I love getting singles before an album comes out. I've actually run out and bought CD singles before there were such things as mp3's (or before I cared enough to know what they were). I'm obviously way too young for 45's, and by the time I got a record player I couldn't be bothered to pay money for two tracks. Anyway, what with this internet and all, singles are now much easier to find. And cheaper too. I recently came by two songs off of albums I'm very much looking forward to: "Lazer Beam" by Super Furry Animals (from Love Kraft), and "7/4 (Shoreline)" by Broken Social Scene (from a forthcoming self-titled album).
Let's start with the Super Furry Animals. Anybody who's a fan of them already knows that they're more or less insane, and sure enough, this is no different. Fuzzy ear-piercing guitar solos, harmonizing falsetto vocals, a string section straight out of an Elton John song, so many bips and boops that there's no point in even trying to figure out where they're coming from, handclaps, and just for good measure, there's a vocoder! This is frantic, sometimes abrasive, and nearly incoherent, and I wouldn't have the SFA any other way.
The Broken Social Scene song doesn't fare quite as well. Supposedly this is the properly mixed and mastered version, but if that's the case, I suggest they go back and try it again, because there are moments where I can barely make out the lead vocals, or anything other than drums for that matter. And it sounds like I'm hearing some clipping. The song itself is passable, but not great, and I couldn't help but wonder if it would have any distinguishing characteristics at all if it wasn't in 7/4 time. The title also works against it, because I find naming songs after their own odd time signatures more annoying than cute*. The only part of the song that jumps out at me is the part with the horns at the end, although I wasn't even sure if they were horns or a string section, or maybe synthesizers until the end (there's the mix problem again). I'm not really all that discouraged by this song, since my favorite parts of the last Broken Social Scene album were the instrumentals anyway (ironically, their first album is almost entirely instrumental, and I think that album is pretty boring... their skills sure progressed a lot in between albums), and not the upbeat rockers like "Almost Crimes" (which I suppose is the closest reference point for this track).
And here's how good of a guy I am. Both songs, in their entirety, right here for downloading! Here's hoping the FCC isn't monitoring me.
Broken Social Scene: "7/4 (Shoreline)"
Super Furry Animals: "Lazer Beam"
(Scroll down, click "FREE," wait a few seconds, and they're yours.)
*Could you imagine if a group like the Dave Brubeck Quartet did that? Their biggest hit was sort of named after its time signature ("Take Five"), but if they did that for every song they had that wasn't in 4/4 or 3/4 (or 6/8), every song would be a set of numbers.
No comments:
Post a Comment