Tag: 2000s

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Tunes

Best tunes of 2003: #16 The White Stripes “Girl, you have no faith in medicine”

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I first came across The White Stripes with their third album, 2001’s “White blood cells”. The primary single from that album, “Fell in love with a girl”, came in at number three on my Best tunes list for that year. And I wrote in that very post about their blues-influenced garage rock and their contribution to the early 2000s indie rock resurgence.

For an encore, Jack and Meg White put together what is arguably their best album, critically and commercially, as a group. Recorded in two weeks in the spring of 2002, purportedly without the help of any technology newer than the early 1960s, “Elephant”, their fourth, found favour with a lot of people, placed the group in the hearts and minds of everyone, each player recognized for their instrumental prowess and the album on many best of the year, decade, and century lists. Personally, I found it delightful from many angles, my favourite track a moving target from day to day while I was initially discovering it, finding in it much to pick apart and unpack. In the end, though, it wasn’t their two big tracks “The hardest button to button” or “Seven nation army”*, nor the Burt Bacharach/Dusty Springfield cover “I just don’t know what to do with myself”** but the penultimate track on the album, “Girl, you have no faith in medicine”, that got me going every time.

Interestingly, this track was recorded for and was supposed to appear on “White blood cells”. Meg wasn’t a fan of it, however, so it was pulled and shelved until Jack lobbied hard for it a couple of year later. A lyric that Meg really took offence to was pulled and the track was re-recorded for “Elephant”. Jack being Jack, he used to tease Meg with it when they played it live and changed the lyrics to ‘Meg, you have no faith in medicine’. I don’t know and really don’t want to investigate what the offending lyric was because if Meg thought it misogynistic, I don’t want it to ruin the song for me.

Indeed, the words in this song have always little import for me. Some have talked about its placebo references and linked it to relationships and others have marvelled how White managed to string the word ‘Acetaminophen’ into the lyrics. I just think the song rocks, and that, in an album full of bangers. Meg’s anger with the skins is palpable and Jack is unrelenting on the guitars. He howls and screams breathlessly and dares us all to keep up with him. Sometimes it’s just this energy that you need to feel and absorb and that will get you through.

*The latter of which is played every night in some stadium or arena somewhere on earth.

**Though it is quite fantastic also.

For the rest of the Best tunes of 2003 list, click here.

Categories
Vinyl

Vinyl love: The Weakerthans “Reconstruction site”

(Vinyl Love is a series of posts that quite simply lists, describes, and displays the pieces in my growing vinyl collection. You can bet that each record was given a spin during the drafting of each corresponding post.)

Artist: The Weakerthans
Album Title: Reconstruction site
Year released: 2003
Year reissued: 2013
Details: 20th anniversary, limited to 1000 copies, brown with red splatter

The skinny: Like the last post in this series, today’s album is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year but in the case of “Reconstruction site”, the pressing in my collection is the one done to celebrate this very milestone. The Weakerthans are one of those bands that I had always known quite well and had seen live a bunch of times but never fully appreciated until after they disbanded. I am now quite in love with all four of the Canadian indie rock quartet’s albums – the sound, the style, and the outstanding songwriting – and have been working hard on tracking them all down for my vinyl shelves. So when I saw the group’s penultimate record was getting the 20th anniversary reissue treatment, I did a bit of internet digging to track down a copy. I finally found a Canadian distributor in Cut Loose Merch that was selling this sweet brown and red splatter colour variant. Supporting a Canadian company and paying in domestic currency? Yes, please and thank you.

Standout track: “One great city!”

 

Categories
Tunes

100 best covers: #47 The Decemberists “Human behaviour”

<< #48    |    #46 >>

You can mark this down in the column of cover songs that shouldn’t work on paper but in reality, are quite splendid.

I have written before in these pages about how I discovered Portland, Oregon-based indie folk band, The Decemberists, at some point circa 2004 after reading about them in Under the Radar. I fell hard for them upon first listen and immediately consumed their first two albums in rapid succession. Then, hearing that a third album was still in the works, went on the hunt for anything else I could find, which included a five song EP (called “5 songs”), a close to 20 minute prog-folk interpretation of a Celtic myth (“The Tain”), and then, this, a cover of Björk’s early solo career single, “Human behaviour”.

It was included on a compilation called “Read: Interpreting Björk” that was put together by Portland indie label Hush Records. The idea was floated and most of the recordings happened in 2001 but then they shelved the project because they were worried folks might think they were trying to capitalize on the success of one of their heroes. They ended up releasing it a few years later, after plenty of interest was shown just based on word of mouth. The Decemberists’ cover was one of the late additions to compilation track list and in my own humble opinion, the best of the bunch, though there are some other interesting interpretations worth exploring.

Björk’s original version is actually one of my favourites of her tunes. It appeared at number fourteen on my list of favourite tunes from 1993 and like many of the tunes from “Debut”, it’s an industrial dance party, very “synth, sample, and percussion heavy”. Inspired by wildlife documentaries, Björk explores and exploits the human condition and looks at it from an outsider’s vantage point.

In The Decemberists’ capable hands, it’s a very different sounding beast. Obviously, it’s more organic in feel. With their expansive instrumentation palette, however, they do a great job of replicating the tempo and energy of the original. Of course, Colin Meloy sounds nothing like Björk but he certainly sounds like he’s having fun trying.

Ir’s a great cover of a great tune that only made me love both artists more. Don’t make me choose between them.

Cover:

The original:

For the rest of the 100 best covers list, click here.