Tag: 2000s

Categories
Tunes

Best tunes of 2001: #25 R.E.M. “Imitation of life”

#24 >>

And so here we are, all hallow’s eve, as good a time as any to start up a new series. You might have noticed that I finished up my Best of 2000 list a few weeks ago, and so now we’re on to 2001. This list is a bit longer than the one I did up for 2000 but I still haven’t quite gotten to thirty songs for the naughties decade (perhaps for 2002?). First up here, at song number twenty-five, is R.E.M. with their track “Imitation of life”.

As I’ve already mentioned already in this pages, I’ve been following Athens, Georgia’s finest since “Green” hit the charts when I was a teenie-bopper and would most definitely call myself a big fan. I recently endeavoured to narrow down my top five favourite tunes by R.E.M., a rough task, given their vast body of work, and posted the results on these pages. Looking back it at now, it’s noticeable that not one of the songs that made the final five were recorded after the end of the 90s. I personally found the early part of the 00s my least favourite period in R.E.M.’s catalogue, a period of albums that for the most part sounded like watered down versions of their best work, but still, there were some gems to be found.

One such example is “Imitation of life”, the first single off “Reveal”, buried deep in side two of the mix. It bears all the hallmarks of their sound. Peter Buck jangles and Michael Stipe hems and haws through half-nonsensical lyrics. Buck himself has admitted that the song feels like it is plagiarized from one of their early tracks. And yet, there’s something about it (isn’t there?) that begs for head bopping and singing along, especially at the bridge at the 2:40 mark when Buck and Mike Mills sit back, ease off on their instruments and let Stipe do his thing.

“This sugarcane
This lemonade
This hurricane, I’m not afraid
C’mon, c’mon no one can see me cry”

And lastly, if you haven’t seen it, have a gander at the neat-o video below. It’s the same twenty second shot played over and over, in forwards and reverse, simply focusing at different segments in the shot. Good stuff.

For the rest of the Best tunes of 2001 list, click here.

Categories
Tunes

Best tunes of 2000: #1 Coldplay “Yellow”

<< #2

So here we are reaching the end of the first series, hence, list on this young blog of mine. Admittedly, at 15 tracks, it’s a short list, given what I’ve always felt was a lack of quality material to draw from in 2000’s music releases. You’ve read the title and so you know the song I’ve ranked as number one. If you haven’t been following along from the beginning, I invite you to go back and check out the rest of the list here.

If you’re still with with me, I’ll begin. But first I want you to close your eyes (not literally, silly, you won’t be able to continue reading) and use your imagination. Yes, imagine that it is 2000 or if that fails, try to remember yourself and your musical tastes in and around that time. It is before Coldplay got huge. Before “Yellow” was seriously overplayed on radio stations everywhere. Before “Rush of cold blood to head”, “X&Y”‘, and each successive album thereafter, each one getting bigger and more bloated. Before the arena tours that saw the foursome trying to become U2. And failing. Before the millions and millions in record sales. Before Chris Martin’s marriage to Gwyneth Paltrow and the birth of Apple. Before all of it. And imagine (or remember) what it would be/was like to listen to “Yellow” for the first time.

Yeah. That’s the spot. That’s why it’s number one on this list.

I don’t have to imagine such a scenario because I remember the first time I heard it played on EDGE 102.1. My early morning alarm had gone off, tuned to the radio. Some other song was finishing and that solo acoustic guitar strum intro came on, followed by the messy, slightly off tune rhythm guitar and Chris Martin’s opening lines: “Look at the stars, look how they shine for you.” Yes, I recognized Pixies’ oft-recycled, loud-soft-loud logic, along with early Radiohead’s British alt-rock template, but it was all done honestly and passionately. And it was love at first hearing. So instead of jumping out of bed and into the shower as I normally would have done, I waited through another song to hear the announcer report the name of band and song. I duly jotted both down in the writer’s notebook that I used to keep by my bedside and headed off to work.

As soon as I got home, I dialled in to the internet, logged in to Napster, and a half hour later or so, I had “Yellow” on my desktop computer. I listened to it a dozen or so times. Ate dinner. Then, listened to it a couple dozen more times. Some time later, probably not very long after, I went out and bought Coldplay’s debut, “Parachutes”, and proceeded to play the hell out of that. Little did I know that all around the city, country, and world, many others were doing something similar and radio stations and music video channels were filling the voids in between. So when their first North American club tour reached Toronto, I was surprised when tickets sold out fast. I didn’t see them until five years later at a venue (Corel Centre) way bigger than their own capacity warranted, in my opinion.

But I’ll stop there before the ranting begins.

To sum up, “Yellow” is a great rocker that generated a lot of excitement back in 2000 and taken on its own, time really hasn’t changed any of that for me. Enjoy.

Categories
Vinyl

Vinyl love: Blur “Think tank”

(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: Blur
Album Title: Think tank
Year released: 2003
Year reissued: 2012
Details: 7 of 7 in Blur 21, anniversary box set, black vinyl, 180 gram, 2 x LP, Gatefold sleeve

The skinny: Blur’s 7th album is their first recorded as a trio. Though Coxon appears on the album’s final track, he effectively left the band during its recording, given the usual artistic differences. It continues down the art rock path forged by “13” with obvious influences from Damon Albarn’s time spent working with Gorillaz.

Standout track: “Out of time”