For years this was my favorite song on what I would have described as a half-assed attempt to be current, schizophrenic debut. It’s barely a blip, coming in at under 2 minutes. It’s speed metal with feedback, full stops, lightning solos and, surprisingly no drum flash. Given that it was Continue Reading
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Queen for a Day – The Night Comes Down
Oh, if ever there was a song that sounded like a band obsessed with Jimmy Page it’s this one. Written by May between Smile and Queen it smacks of all that is annoying about 70s frilly-hippy-metal rock. Goofball lyrics (“Lucy was high and so was I), a sound so desperate Continue Reading
Queen for a Day: Liar
Liar opens Side Two of Queen and it is truly the moment when the band declared their importance in the pantheon of theatrical rock. It’s credited to Freddie Mercury but that was mainly because he decided that the lyricist (and hence the writer of the melody) should be the writer Continue Reading
Queen for a Day – My Fairy King
As we close the side one of the debut album we are privy to the first real taste of the Queen Sound. Multi-layered baking vox, histrionic vocals, triumphant falsetto, balladeering mid-section and some fiery ferocious piano playing (the first we’ve gotten to hear from Freddie) all result in a splendid Continue Reading
Queen for a Day – Great King Rat
Oh, the 70s. Queen was one of those bands that, in their early days, got caught up in the middle earthian mythologies that groups like Zeppelin were dabbling in. Sandals, middle ages, pomp, etc. While Great King Rat is not about that, per se, it sounds like it should be. Continue Reading
Queen for a Day – Doing All Right
The second track on Queen’s debut record is a dribbly ballad that wishes it was Zeppelin but comes across as a treacly ode to the burgeoning California sound. It breaks into sections, falls into a minor key, comes back as a jazzy groove number, it’s all over the place and Continue Reading
Queen for a Day – Keep Yourself Alive
On November 24th 1991 Freddie Mercury died. He was my age. That just really blows my mind… Queen really started in 1972 although they formed 2 years prior, and, like lightning, were topping the british charts in no time. They exploded here for a while and by 1985 had almost Continue Reading
Listening Post: The Mountain Goats – The Life of the World to Come
The Mountain Goats – The Life of the World to Come – 2009 I’ve been listening to the 27 part Yale lecture series on the Civil War which I downloaded from iTunes. The lecturer, David Blight, is an expert on the subject and suggests a series of corollary works to Continue Reading
Listening Post: The Mountain Goats – Heretic Pride
The Mountain Goats – Heretic Pride – 2008 This review was originally presented in Shuffleboil. In “San Bernadino,” the second track on The Mountain Goats’ new album “Heretic Pride,” John Darnielle sings, “We got in your car and we hit the highway.” A simple line that, through the economy of Continue Reading
Listening Post: The Mountain Goats – Get Lonely
The Mountain Goats – Get Lonely – 2006 Get Lonely will always have a very special place in my heart. If you scroll down this blog you’ll see the video for “Woke Up New”, a song that perfectly describes my feelings of loss after my daughter Lizzie died. The album Continue Reading