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Rating:
Describe your music in three words. Ben F. replies: "Totally amazing and fantastic". From a May interview with the BBC. He's right, it's the best and most appropriate description. When it comes to defining where the band comes from, the first problems arise. Ben Fox Smith (guitar and vocals) is from London, Ben Ellis (bass) is Scottish, while Darryn Harkness (guitar) and Ronnie Growler (drums) are from New Zealand. They are from hmm… Bristol. At least the NME says they are based in Bristol.
This is their first album, produced by David Sardy (Helmet, Marilyn Manson, System of A Down, RATM, Bush, Supergrass). They play indie pop with a crooked edge with occasional explosions of anger, serene anger where voice and guitars meld together. "Stephen’s in the Sky" is the opening track, starting with an arpeggio, the nonchalant voice that at times sinks into the distortions and effects of the guitars. In "Day By Day", it sounds like Brian Molko, while the guitars converse; "Things Fall Apart" is perhaps the most carefree episode but also the weakest with Beach Boys-like harmonies "californian girlfriend I am calling from the end", with Darryn doing the backing vocals. Almost college-pop.
But the masterpiece is "Numerical". This one really gets me going. It starts with detached jerks à la Helmet. Softer. “I must accept progression lose inept depression”. Then it takes countless directions, changing tempo. And in the chorus, I feel like rolling on the floor, diving into the wall: " ‘cos-I-don’t-see-as-in-my-soul, I'd call it numerical". It has that thing that grabs your spine and releases endorphins. I don't see the sense in the lyrics, but the second guitar twists into a hook, a repeated riff slightly slower than the main tempo and regularly rises by an octave, screaming. And it starts again. The songs are simple, the complete lyrics are repeated twice and then they end, but "Numerical" seems to last much longer than its 3:40 length. It could last forever. At times, it feels like hearing Cobain's anger. Ben F.’s voice, however, maintains its own character, beyond the examples I give for simplicity.
A beautiful indie-pop as I understand it, with some calmer moments, in "Peaches From Spain" it sounds like Thom Yorke, but then you remember the verse: "oh my God your house is so full of pain, you can ask me if you are insane...and there's nothing like you around, you are a sound". And as a final reference, I mention Catherine Wheel, for those who lived through the wonderful year 1991.
From the CD booklet: :"...fear of the demonstrably fatal institutions for which, in our suicidal loyalty, we are ready to kill and die. Fear of the Great Men whom we have raised, by popular acclaim to a power which they use, inevitably, to murder and enslave us. Fear of the War we don’t want and yet do everything we can to bring about". From Ape and Essence by Aldous Huxley
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
02 Day by Day (03:04)
Just past my window,
She dances real slow,
Under the seam
Is a dream, is a dream.
There's something obscene,
In a dream, in a dream.
You make my lungs sweat,
My liquid skin set,
Under the seam
Is a dream, is a dream.
There's something obscene,
In a dream, in a dream.
Just like my rainbow,
She likes it real slow,
Under the seam
Is a dream, is a dream.
There's something obscene,
In a dream, in a dream.
You wake up, you go down,
There's something in between,
Day by day.
You wake up, you go down,
There's something in between,
Day by day.
My pores are open,
To every motion,
Under the seam
Is a dream, is a dream.
There's something obscene
In a dream, in a dream.
Her naked entrance
To naked violence,
Under the seam
Is a dream, is a dream.
There's something obscene,
In a dream, in a dream.
You wake up, you go down,
There's something in between,
Day by day.
You wake up, you go down,
There's something in between,
Day by day.
I've always wanted to be in you.
I've always wanted to be in you.
You wake up, you go down,
There's something in between,
Day by day.
You wake up, you go down,
There's something in between,
Day by day.
04 No Happy (04:15)
Sunday morning
a revelation
I saw myself as
my own salvation
I banged my head against
the brick wall and
I turned around it was him
He said gently now
"Who is it? Your daddy?"
And I said
"I did not know, but sadly
Make a sound and make it loud
With the lightness of a cloud
Write a song about today
There is nothing more to say."
He said
"I thought that nothing matterred
Thats why my perception is in tatters
Come with me and I'll show you something
Come with me and you'll see
Look over there where that bird is standing"
And I sat next to the one thats landing
"That bird knows how good it feels
To exist beneith the wheels
Of a tidal wave of pain
And his happiness will gain."
Go and get no happy
Go and get no happy
Go and get no happy
Go and get no happy
Go and get no happy
Go and get no happy
Go and get no happy
I thank you men
now I feel much better
Now that Im aware
of my nature
'Cause before I was sick in the head
Now it could be your own
Before you go
can I ask one more thing?
He said "yes"
as he started yawning
"How can I feel morally rich
when I live inside a bitch?
And the truth is so far down
that its easy to let it drown?"
He said "Listen to yourself
You sound just like someone else
If you really feel this way
Why dont you end it today?"
((Chorus))
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