whether to actually play around with actual album reviews, so we’ll just have to see what comes of it. Right now though, I’m going to go and melt or something. Fun!

Sadly not some amusing lyric or the punchline to a joke, but something I actually managed last night. As such, typing is now very awkward, along with a bunch of other things, so I think blogging is going to be light for a little. Which is a shame given I have a ton of great new things to tell you about. I’ll try and still update fairly often but posts will have to be less wordy.

Just to prove I can spin a post out of just about anything, here are some vaguely related songs:

MP3 Snow Patrol – Tiny Little Fractures (expired)
MP3 Ben Folds Five – Hospital Song (expired)
MP3 The Boy Least Likely To – I See Spiders When I Close My Eyes (expired)
MP3 Saves The Day – My Sweet Fracture (expired)