A Few Thoughts on Neko Case's "Hold On, Hold On"
+ Pulp News
Bear with me...
"Hold On, Hold On" is my favorite song of the year so far. It was listening to this song for the first time that I realized Neko had finally managed to write something that matched her incredible voice, and that Fox Confessor... wouldn't disappoint me as her past albums had. It's simply an amazing song, and perhaps the best thing about it is that for once, Neko's voice isn't the element that sticks with me the most. Of course, her voice is great - but I could name a dozen songs off the top of my head where her voice sounds great. It's a contributing factor to why I love the song, certainly, but it wouldn't be enough on its own. The lyrics and the emotion of the song, though they obviously must be sold by the vocal, are unquestionably the central attraction here.
What makes the lyric so powerful, perhaps, is that the emotional high point is not the chorus - we only hear it once. It's the moment when Neko sings "I leave the party at 3 AM/Alone, thank God/With a valium from the bride/It's the devil I love." And as her voice swoops through the lines, the song becomes something entirely personal and beautiful and revealing. The lyric is simple in the sense that it leaves the majority of the "story" to be extrapolated by the listener - and that too is one of its triumphs. I don't know that I can convey the emotion and image it leaves me with, but if you feel the same way about the song, you'll know what I mean.
WPGU recently started playing this on the radio, and I have mixed feelings about that. Obviously, it's nice to see Neko getting much-deserved exposure - but I wish it was with a song other than this one. It's not that it isn't "radio-friendly" in the traditional sense of lacking a hook or whatever, it's that it's not radio-friendly because it's a song that needs to be experienced in isolation, maybe on headphones, probably at nighttime. I can't really picture it being performed live, and so hearing it tinnily through the speakers at work seems unmistakably incorrect. It's a personal song, and a delicate one. That's why I love it, and that's why I can't understand it on the radio.
On to the Pulp...
As some of you may already know, Pulp is releasing remastered versions of three albums, with an extra CD each of bonus material. What you may not know is that the tracklistings for all three have just shown up on Amazon, that spoiler of all surprises.
I've now officially shifted from "cautiously optimistic" about the remasters to "incredibly fucking eager and overjoyed." Because yes, there's b-sides (not all, but most of the best ones) - but...
There's also DEMOS! AND UNRELEASED! TRACKS! AND LINER NOTES BY JARVIS! NORMAL TYPING CANNOT EXPRESS MY JOY!
The demos range from the presumably-unexceptional ("Paula," which has cute but not very good lyrics) to the I-can-only-imagine-how-awesome ("My Erection," "Can I Have My Balls Back, Please?") Plus, alternate versions of "Tomorrow Never Lies" and "Cocaine Socialism," two of the better b-sides (trivia: the version of the former included here, called "Tomorrow Never Dies," is presumably the pre-lyric-alteration original mix, which was meant to be a James Bond movie theme before it was rejected for Sheryl Crow)
Anyway, I'm not thrilled with the prices Amazon lists, and will most definitely have to find them elsewhere/cheaper, but otherwise this is, like, incredible.
Links:
His 'n' Hers
Different Class
This Is Hardcore
+ Pulp News
Bear with me...
"Hold On, Hold On" is my favorite song of the year so far. It was listening to this song for the first time that I realized Neko had finally managed to write something that matched her incredible voice, and that Fox Confessor... wouldn't disappoint me as her past albums had. It's simply an amazing song, and perhaps the best thing about it is that for once, Neko's voice isn't the element that sticks with me the most. Of course, her voice is great - but I could name a dozen songs off the top of my head where her voice sounds great. It's a contributing factor to why I love the song, certainly, but it wouldn't be enough on its own. The lyrics and the emotion of the song, though they obviously must be sold by the vocal, are unquestionably the central attraction here.
What makes the lyric so powerful, perhaps, is that the emotional high point is not the chorus - we only hear it once. It's the moment when Neko sings "I leave the party at 3 AM/Alone, thank God/With a valium from the bride/It's the devil I love." And as her voice swoops through the lines, the song becomes something entirely personal and beautiful and revealing. The lyric is simple in the sense that it leaves the majority of the "story" to be extrapolated by the listener - and that too is one of its triumphs. I don't know that I can convey the emotion and image it leaves me with, but if you feel the same way about the song, you'll know what I mean.
WPGU recently started playing this on the radio, and I have mixed feelings about that. Obviously, it's nice to see Neko getting much-deserved exposure - but I wish it was with a song other than this one. It's not that it isn't "radio-friendly" in the traditional sense of lacking a hook or whatever, it's that it's not radio-friendly because it's a song that needs to be experienced in isolation, maybe on headphones, probably at nighttime. I can't really picture it being performed live, and so hearing it tinnily through the speakers at work seems unmistakably incorrect. It's a personal song, and a delicate one. That's why I love it, and that's why I can't understand it on the radio.
On to the Pulp...
As some of you may already know, Pulp is releasing remastered versions of three albums, with an extra CD each of bonus material. What you may not know is that the tracklistings for all three have just shown up on Amazon, that spoiler of all surprises.
I've now officially shifted from "cautiously optimistic" about the remasters to "incredibly fucking eager and overjoyed." Because yes, there's b-sides (not all, but most of the best ones) - but...
There's also DEMOS! AND UNRELEASED! TRACKS! AND LINER NOTES BY JARVIS! NORMAL TYPING CANNOT EXPRESS MY JOY!
The demos range from the presumably-unexceptional ("Paula," which has cute but not very good lyrics) to the I-can-only-imagine-how-awesome ("My Erection," "Can I Have My Balls Back, Please?") Plus, alternate versions of "Tomorrow Never Lies" and "Cocaine Socialism," two of the better b-sides (trivia: the version of the former included here, called "Tomorrow Never Dies," is presumably the pre-lyric-alteration original mix, which was meant to be a James Bond movie theme before it was rejected for Sheryl Crow)
Anyway, I'm not thrilled with the prices Amazon lists, and will most definitely have to find them elsewhere/cheaper, but otherwise this is, like, incredible.
Links:
His 'n' Hers
Different Class
This Is Hardcore
posted by Odorless Boatman at 1:30 AM
1 comments
