- sleepwalker
- a song about trust, and about people who can't take the blame for what they do. a vocal line introduces the song, getting
the melody in right away in order to establish the fact that this is a pop song. the song opens out as james switches from hooky
arpeggios to expansive delayed chords, until the chorus explodes with the punishing refrain, 'when there's no-one else to blame it must
be you.' there follows a kind of curious classical exposition on a completely different melodic theme, before resolving again
into the verse. the second chorus is followed by something very close to a guitar solo, before jimmy closes
the song with a gently plucked guitar epilogue.
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- spanish song
- probably the most emotional of the songs on the album. on first hearing this song appears quite delicate but further inspection of the lyrics will reveal that all is
perhaps not quite what it seems. a delicate piano line is accompanied by an addictive bass line in the verse, whilst the vocal
slips in and out of choirboy falsetto. suddenly, however, this jacknifes into a thrashing chorus, all dirty guitars, crushing
bass and infectious drumming, as skinny boy mark half-screams, 'with you it's everything / down to the scars on your arms / i'll
give you everything / i'll carve your name in my arm.' a chiming guitar interlude follows the second chorus, whereupon drums and bass
power the song back into a final, desperate chorus and an unnecessarily overwrought ending. this, as the lyric notes, is a love song.
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- selfish me
- imagine rage against the machine and the red hot chili peppers having a scrap in an alleyway with bottles
and knives. right. that's what 'selfish me' sounds like. the intro is all funk bass, wah-wah guitars, scratch replicas
and stop-start fractal drumsmithery, which then clatters into an almighty dc-dischord riff. a taut, tense verse decorated
with delicate lead guitar notes that, 'neither wins but someone loses least.' there's a discernible nirvana influence in the
easy, melodic accessibility of the chorus, and in the resigned apathy in the lines, 'i'm unkind, but that's what makes it me.'
an extended funk break precedes an airy interlude at the end, full of intricately woven guitars, whispered vocals
and an ever-present tension maintained by the driving bass guitar. the ending is a suitably frenetic resolution, the band slamming through
the song's key riff in a manner very reminiscent of the deftones' 'root'.
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- end of summer
- perhaps the closest the band have got to achieving their loosely stated aim of crossing classically-inflected melodies
with metal dynamics. a lazy half-time drum intro drives the song into an incredibly heavy, hugely distorted exposition
on a classical theme, the effect being added to by owen developing the lead guitar part into a string section. funk influences
are again evident in the verse, underpinning syncopated guitars and a wistful lyric that notes, 'now dappled leaves
decorate the breeze and fall like blossom over the streets / the memories retreat, the reverie's complete'.
a curious, jazz-inflected guitar break builds into a punishing chorus, showcasing a distinct system of a down
influence. over the gentle refrain, 'here comes the end of summer,' the song dies away to nothing, before returning
slowly in a haze of almost prodigy-esque looped and phased riffs, fret harmonics and more fractal drumming, building
to a crushingly heavy finale, which stops dead, much like a car accident.
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