|
User
Reviews 123
Approval 95%
Soundoffs 238
News Articles 11
Band Edits + Tags 250
Album Edits 1,483
Album Ratings 0
Last Active 12-23-19 9:27 pm
Joined 09-16-14
Review Comments 22,503
| The Soft-Spoken Endeavours
As I am actively attempting to become a sort of local regular insightful-nonsense, long-ass rhetorical lists (with this lazy piece as a starter) poster, I shall venture into all parts of my musique préféré. This time around I dissect the softer, Folkier and Popier kind of Rock music. (not Folk-Rock, mind you, that'll be another list) | | 1 |  | Alex Turner
Submarine OST
Stuck on the Puzzle
"Something in your magnetism must have pissed them off"
Needless to say, Arctic Monkeys' experiment with softer sound didn't go over all that well as Suck It and See is far from anyone's favourite album. The closest to a successful interpretation of the style they ever did was on Cornerstone from Humbug. But something did rise up around that time. Alex Turner jumped over into a solo carriage for a brief moment to compile a couple of semi-original recordings for Richard Ayoade's directorial debut, Submarine. ?The result is exactly what I wanted Suck It and Se to be (since we're obviously skipping their much more desirable Psychadelic stage altogether). And this track encapsulates that. It's a relaxed and pleasant love ballad Alex has mastered writing over all thise years. Sure, it might not reach the tops of any Arctic Monkeys related list, but it's an often too dismissed a gem from an era that would ultimately bring on AM's creative demise, in my opinion. | | 2 |  | Radiohead
In Rainbows
Nude
"Don't get any big ideas, they're not gonna happen"
You can't possibly talk about soft music and omit mentioning the magicians of creeping tenderness. I don't really have any particular tie to this song, so there's no real reason why I chose it over some of their other work, but it just seems fitting. It's a slow-pace, atmospheric track that takes a while to grow on you, but it most definitely will. | | 3 |  | Jarvis Cocker
Further Complications
Further Complications
"Don't write a novel, a shopping list is better."
The least soft song on this list as it is filled with riveting and almost Post-Punk-ish instrumentation and production, as well as Jarvis' throttling vocals. His hilarious satirical views on the world are highlighted by the quirkiness of the songwriting and the eventual pretend-silliness. | | 4 |  | Franz Ferdinand
Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action
Leaving My Old Life Behind (Jonathan Halper cover)
"To everyone else I appear quite the same"
Even the queens of rad and fun had to at some point craft together a softer ballad. For the purposes of submitting something for the LateNightTales musical series, they dug up an ancient, god forgotten song from some short film, equally as lost in oblivion. It's a soothing and melodramatic song full of hope and determination. | | 5 |  | The Veils
Time Stays, We Go
Birds
"Fearsome black birds crying high, but they'll be no warning when I die"
Not every softness is made to soothe your aches, some are of hellish shapes and nightly mourns. The Veils are quite notorious for their often dismal themes and outright dark tones. But that is all just part of the charm. And while I could pick any number of countless times their (in my opinion best) album, Total Depravity, played along the lines of sombre and methodically dark, I will dig deeper and unearth this ol' gem that is hidden within one of their more adventurous outputs. It's a brooding melancholy-filled ballad, exploring themes of isolation, disconnection and depression in an artistically emmaculate way. | | 6 |  | Pfarmers
Our Puram
Sheela
"The Queen surrounds herself with expensive friends."
And let's also tackle the idea of obscure, off-the-wall and weird music. Pfarmers is what you get, whem you take Menomena and a bunch of other weirdos, who want to sound like Menomena. It's a strange, strange little musical voyage filled with dizzyingly disorienting instrumentation and a pleasantly sweet songwriting. | | 7 |  | Get Well Soon
Love
It's Love
"Chin up, proud daughter. Now make daddy proud."
What is love? If the music video tells me anything, it's kidnapping a girl and making her eat prawn (god, I love Udo Kier in this). But if judging by the mood and the arrangement of the song, love is a bitch, whose existence you'll just have to make yourself accept. It's a conniving plot that lures you into sweetness, but ultimately makes you go through emotional hell. At the end of it, you'll be much more mature and numb to the enticdes of passion. You will overcome all dread and despair and you will be all the better person afterwards. | | 8 |  | Elbow
Build A Rocket Boys!
The Night Will Always Win
"I miss your stupid face, I miss your bad advice"
Elbow have done something no other band managed. They made a one-note piano song that actually works. I normally utterly detest all sorts of fuckery with overly simplistic chord structuring of songs, especially when it's a piano ballad (think Say Something with that blonde lady as an example). But this song actually reeks of heartbreak. It doesn't have any other instrumentation, or even a further expanded tune on the piano, because it doesn't need one. Much like the lot of their songs, it states its utter inner sadness not by exploiting it and rudely slapping you in the face withit, but by calmly admitting to it. Confiriming the devastating emotional bitterness they experience with subtlety and tenderness. And that's what strikes the most. | | 9 |  | Mark Lanegan
Phantom Radio
Dry Iced
"I set the fields on fire, but still my hands are cold"
I do this sometimes, scrolling through the lyrics of all sorts of artist online without knowing what the music sounds like and imagining what the song is probably like, based on my previous experiences with those artists. Upon doing that with Mark Lanegan I stumbled across this gem of wonderous lyrics. Never did I ever expect Mark Lanegan of all people to have an electronic song. And surprisingly good one at that. It's a long-winded, calm, self-repeating, pulsating track with some magnificently poignant lyrics. | | 10 |  | The Astronauts
Peter Pan Hits The Suburbs
Protest Song
"It seems that fools control this world"
This is basically a spoiler for my next Don't You Forget Us instalment. Mark Astronauts (that's his actual name) made a song that was a protest to... well, anything really. He is a man of the most soft-hearted anarchists and his music reflects that. On this song he cries out a distress call, criticising nothing in particular, and merely everything at all. He is frustrated with the world, but can't word exactly with what, in a beautifully gentle array of confusion and stress. | | 11 |  | James
Laid
Laid
"Dressed me up in women's clothes, messed around with gender roles"
What begins as a rather cheeky, silly sex ballad turns into a more or less questionable story. I guess the idea "Doesn't matter, got laid anyway." is twisted and turned here, exploited to the very flim. Still, I can't deny the song's catchiness, playful nature and, most importantly, instrumental softness. That's what I was looking for, that's what I got. | | 12 |  | The Angelus
There Will Be No Peace
There Will Be No Peace
"We laid our bodies down upon the battleground"
This list is full of all sorts of music, but they all usually are connected by an acoustic guitar. So is this song, but there is a twist with this one. It's Doom Metal. Doom Metal played as Folk, softly, gently, tenderly. It's a little odd to observe that, but it has its own charm and the crescendo is oh so satisfying. | | 13 |  | Destroyer
Kaputt
Naturally, this is far from being finished, so while I'm thinking of more soft Rock songs, you do your part and suggest, suggest, suggest. | |
Papa Universe
08.17.17 | Waiting for butcherboy to rec me some proper Mark Lanegan songs...or Tom Waits, whatever he feels like... | Papa Universe
08.17.17 | ...okay, not then, I guess. | Papa Universe
12.03.17 | oh shit, this never got finished... | butcherboy
12.03.17 | How did I miss this list? | butcherboy
12.03.17 | I'll hit you up in a bit | Papa Universe
12.03.17 | updated a few entries, cause why not | butcherboy
12.03.17 | Tindersticks - whiskey and water
David Bowie - the bewlay brothers
Pavement - here
John Cale - guts
Brian eno - golden hours
Mark lanegan - strange religion
The fall - Disney dream debased
Sonic youth - incinerate |
|
