The Underdog – Spoon – A race of drums, a blast of horns, and a word to the word to the wise off the over rated Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga. I wonder to whom it’s directed, “You have no respect for the underdog, that’s why you will not survive” The water boy, the messenger, those that are beneath you, that you don’t see: taxi drivers, assistants, doormen… the people who do all the lving and dieing: if you don’t care for them, you’re done. Britt rides the horns all the way to the end. A Great song on a less than great album (so bad I couldn’t hear the latest, Transference, at first).
Requiem For Omm 2 – I spent a month raving about this song last year? Like that. “I never ever stop wondering, wondering if you still think about us…” If you listen to the new MGMT there is a sense of simplification but Of Montreal went in the opposite direction. This is from a daytrotter session and it exemplifies everything daytrotter does best. It respects the artists enough to allow the songs to speak for themselves.
You’ve Got To Pay – The Only Ones – Another greatest band ever and the doomed romantic Peter Perret knew how to write a song, “all of the pain we suffered in vain, the dark roads we travelled with nothing to gain…” he sings in that distinct east end whinge, “and though the pleasures will always be treasured it’s a shame it came to such desperate measures.” Everything hear is a crashed up, burnt out, triumph of romantic desolution. “Indecision, lack of conviction, slow diction failing what you’re trying to say…’ As love breaks down so does the music. Yep, it came out as new wave but it was really hard rock because guitarist John Perry never heard a riff he couldn’t play harder. The break here is so melodic and graceful (yes, you heard me) This song kinda stings and kinda bends at the same time. “I’ll play the gradual descent from the fermament I could tell by tone of the letters , you say: ‘what was once sacred is now filled with hatred, how can such love become dissipated?'” We who are not lucky in love, who constantly pick up the wreckage, can appreciate the mindblogging question of love dissipating before our eyes and our complete inability to withstand the inevitable. This is Perret’s terrain better than any song lyricist I’ve ever read: he is in awe of the romantic disasters that befall us. “I’VE HAD ENOUGH OF ALL THIS POISON AND DECAY…” Which sums up the Only Ones in nine words. And finally: “If you want to come to face with love you’ve got to pay and pay and pay”.