Tag: 2000s

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Best tunes of 2002: #4 The Decemberists “The legionnaire’s lament”

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“I’m a legionnaire, camel in disrepair, hoping for a Frigidaire to come passing by.”

And so begins yet another great track off The Decemberists’ debut album, “Castaways and cutouts”*. I got into this album and the following year’s sophomore album simultaneously, perhaps sometime in 2004, after reading about them in my favourite indie music magazine ‘Under the radar’.

I remember being immediately blown away by the songwriting of Colin Meloy. Being a word geek myself, I loved the wordplay and use of archaic terms and thought it hilarious that I found myself reaching for the dictionary when listening to the lyrics of a pop song, indie or not. But it was not just the choice of words that won me over. It was how Meloy employed them, creating worlds and weaving tales, vivid and imaginative and just so much fun. And then there was the music, indie rock with a folk rock flavour, sampling music from around the world, and not just evoking that of today, but from different points in time throughout history.

The Decemberists have gone on to make eight studio albums in total and a handful of EPs, and successfully navigated the jump from indie to the majors without losing an ounce of what made them great. Every one of their songs is an adventure and you would be hard-pressed to tell me that they are one of those bands whose songs all sound the same.

“The legionnaire’s lament”, despite its title, is an upbeat number. It was the song that first hooked my wife Victoria to the group and is one to which we both love to sing along. And though the words can be esoteric and the specific experience unfamiliar – that of a French Foreign Legion soldier stranded in the desert, his plane shot down in battle in a war over a hundred years ago – the sentiment of missing his love and his home is universal and instantly recognizable.

“If only some rain would fall on the houses and the boulevards and the sidewalk bagatelles (it’s like a dream). With the roar of cars and the lolling of the cafe bars and the sweetly sleeping sweeping of the Seine. Lord I don’t know if I’ll ever be back again.”

Our protagonist is faithfully represented by an angry and forceful strum on the acoustic, the mirage of a jaunty drum beat and playful electric guitar lick, but what really places you in the tune and perfects the feeling of homesickness for Paris is the frolicking accordion. So good.

*”July July” from this same album appeared earlier, at number nineteen, on this list.

For the rest of the Best tunes of 2002 list, click here.

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Tunes

Best tunes of 2002: #5 Doves “Pounding”

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I almost don’t want to share that this song has already appeared on these pages when I counted down my top five Doves tunes back in January 2019. If you go back to read that post, it might spoil the appearance of another song further up this list. However, it’s true, “Pounding” was definitely part of my list of five favourites when I counted those down. At the time of writing that, we didn’t know for sure what this reunion would bring and whether there was any new material forthcoming. Of course, with the benefit of hindsight, we now know that the reunion shows that were only just announced were a huge success and so were the reissues of their first three records and then, 2020 saw them release their first new album in more than a decade, which wound up atop my favourite albums list for the year.

“The last broadcast” is still likely my favourite album by Doves. I wrote about my discovery of it and the group that performed it when I wrote about “Caught by the River” (which appeared at #17) for this very same series. It was Doves’ second album and landed right at the top of UK’s album charts upon release, was a hit with consumers and critics alike, garnering them their second Mercury prize nomination. It is a gorgeous album, calling to mind the hey day of Manchester acid house, as well as the dream pop movement of the same period. It is textured and danceable stuff, perfect for both zoning out and jumping around like crazed animal in a field of likeminded festival goers.

“Pounding” was the second single to be released from the album and as I’ve said before, it really lives up to its name. Many of Dove’s songs are built, layer upon layer, through the course of their duration and this one is no different, which is quite an accomplishment given that its starting point feels high up in stratosphere. Andy Williams’ drumming is inescapable, hammering down at a torrid pace on his snares and toms and you swear you can feel and hear sparkling confetti exploding from them with each hit. The guitars and bass lines race along with the rhythm and effects are thrown in to emulate the sounds of cars roaring past. This is very effective in making you forget yourself when played on your car stereo and your foot on the gas pedal seems to get heavier and heavier. Then, when you think the song can’t get any more uplifting, Jez Williams takes over at the bridge and just wails away at his guitar strings, a jangly explosion that feels ripped from The Edge’s playbook.

“Pounding” is just an injection of pure joy. It’s a track for picking you up when you’re down. A push in the right direction. A word of encouragement to enjoy your life, not to waste this chance we’ve been given.

“Seize the time
Cause it’s now or never, baby“

Beautiful.

For the rest of the Best tunes of 2002 list, click here.

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Tunes

Best tunes of 2002: #6 Sam Roberts “Don’t walk away, Eileen”

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Do you have a song from your youth that you detest? And I’m not thinking because it was a bad tune or anything but that its sole offence was that it used your name in its title or lyrics and became fodder for use in teasing by your peers.

Yeah? Me too.

Mine came by way of El Debarge’s “Who’s Johnny?” that featured prominently in the 80s film “Short circuit”, another source of teasing (“Johnny five is alive!” Kids are so weird). I also got a lot of “Johnny B. Goode”, which I minded quite a bit less, because, well, that song rocks. And then, in university, I was introduced to a song by Madder Rose called “Beautiful John” that… okay… nobody really used that one to tease me…

Then, there’s the case of a friend of my wife’s and mine who had to grow up with people singing words to a certain hit Dexy’s Midnight Runners song, to the point that she couldn’t abide the tune. We were laughing about this very subject one night over dinner and the physical reaction she had at the mere mention of “Come on, Eileen” was hilarious to behold. But when I asked if she felt the same way about Sam Roberts’ hit tune “Don’t walk away Eileen”, her response was: “No! I love that song!” And she immediately started singing the song and drumming her hands on the table.

I don’t disagree with our friend Eileen’s assessment of the song at all. It was released as the second single off Sam Roberts’ debut EP, “The inhuman condition”, and is the second song from it to feature on this very list. Not bad at all for a release that only has six songs in total and one whose artist wondered whether the EP was a good idea for his first foray into music. It is basically a reinterpretation of half the demo tracks he put together to generate industry interest and well, the EP generated a huge buzz on Canadian radio. Then, a bunch of these tracks also appeared on Roberts’ debut long player, “We were born in a flame”, that was released the following year after he signed to Sony Music.

“Don’t walk away Eileen” is a thorough banging and crashing away at drums and guitars, a general racket, really, and Roberts seems less concerned about carrying a tune than emoting the feeling of anger and passion. It is punk without the trappings of being punk. It is a fun tune that many can identify with, a universal kick at a troubled or troubling love interest, a song to scream along with at the top of your lungs, whether in your car, in your room, in a bar drinking with friends, or in the middle of a crowd at a concert.

Yeah, it’s fun. I’m not quite sure it mitigates all those years of “Come on, Eileen” for our friend though.

For the rest of the Best tunes of 2002 list, click here.