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The bit that you skip #296: Cameo – Candy
I’m a sucker for a song with a “weird” structure. You know the type. Something like Journey’s Don’t Stop Believing. All hook, interesting verse structure. Cameo’s career has sadly been summarised by that stupid SNL skit with Word Up!, a song that is actually great, but now reduced to a meme. Candy is the superior…
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The bit that you skip #295: Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark – So in love
For years, the instrumental of this song was the identity track for a local tv channel in Mexico. It was interwoven to many childhood memories, good and bad, and of sitting on a mustard coloured carpet, a small table where my notebook and pile of homework to solve, the afternoon cartoon line-up helping my concentration…
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The bit that you skip #294: Genesis – That’s all
On Genesis twelfth (!) album, Genesis, the band finally caught the eye of the common shopper. A combination of being in the right place and at the right time plus Phil Collins’ meteorical rise, their self-titled album was an inflection point on their career. The band became a trio in 1978, barely surviving Peter Gabriel’s…
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The bit that you skip #293: Jackson Browne – Running on empty
Jackson Browne often gets paired with The Eagles due to his cowriting credits on Doolin Dalton, James Dean, and the utterly perfect Take it easy. No, really, that’s what I believe it’s the best song by The Eagles, no matter what you Lebowski quoting freaks repeat ad nauseaum. Jackson’s own career is often overlooked, and…
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The bit that you skip #292: Autolux – Sugarless
After the terrific Failure imploded, leaving Fantastic Planet as their crown jewel of their legacy, Greg Edwards continued exploring the space rock sound with his own band, Autolux. With drummer extraordinaire Carla Azar, Autolux’s debut Future Perfect is a genre bending killer of an album. Jazzy beats, shoegaze atmospheres and noise rock parlor tricks pervade…
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The bit that you skip #291: Sting – All this time
Since splitting from The Police, Sting moved further and further into an adult contemporary pop that styled itself with jazz and chamber pop elements. On his third solo album, The Soul Cages, he adds this very 90s production that once you hear it in one album, you’ll hear it everywhere. It’s not a bad thing…
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The bit that you skip #290: The Jim Yoshii Pile-Up – Double Negative
Oakland natives The Jim Yoshii Pile-Up can be a hard band to pin down. They could write the earnest sad songs this side of slocore, like in Reckless Driving. They could also go for textured indie that veered into post rock, as in today’s choice Double Negative. I quite loved them, and got a whole…
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The bit that you skip #289: Pissed Jeans – Boring Girls
Success is fickle and sometimes takes longer than expected. Pissed Jeans and their hardcore punk took their sweet time to hit their stride, but once they did, the louder fanbase of punk felt sated by their raucous, seedy rock. I can’t claim to know them from their humble beginnings in 2005, but instead, like many…
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The bit that you skip #288: Nick Drake – Horn
I discovered Nick Drake because of Duncan Sheik. An interview from his Phantom Moon era mentioned Drake as an influence and I had to check him out. I was obsessed with Pink Moon for a month or two. It was during a bout of unemployment, insomnia, and general depression. I would sometimes go and walk…
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The bit that you skip #287: Beastie Boys – Sure Shot
Before 1994, all I knew about Beastie Boys was a throwaway gag on Mad Magazine. It was something on the nature of 90s kids when they are old, and how their sons/grandsons would need to come with something more offensive than the Beastie Boys. Sabotage came out as the lead single and knocked everyone off…
