The giant puddle of drool that was the Arcade Fire post is finally cleared up and I'm ready to get back to business as usual. Let's get started, shall we?
The Archies - "Sugar, Sugar"
Today this would be a straight-up promo for candy, but back in the 1960s and 70s people couldn't get enough of fictional bands on television - especially in cartoons. The Archies were the house band of 1968-69's The Archie Show (Archie had a bit of an ego, it seems) and boast the only #1 single by a "virtual" artist, unless you count that Crazy Frog thing from a few years back.
(Here's the song as performed by Ron Dante, the "voice of the Archies"; video is not embeddable)
For television filler, "Sugar, Sugar" is a surprisingly well-written song with a great shelf life, the product of a pop songwriting dream team: it was penned by bubblegum vets Andy Kim ("Rock Me Gently") and Jeff Barry (co-writer of dozens of pop hits including "Leader of the Pack," "Do Wah Diddy," and "Cherry, Cherry"). It's best played loud on the most joyous of occasions.
Architecture in Helsinki - In Case We Die
It's difficult for me to listen to Architecture in Helsinki and not think about I'm From Barcelona or Tilly and the Wall or Still Flyin'...somebody in this equation is definitely getting ripped off.
In Case We Die finds AiH attempting to out-twee all of the above and, as luck would have it, they're pretty good at that. The record's hit, "Do the Whirlwind," is a bratty slice of suburban hip-pop with some clumsy sitar, and "Wishbone" is as creepily sexual and non-sexual as an MJ slumber party ("Should we make believe/You're in bed with me?"). "The Cemetery" is the peak of the band's wide-eyed enthusiasm, a song that sounds like it was played entirely on Casios and harmonicas and anything else left in the toybox, and manages to make a trip to a graveyard seem like the Funnest Thing Ever.
(Not the most effective video, but a really cool one regardless)
Architecture in Helsinki is so inherently childlike and playfully naive and really might not be comparable to I'm From Barcelona at all; they're more like They Might Be Giants stripped of all cynicism and irony.
Arctic Monkeys
Arctic Monkeys have always seemed better to me in theory than in practice. I feel I should have more interest in/appreciation for the standard-bearers of evolutionary Britpop, but perhaps I discovered them at a point when I felt that I had personally exhausted the genre. If I prefer Razorlight to Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not, it's not only a matter of taste but also timing. Also, I misspelled "Arctic" on a fifth-grade spelling test, a psychological trauma that still impedes my cognitive process whenever a hard "c" is involved.
"Fluorescent Adolescent" is one of a handful of Monkeys songs that brings back those warm, fuzzy memories of Cool Britannia, breezy and bitterly nostalgic. Alex Turner's charmingly relentless vocal only adds to the song's knowing, weary mood.
But when I think of Arctic Monkeys, I think of a general sound instead of a particular song or album. I think of crooning over surf-tinged guitars, a motif I've dubbed "secret agent swing." I think of throwaway ballads. I think of loud and blistering music with a level of polish that's slightly off-putting when you begin to notice it. I think of thoroughly British album titles (Favourite Worst Nightmare; Humbug). I think of Pulp with less cheek and darker humor. And I think that "Dangerous Animals" sounds kinda similar to the theme from Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.
No comments:
Post a Comment