Blue Friday: No Feeling

I heard No Feeling by American Football (featuring Brendan Yates) on 6 Music the other night. I knew nothing about the Midwest four-piece or the featured guest vocalist, on loan from Turnstile apparently, but the song stopped me in my tracks. Not literally, fortunately, as I was driving, but metaphorically. It's quite something, I think, to write or sing or create something beautiful, poignant and, perhaps, hopeful from such bleak thoughts and feelings.

Whatever; this might not be one to listen to too often, but it is one to listen to. The band are touring their imminent new album LP4, from whence this comes, in the summer and have a smattering of UK dates if you're interested.

There’s nothing new to say or do
There’s nothing new to crave
Tell the doctors I’m done
The kids, “Adieu”
And Mother, “Désolé”
One last goodbye and one last kiss
One last dance with the Goddess Nyx

No feeling
No pain
No one to blame
Forever awaits
It’s just an eternal blank page

Some bones stand on their own
Some bones are carried
Mine are either, neither, or both -
They just ache to be buried

Help me dig a hole!
I’m already cold!
(I honestly never planned on getting old…)

I know you’re waiting for some sign of life but the pain is too much to endure
Goodnight…

One last goodbye and one last wish
One last slow dance with the Goddess Nyx

No feeling
No pain
No one’s to blame
Forever awaits
It’s just an eternal blank page

Blue Friday: Pain Perdu

Literally, Pain Perdu translates as "lost bread", but it's actually what the French call French toast, I think. Maybe Mr Gedge is trying some semi-clever Franglais to make a pun on "pain". Regardless, despite what the video caption says, this is uncensored as far as I can tell.

I wonder if you still see people that we used to know
I wonder if you still go to places that we used to go
I wonder if you still listen to the bands we used to see
I wonder if you still watch the same TV shows as me

I’d like to know (don’t ask me why I do)
It’s a lifetime ago but I can’t forget you

I wonder if you still lie when somebody asks your age
I wonder if you still spoil stories by reading the last page

I’d like to know (don’t ask me why I do)
It’s a lifetime ago but I can’t forget you

And in all of the years since then and, this is such a dumb thing
I just can’t help it, I think about you every day
And in all of the years when I thought I was looking for something
I already had it and then I threw it all away

I wonder if you still cry when you read some soppy book
I wonder if you still laugh when your grandmother says: “Fuck”

I’d like to know (don’t ask me why I do)
It’s a lifetime ago but I can’t forget you

And in all of the years since then and, this is such a dumb thing
I just can’t help it, I think about you every day
And in all of the years when I thought I was looking for something
I already had it and then I threw it all away

Blue Friday: Videotape

Blue Friday: I Am Hated For Loving

Another gem from Alain Whyte's YouTube channel. The only thing that would improve this video would be having both hands in shot.

Blue Friday: Comfort Me

Another that doesn't sound too blue, musically, but this is Sparklehorse, so you might know better, lyrically. Who doesn't need a little comfort? I know I do.

With rocks in my dress
And smoke in my hair
I walked into a lake
To get some sleep down in there

Won't you come to comfort me?
Won't you come to comfort me?

With minnows in my belly
And deep in my veins
The breath-robbin' lightning
Was making diamonds of rain

Won't you come to comfort me?
Won't you come to comfort me?

I dreamed I was born on a mountain on the moon
Where nothing grows or ever rots
I dreamed that I had me a daughter
Who was magnificent as a horse

Won't you come to comfort me?
Won't you come to comfort me?
Won't you come to comfort me?
Won't you come to comfort me?

Blue Friday: Forever J

Forever J was the opening track of the late, great Terry Hall's 1994 album Home. Co-written, as much of the album was, with "fifth Smith" Craig Gannon, this is pretty far from Terry's more famous work with The Specials, Fun Boy Three and The Colourfield. Indeed, on first listen this atypical fare is almost too smooth, too MOR, too FM-friendly, too conventional. But dig into the lyrics and it really isn't. Imagine being in love with J. "Uncertain, coy and hard to please, she kisses me through gritted teeth." Blimey.

Like Isabelle Adjani
She glides by upon a bank of violets
With those eyes that see it all
And then she smiles

Like a bee with honeyed thighs
A living hell, a slice of heaven
She is Jekyll and Hyde
Every truth and every lie

She holds a candle to my shame
I take everything but blame
When it comes to naming names
I'll name J, forever J

Uncertain, coy and hard to please
She kisses me through gritted teeth
But when I'm weak, she whispers dreams
She says "Oh well, you're no Mel Gibson
But that's okay"
Today could be your lucky day
And I collapse into a heap

She's a bee with honeyed thighs
A living hell, a slice of heaven
She's good, she's bad
It makes me mad
She's all I'll never have

She holds a candle to my shame
I take everything but blame
When it comes to naming names
I'll name J, forever J

She's a bee with honeyed thighs
A living hell, a slice of heaven
She is Jekyll and Hyde
Every truth and every lie

She holds a candle to my shame
I take everything but blame
When it comes to naming names
I'll name J

She laughs and sunshine hits her face
Cries and tears pour down like rain
When it comes to naming names
I'll name J, forever J

And she says
(Kiss me, kiss me, kiss me)
Forever J
(Kiss me, miss me, kiss me)
And she says
(Kiss me, kiss me, kiss me)

Blue Friday: Four Friends

Four Friends was written, produced and conducted by Ennio Morricone for the soundtrack to Brian De Palma's The Untouchables. Long-term readers will probably know that I love everything about that film. You may also recall that, of the four friends this piece is named for, only two make it out of the story alive.

It's a beautiful, beautiful, achingly sad piece.

Blue Friday: You Got Me Wonderin' Now

Not all Blue Friday tunes sound maudlin on first listen - they're not all minor key, slow contemplative spirals. Take today's: You Got Me Wonderin' Now, recorded in 2013 by NYC four-piece Parquet Courts under their pseudonym Parkay Quarts. It buzzes along with joyous energy (or nihilist abandon, perhaps), all motorik drums and garage band guitar chords you can count on the legs of the nearest available tripod. Ah, but those lyrics - here's someone who's been hurt, badly... and decided to sing about it...

Seasick's better than heartsick, baby, I know that much by now
And I thought I knew nausea from sea to cars but 
You've got me wonderin' now

Blimey - what did they do to him? We're all wonderin' now...

A glorious blue noise, and I love, love, love it.

Blue Friday: A Pleasure

Towards the end of my first year as an undergraduate, Hothouse Flowers played the uni. They were still riding the crest of their chart peak, Don't Go, and it was generally considered that the gig was "a big deal". Half of my hall seemed to have tickets. I did not. They all went and had a good time...

...whilst I mooched off alone to a nearby park on campus where the Heineken Big Top had rolled into town, offering a free gig by The Railway Children. All you had to do to get in was contend with a bar that only offered their anaemic gassy yellow excuse for a beer. That aside, the band were alright, as were local support act The Bardots. But I was determined not to enjoy myself, and succeeded.

The half of my hall that went to see Hothouse Flowers rolled back onto the corridor late that night, all buzzing. The girls were unanimous in their swoon for frontman Liam Ó Maonlaí, which of course made me like him and his band even less.

Blue Friday: 1984

Whenever I run out of things to blog about (which is often, after twenty years of this digital guff) I take a look at my YouTube Watch Later list and see what I've saved for future consideration. Which is how I come to be blogging today about 1984 by Anaïs Mitchell.

I'll be honest, I don't know anything about Anaïs that can't be gleaned from her Wikipedia page. I don't know any other songs by her either, except the one that Billy Bragg covered. Blimey, I can't even remember what led me to this song, much less why I saved it in my Watch Later list. I wondered at first if I had heard it as background music in some television show or other but the always-excellent Tunefind tells me it hasn't been used anywhere I'd have heard it, so who knows? What I do know, though, is that (a) I rather like this, and (b) it has some well-crafted dystopian lyrics that seem very "now". There's a real kicker in the last verse too.

Anyway, however it found its way to my ears, here is 1984, from the 2017 album Hymns for the Exiled (the mere title of which is enough to pique my interest). And if all this floats your boat, you can find out more at anaismitchell.com.

Down at headquarters there's a big database
With black and white photos of the side of your beautiful face
And your library records and all your test scores
And an invitation to party like it's 1984

Baby don't look so nervous, they just want the facts
And it's all written out in the USA Patriot Act
'Cause we don't take no chances in a nation at war
So tonight we're gonna party like it's 1984

Oh baby what did I tell you about the house being bugged
They can hear us making breakfast, they can hear us making love
Excuse me a minute, Big Brother's at the door
And he's ready to party like it's 1984

You know you're my one and only, you always have been
Sure is gonna be lonely after I turn you in
So I'll wait 'til tomorrow to file my report
And tonight we can party, oh, tonight we're gonna party
Yeah, tonight we can party like it's 1984

Blue Friday: Ciao!

What do you get if take a peak-Miki Lush, add a dollop of Jarvis, a dash of melodica (I think?) and a cutting, bittersweet break-up lyric? Well, Ciao!, of course. It tries so hard to be upbeat about the turn of events, but the song doth protest too much, I think. From their last album, 1996's Lovelife, here it is.

I've been so happy since I walked away
I never thought that I could feel as great as I do today
'Cause you were nothing but a big mistake
And life is wonderful, now that I'm rid of you

Oh I must've been crazy to have stayed with you
I can't believe I thought I was in love with you
But now the scales have fallen I can really see
And I say go to hell, 'cause thats where you took me

Well, I've felt better since I slammed that door
You always cramped my style, I never noticed before
It's been a non-stop party since I flew the coop
I can't believe I fell for such a loser like you

And is it any wonder that I felt so blue
When I was always having to put up with you
Oh, here we go again, just lay the blame on me
Don't say another word, 'cause sweetheart, you're history

I know that you miss me really
Bet you wish that you still had me
You'll never find someone like me but
I've got no regrets at all

'Cause I've met this girl and she's so good to me
She's really beautiful, fantastic company
Oh, when I'm with her I realize what love can be
Because she's fifty times the person you will ever be

Good luck, mister, do you think I care?
Since you've been gone the offers have been everywhere
I've got a million guys just lining up for me
I've turned a corner, boy, my life is ecstasy

Well, I've been in heaven since I walked away
I never thought that I could feel as great as I do today
'Cause you were nothing but a waste of space
And life is wonderful now that I'm over you

Blue Friday: Slide

Jake Bugg burst into the public consciousness around 2012 when his song Lightning Bolt dovetailed serendipitously with Usain's brilliance at the London Olympics - the song was everywhere, and Jake seemed to be a hip, post-Millennial hybrid of Bob Dylan and Lonnie Donnegan, at least to listeners of a certain age. But there's a lot more to him than that, and Slide is a great example of what.

Lyrics are great for today too, for all those who don't subscribe to the hearts and flowers nonsense of February 14th. "Is love just suffering?" Jake wonders. Good question. Let's not forget, Saint Valentine was beaten with clubs, beheaded and buried under cover of darkness, before being disinterred by his followers... but give a card with that on it and I doubt you'll get laid.

Blue Friday: It's A Wonderful Life

You might expect a song entitled It's A Wonderful Life to be an upbeat ditty but it's anything but. "I'm a bog of poison frogs," intones Sparklehorse frontman and songwriter Mark Linkous, on this 1999 track from the album of the same name. "I'm the dog that ate your birthday cake." And he'd know, I guess. A couple of years earlier, a valium/alcohol/heroin combo very nearly killed him. Even though he survived, he was in a wheelchair for six months and needed dialysis for kidney failure. Don't do drugs, kids.

Whatever demons were eating at Linkous, no amount of critical acclaim sated them. Neither did the respect of his musical peers, as collaborations with the likes of PJ Harvey, Cracker, Tom Waits and Nina Persson were a constant in the life of Sparklehorse. In 2009, the band teamed up with Danger Mouse and the late David Lynch on the album Dark Night of the Soul; it turned out to be one of the last things Linkous did, as he took his own life in March of the following year.

I am the only one
Can ride that horse, th'yonder
I'm full of bees who died at sea

It's a wonderful life, it's a wonderful life

I wore a rooster's blood
When it flew like doves
I'm a bog of poison frogs

It's a wonderful life, it's a wonderful life

I'm the dog that ate your birthday cake

It's a wonderful life, it's a wonderful life

Blue Friday: Sweetness Follows

Depending on my mood, this song can feel the bluest of blue to me, or an uplifting soar into the clouds. Either way, and whatever your mileage, it reminds us of that time 30-plus years ago, when REM were untouchable, the greatest band on the planet. Play REALLY loud.

Readying to bury your father and your mother
What did you think when you lost another?
I used to wonder why did you bother
Distanced from one, blind to the other

Listen here, my sister and my brother
What would you care if you lost the other?
I always wonder why did we bother
Distanced from one, blind to the other

Oh, oh, but sweetness follows

It's these little things, they can pull you under
Live your life filled with joy and wonder
I always knew this altogether thunder
Was lost in our little lives

Oh, oh, but sweetness follows
Oh, oh, but sweetness follows

It's these little things, they can pull you under
Live your life filled with joy and thunder
Yeah, yeah, we were all together
Lost in our little lives

Oh, oh, but sweetness follows
Oh, oh, oh, but sweetness follows

Blue Friday: What It Is

1990's Swagger by The Blue Aeroplanes is an album I return to over and over again, both in life and here on the blog. I've had a brief track from it for a Sunday Short, I've had a longer number for a Monday Long Song, I've had a B-side from an accompanying single and I made the whole thing an early entry onto the Every Home Should Have One master list. I bloody love it, basically.

And now it's time for a Blue Friday post. This is What It Is, from halfway through side two. And yes, that is Michael Stipe on "Ohhhh, ohh oh" backing vocals, thanks for asking.

All of which serves to remind me, and by extension you, of the fact that the Blue Aeroplanes have a new best-of compilation out this very day. You can, and should, grab your copy of Magical Realism right here.

Blue Friday: Bluer Than Midnight

Disclaimer: this post was written in December 2023, and scheduled for future posting. Its contents may no longer be accurate or appropriate.

You might think, on first listen, that this is an upbeat song. Those piano chord progressions sound quite positive, don't they. But the lyrics ... oh, the lyrics.

Save me, save me, save me
Save me, save me, save me

The candles are lit, the curtains are drawn
There's still no sign of rain nor dawn
Our lips touch, our limbs entwine
But the ghosts that haunt me won't leave my mind

Save me, save me, save me
Save me, save me, from myself

One sin leads to another one
Oh, the harder I try
I can never, never, never find peace in this life
I ask myself where does lust come from
Is it something to yield to or be overcome
I ask myself
Why love can never touch my heart like fear does
Why can't love ever touch my heart like fear does?

Blue Friday: Myth

Disclaimer: this post was written in December 2023, and scheduled for future posting. Its contents may no longer be accurate or appropriate.

There's a hypnotic quality to Myth by Beach House that feels somehow perfect for autumn - music to watch leaves fall by, perhaps?

Blue Friday: Plainclothes Man

Disclaimer: this post was written in December 2023, and scheduled for future posting. Its contents may no longer be accurate or appropriate.

This is Plainclothes Man from Heatmiser's final album, 1996's Mic City Sons. If you think the singer looks and sounds like the patron saint of this series, Elliott Smith, well done you, for it was he.

Blue Friday: The Other Woman

Disclaimer: this post was written in December 2023, and scheduled for future posting. Its contents may no longer be accurate or appropriate.

Lana Del Rey's voice belongs to another time. We're lucky to have her now.

Blue Friday: Johannesburg

Disclaimer: this post was written in December 2023, and scheduled for future posting. Its contents may no longer be accurate or appropriate.

I haven't listened to this for an absolute age but by Christ it's a beautiful, sad thing.

And because I spoil you, and you can't have too much Housemartins in your life, here's a bonus live version from the best part of 37 years ago, highlighting young Paul's excellent vocals.