Bombay Bicycle Club's album came out. And I don't get paid until Wednesday. I hate being poor and devoted to buying CDs, they aren't complimentary traits.
So I listened to more Bon Iver. Obviously.
And then I felt bad for all the other music, great music, released in 2011. So I reminded myself of another release I lauded approval upon earlier in the year, Noah and the Whale. Then 5 seconds into "Life is Life", suddenly something didn't feel right. After losing yourself in the warm valleys of "Bon Iver", a life-affirming stadium indie anthem suddenly doesn't fit.
So I looked back further, to something a little closer to the Bon Iver mould, and reminded myself of NATW's "The First Days of Spring". If there ever was an album that wallowed in more self-pity I've yet to hear it, because "The First Days of Spring" is an impossible listen unless you are willing to stomach songs with titles like "I Have Nothing" and lyrics like "Everything I love has gone away". BOO HOO. But I was in the right mood today, a sort of 'fuck everyone, I'm miserable', sort of mood. And for that mood, the record is perfect.
Opening trio, "The First Days of Spring", "Our Window", and lest us not forget rock-bottom anthem "I Have Nothing" are simple, pretty much 2 chord anthems with little metaphor, and brutal honesty, and a defeated, cracked delivery from previously chirpy Charlie Fink. It's the genuine hurt in Fink's voice alone that makes these songs believable rather than laughable, and touching rather than irritating. It's "Stranger" though, that really stands out. The guitar riff is unbearably sad, and Fink's lyrics step out of self-pity into something approaching self-loathing and despair, and it's a moment when this generally happy-to-be-sad record turns into something darker. The bleak descriptions of next-morning shame are uncomfortably detailed and honest, and even the warm closing lines of "I know in a year, things will be better" cannot shake the earlier confessions of "her leg still forced in between mine, sticking to my skin". As wonderful as "Last Night on Earth" is, "Stranger" is still probably the best thing Fink has written to date.
Also gave My Bloody Valentine's "Loveless" an air. It really is one of the most stunning sounding records I've ever heard. The most irresistibly gentle and sunny melodies communicated through an almighty din of distorted, dissonant, feedback laden guitars, with barely audible drums and a scattering of cute synth lines to sweeten things up. The fact of the matter is, tracks as gorgeous as "I Only Said" and "Blown A Wish" could be played 3 times over itself, each track a semi-tone apart, and they would still sound adorable. In fact maybe that's what they actually did. I wish I could be 16 in 1991, just to experience the feeling this album gives me first hand.
"Blown a Wish" sticks in your head, makes you cry, gives you headache and soothes it at the same time.
BUT... Track of the day?
NOAH AND THE WHALE - STRANGER
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