Tuesday, April 8, 2025

Cocteau Twins - seekers who are lovers, 1995

"Milk and Kisses, and therefore, the Cocteau Twins recording career, ends with Seekers Who Are Lovers. As the last song in a long and glorious career, you feel yourself willing Guthrie, Raymond and Fraser to produce a musical masterpiece out of the bag. This you want to be their Ulysses moment. They don’t disappoint. Out goes the wall of sound, in comes a much more subdued and temperate performance from Guthrie and Raymond. They hold themselves back, Fraser steps forward, and produces a performance that is brilliant. She sings the song with passion and feeling, as if knowing this is the end of their career. Not only is it one of her best performances on the album, but one the best in her career. Her voice soars, gracefully, its ethereal beauty apparent and transparent. It has a classical quality, a sweetness, a grace."

Saint Etienne - action, 2002

"I was reading a lot about the situationists and psychogeography at the time, which also fed into the film Finisterre."

Dido - slide, 1999

"Dido wrote this song to help reconcile her depression. It was the mid-'90s and she was in a panic over her management and publishing contracts she signed that she came to regret. Feeling trapped, she stayed in the house and ran through her conundrum over and over in her head."

REM - leaving new york live, 2005

"In early live performances of the song (September 2004), the band would play Michael Stipe's "It's pulling me apart. Change." album backing vocal during the chorus and bridge of live performances. As early as February 2005, however, as evidenced on the R.E.M. Live disc, the band worked up an alternative whereby the backing vocals would be shared amongst Mike Mills, Scott McCaughey and Ken Stringfellow in order to make the song flow more smoothly."

R Missing - heavens lower, 2023

"Heavens Lower, marked by its moody and melancholic allure. Despite the somber undertones, the song exudes an astounding vibrancy, characterized by soft, wistful vocals and a rich, atmospheric production. The synthpop track uniformly combines danceable qualities with a contemporary dreampop sensibility. The glimmering tone of the track sets it apart, creating a type of ambiance that captures both introspection and vitality."

Monday, April 7, 2025

Neil Young - old man, 1972

"About that time when I wrote ("Heart of Gold"), and I was touring, I had also — just, you know, being a rich hippie for the first time — I had purchased a ranch, and I still live there today. And there was a couple living on it that were the caretakers, an old gentleman named Louis Avila and his wife Clara. And there was this old blue Jeep there, and Louis took me for a ride in this blue Jeep. He gets me up there on the top side of the place, and there's this lake up there that fed all the pastures, and he says, "Well, tell me, how does a young man like yourself have enough money to buy a place like this?" And I said, "Well, just lucky, Louis, just real lucky." And he said, "Well, that's the darnedest thing I ever heard." And I wrote this song for him."

The Mary Onettes - the companion, 2007

"The Mary Onettes, a guitars-and-keyboards band from Sweden, don't make any excuses about sounding awfully 80s, and their indie-romantic touchstones aren't so different from any other new-wavers': This debut album includes broad, obvious borrows from both New Order and the Cure, and fainter echoes of plenty of other stars from that constellation."