NAILED Songs of the Week #34
“there’s blood drops coming down from the ceiling”
Carrie Seitzinger, Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of NAILED:
"Spat Out Spit" – Lady Lamb
A few months ago, before I learned of Aly Spaltro and her music, I started calling my little cat Lady Lamby. We give our animals nicknames so they can find their familiar place in the world just like we insist on being called by our names, social and domestic, yet non-definitive.
I'm impressed by Spaltro's energy and the finesse with which her music and her voice meet. The songs from her new album After seem to flow out of her, expressing her essence, and they don't sound quite like anyone else to me. If we pay attention to the lyrics in "Spat Out Spit," we are asked to consider how strange and animal we are, and how perhaps we should remain more animal, giving up plotted war or plastic fake. How much of our world is actually just made up of our imaginations?
When I put this album on, my kitty's eyes squinch up. I've been told this blinking is a cat's way of kissing. It usually leads to her keeping them closed and falling asleep. Leads to yawning. Have you ever caught a cat's yawn?
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Guest Editor: Rick Klaras, Songwriter and Guitarist for Golden Octagon:
"Brought to the Water" – Deafheaven
Sun on iguana skin. Lurching holy menace just beneath the dirt. Choke clouds of burning sugar. The swinging thurible.
Shaky hands. A jackhammer in the concert hall.
Pinholes of light in the cumulonimbus.
Dance on this fault line. Look through this telescope.
The curtains are on fire.
We are alone in the orchestra pit. Roll has been called. We are absent.
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Shenyah Webb, Arts Editor of NAILED:
"Sabbath" – Jenny Hval
This song is bizarrely beautiful, beginning with an inner dialog where the words and gaps make sense in brief moments, but the overlying meaning seems to be a mystery that unfolds with each listen. Norwegian artist Jenny Hval truly pushes the boundaries of music with a graphic abstraction in the forefront, summoning strange feelings of comfort and confusion. It's no surprise her work has a weird darkness to it, being that her career began back in '99 as the singer for a gothic metal band, and since that time, she's taken part in tons of musical projects. Apocalypse, girl pulls these peculiar strings throughout its entirety, both a letting go and a reemergence.
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Matty Byloos, Publisher and Contributing Editor of NAILED:
"You're a Germ" – Wolf Alice
The slow build that is the essence of modern songwriting is so entirely present on this song, that "You're a Germ" by Wolf Alice could be used as the basis for a songwriting class for young musicians. And the best part is that you hardly notice it -- it's the kind of thing that just... well, it just functions beneath the actual textures of the song itself.
Strip down for the verse, build up to the chorus, explode, repeat. Don't let this give you the wrong impression -- it's not that easy to do, and it is in no way whatsoever meant to be dismissive of Wolf Alice's song or their music. Enough apologies already. Let me be clear: I effing love this song.
We've talked before about my love for any use of narrative in music videos, and this one leverages the storyline of great slasher movies from the 70s and 80s as its touchpoint. Grainy, terrifying, slightly slowed down. Next thing you know, there's blood drops coming down from the ceiling, and then the axe blade introduces itself via the front door. Pretty soon, people are getting killed in their hiding places. See how the narrative of the video follows the song-building structure noted earlier? That's art, people. Love it.
My very favorite aspect of the song is the subtle use of vocals throughout, often buried in the softer elements of the song and employed as moody, understated, instrument-like tones and melodies. There's voices in them hills, and they're the same ones in your head. Or worse, they're the ones breaking into your cabin and coming to find you in your hiding place before they murder you.
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