January 25, 2009

NT's greatest hits, vol. 1

Way back when, I moved to New York to be a rock critic. There's a problem with that: There are very few pure critics. Most are journalists, meaning they have to report things, hang out at cheesy awards shows, ask submoronic pop stars stupid questions, etc. I tried all that; I was very bad at it.

More importantly, I discovered that while I loved music, I loved my music. I had no interest in or insight into music that didn't move me, which meant I was SOL when it came to 98 percent
of all music ever performed or recorded. So I switched gears, went to med school and became a radiologist. (No, wait…)

But…the music I love, that stuff I do so, so love. I suggested this when blabbing about my iPod. (BTW, thanks for the check, Steve Jobs.) Recently, I distilled things to their essence and built an iTunes playlist, very accurately titled "My Favorite Songs Ever." Thirty-four tracks in that collection, and I thought it would be interesting to talk about them here, two at a time. Why don't we let iTunes randomly select our first pair…

"OK Apartment" by the Oranges Band
We start off obscure. I know relatively little about The Oranges Band; they're from Baltimore, their frontman used to be in Spoon, they play shuffling, jangly, extremely hooky pop-rock sort of like The Feelies (making them two generations removed from the Velvet Underground). "OK Apartment" is a tense and speedy tune about a guy uncomfortably trapped in his apartment by his own desperation—I think, the lyrics are arty and vague—and it rocks fairly hard, which is a common factor among most of the songs on this list. It also has that displaced anthemic quality that really stirs me; I never get sick of it, and I never fail to be excited by it.

I discovered "OK Apartment" around when it came out, in 2003 or so, by listening to WOXY, an Internet radio station that is an excellent source for alt-rock discoveries. And I've since become a moderate fan of the Oranges Band—the All Around album is terrific, and The World and Everything in It is probably better, and a little strange (though I thought they gave a weak performance at The Mercury Lounge some time ago). But "OK Apartment" beats all: Watch the clever video, support this clever band.

"Just What I Needed" by the Cars
If I had to choose one song on this whole playlist to be my solitary No. 1 favorite, it would be this one. This is a perfect song: The arresting opening riff, an arch but unforced lead vocal, the icy synth hook, a razor-sharp guitar solo—everything. This song is amazing; Ric Ocasek can fuck all the supermodels he wants, as far as I'm concerned.

"Just What I Needed" also follows a common structure among my favorite songs: I call it "tension-release." The verses are tight, anxious, bottled up, but when the chorus hits, it's like the whole song opens wide, or maybe falls of a cliff, and suddenly there's all kinds of space; the tension has been alleviated (temporarily). It's reflected in the lyrics: In the verses, Ben Orr sings about his internal torture over his feelings for this woman (I love that she has "ribbons in her hair"). Then the chorus: He gains some awareness, and provides lyrical counterpoint—she's just what he needed; not his problem, but the solution to his problem. It's an arty new-wave synth-rock love song, really.

Anyway, this song is perfect, and it's a lot of fun to sing with a karaoke band. Go to iTunes and buy it now, please; if you don't own it, you're banned from the Big Quiz Thing for life.

More songs some other time…

13 comments:

Aaron Leichter said...

Ah, your "tension/release" structure. I prefer it to the "slack/slack" structure (commonly found in reggae music). Love the column, looking forward to reading about "Strawberry Fields Forever", "American Girl", & "Come On-a My House".

Hey, did you see the important piece of rock journalism in Slate? It's more of a hater piece than an insightful exploration, but its thesis -- Billy Joel sucks, badly badly sucks -- is hard to argue against.

Anonymous said...

I am the sort of hombre who loves to taste recent things. Currently I'm constructing my personalized photovoltaic panels. I'm managing it all by myself without the help of my men. I am utilizing the internet as the only way to acheive this. I came across a very brilliant website which explains how to make pv panels and wind generators. The site explains all the steps involved in photovoltaic panel building.

I'm not exactly sure about how precise the data given there is. If some experts over here who had experience with these works can have a peak and give your feedback in the site it would be grand and I would extremely value it, cauze I extremely take an interest in solar panel construction.

Thanks for reading this. U people are great.

Anonymous said...

We have also analyzed the municipal waste and rural waste segments of the industry.
Protecting against a problem from beginning is much more efficient compared to testing products after they are produced and will reduce a great deal
of waste. The most serious form of pollution is that caused by burning
of coals, oils, and gas, which may contain sulphur and phosphorus.


My weblog :: waste management india ()

Unknown said...

شركة عزل خزانات غرب الرياض
شركة عزل ارضيات بالرياض
شركة عزل حمامات بالرياض
حشرات المنزل الزاحفة
شركة دهانات بالرياض
سباكة الحمامات والمطابخ
شركة عزل اسطح بالرياض
عزل الاسطح من الحرارة والرطوبة
شركة عزل اسطح شمال الرياض
شركة عزل اسطح شرق الرياض
شركة عزل اسطح غرب الرياض
شركة عزل اسطح جنوب الرياض
شركة تنظيف كنب بالرياض
شركة تنظيف كنب شمال الرياض

Hardeep said...

Sign in with your MS account from this website www.office.com/setup Enter your Product Key. Download and Run Office Setup.

Hardeep said...

My Norton makes it easy for you to set up your Norton protection norton.com/setup check your security status, and extend your protection to other PCs, Macs, smartphones, and tablets.

Hardeep said...

McAfee Virtual Technician identifies and solves many product issues on your PC. If MVT is unable to resolve the issue, the data collected can be used by mcafee.com/activate your support technician to solve the issue.

Hardeep said...

McAfee Activate indeed offers its free McAfee antivirus download with the mcafee activate basic set of virus removal features. Yet, to unlock advanced features, you must have McAfee activate product key.

Hardeep said...

While Downloading and Installing Office www.office.com/setup You need to have an active internet connection all the time. You will need to have all the required software like Java runtime to run the office.

Hardeep said...

Office has the cloud support integrated and can be used where you want. Office 365 is solely based on the office.com/setup cloud and won’t take up your device space. You can save documents via the cloud too.

Hardeep said...

Sign in to enter your product key, access your account, manage your subscription, and extend your Norton protection to www.norton.com/setup PC, Mac, Android, and iOS devices.

Hardeep said...

Roku provides the simplest way to stream entertainment to your TV. On your terms. With thousands of available channels to choose from. Click here roku activation code for more details.

subisri said...

NT's Greatest Hits is a compilation album by the British indie rock band NT. the album collects the band's most popular songs from their first two albums, This Is a Life and The Great Unknown.
The album was met with positive reviews from critics, who praised the band's catchy melodies and witty lyrics. The album was a commercial success, reaching number 12 on the UK Albums Chart.
If you're a fan of indie rock, then NT's Greatest Hits, is a must-have album. It's a collection of the band's best songs, and it's sure to put a smile on your face.
Abogado del Plan Patrimonial
Abogado Testamentario Bienes