Forgive me, friends, it's going to be one of those posts. Robin said: I
do agree that Underachievers Please Try Harder is probably the better album - it's one of the best albums I've heard for ages.
To Underachievers Please Try Harder, I'd like to add Holding Hands, Feeding Ducks by The Brunettes, straight outta, um, New Zealand I think. Hang on, let me check. Actually no mention of their origin on the album sleeve, but there's a thank you to Neil Finn, so that must mean they're Kiwis, right? Perhaps not. The sleeve *does* say that the p in a circle and the c in a circle were 2002, but I've only just heard about them so I'm counting it as a 2003 release. Just try and stop me. It's one of those cute, funny, dreamy, happysad, occasionally twee, more often playful and knowing, amazing, clever, and inspiring records that makes you want to start badgering people and making tapes and passing them on, you know *just like back in the day*. Or 1997, as it's otherwise known. Robin also said:
It's funny, I've heard a few people dissing the whole "I'd rather be in Tokyo, I'd rather listen to Thin Lizzy-oh" line, because it doesn't rhyme properly. I find this very odd. Stuart's lyrics have never really rhymed properly. In Lord Anthony he rhymes "toff" with "maths". I don't think rhyming has ever had anything to do with why i like Stuart's lyrics. Anyone can use a rhyming dictionary if they want to. I expect he doesn't want to.
I agree. Two points. One: mere rhyming doesn't denote talent. It certainly has nothing to do with a great song. The best songs are always just off-rhyme, things that shouldn't rhyme but do, because of the phrasing, the delivery, the emotion, or all of the above. Two: the quoted couplet is actually very clever - you can almost see the smirk on his face as he's singing it. You have to be a good lyricist to pull off that kind of crazy shit, girlfriend. It's all very well to moan "oh, it's just sticking an -o on the end" but no-one else thought of it did they? The best ideas are always as plain as the face on your nose. The fact that, as Senor Chu pointed out at our recent coffee morning, it's actually a nod to Thin Lizzy's cover of "Whiskey In The Jar", which goes "I'll have a whiskey in the jar-o" makes it even better. Do you see? How many levels? It's working on? That's right: two. It's also funny. Which is good enough for me. Three levels then. Well, two and a half. That's about it. This album by The Brunettes is still great, by the way. Bless them. x +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ Brought to you by the Sinister mailing list +---+ To send to the list mail sinister@missprint.org. To unsubscribe send "unsubscribe sinister" or "unsubscribe sinister-digest" to majordomo@missprint.org. WWW: http://www.missprint.org/sinister +-+ "sinsietr is a bit freaky" - stuart david, looper +-+ +-+ "legion of bedroom saddo devotees" "peculiarly deranged fanbase" +-+ +-+ "pasty-faced vegan geeks... and we LOST!" - NME April 2000 +-+ +-+ "frighteningly named Sinister List organisation" - NME May 2000 +-+ +-+ "sick posse of f**ked in the head psycho-fans" - NME June 2001 +-+ +-+ Nee, nee mun pish, chan pai dee kwa +-+ +-+ Snipp snapp snut, sa var sagan slut! +-+ +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+