So, three songs, from the last seven days:
3: Great DJ – The Ting Tings
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At first listen, The Ting Tings sound like pretty straightforward pop, with moments of the daft inspiration that make Los Campesinos and The Go! Team so intriguing. Further listens make you realise that there’s more than a little debt to be paid to The Talking Heads, here, and I heartily endorse that product and/or service.
(Someone at work dismissed them, saying that it is just another shouty girly like in Republica. There’s an age difference, there: I still remember this sort of thing as being rare enough to be interesting, but I guess she grew up through a whole bunch of power-pop girl-vocal bands.)
The final chant of “The Drums, the drums” unnerves me, and I can’t put it down. And the jangly guitar intro is just sugar-tasting sweet.
2: Yeah Yeah Yeah, What’s Going On? – The Flying White Dots
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In some ways, the perfect mash-up… Two totally different, totally brilliant songs, that seem perfectly designed to crunch together. This has been on rotation for me since I got it months ago. It might be in future posts, too. For which I can’t apologise…
You can get the whole mash-up album that this is from, “At War With The Misfits”, from here.
1: On The Radio – Regina Spektor
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I’ve been thinking about this song, for one reason or another, since my godbrother’s funeral. There are the obvious lyrical and literal reasons. There’s an early reference to driving a hearse through a screaming crowd, a subversive, dark and yet hilarious image, that fits a little with the beautiful and dischordant service that was given for Phil, but also appeals to me at a basic level.
Plus, it sounds amazing – Spektor’s voice is amazing, and has the perfect range for the storytelling nature of the song, and the music is wonderful, energetic but at the same time flowing along with the narrative.
I think the main reason the song has been on my mind is that I decided at the time that I’d like it played at my own funeral. There’s something in it – it’s deep, and sad, in that it reflects days gone by, but it’s more poignant than ponderous, and Spektor lifts you up with her pragmatic positivity.
And there’s a repeated reference to the song “November Rain” by Guns And Roses, which I always remember as a very dramatic and sweeping anthem, that fits with a somber ceremony, but is just a little too long and melodramatic to actually be any more than referred to!
(Incidentally, the website Respektonline.com has some great video of Spektor’s performance of this song on the Jonathan Ross show. Very nice indeed…)
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