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[jacke-12]

The Beatles singles - She Loves You / I'll Get You (1963)

Peak position on US Billboard Hot 100: 1

"She Loves You" was the song that made The Beatles megastar, a huge hit that remains their best selling UK single (and was the best selling UK single by any artist until Paul would beat his own record with "Mull of Kintyre"). It also marks, less significantly, the point in which McCartney-Lennon became the familiar Lennon-McCartney.

With their previous two singles, though I haven't mentioned it in review, I found that I wanted a little more oomph to elevate them to the level of this track - they went for it more than "Love Me Do" of course, but not to the point where listening to it is almost cathartic. While featuring all the usual elements of an early Beatles single, it is a track that sounds like a massive hit, with a huge, roaring chorus that is one of the most influential choruses ever, cementing the "yeah yeah yeah" as a part of pop music (much to the disdain of Paul's father who wanted it to be "she loves you, yes yes yes"). I'm not a big "yeah yeah yeah" person - just write lyrics, don't be lazy - but here they are so celebratory, so emphatic, and I suppose too iconic, not to love. Despite being a lyric with only four distinct words, it sounds like a musical statement.

"I'll Get You" is another new song for me. Much like "Thank You Girl" there's bits of it I really like and bits that irritate me. The way the drums anticipate and build up to the refrain is great, and that typical technique they used of singing in unison and then separating into harmonies sounds great here. But I hate the "oh yeah"s here, they sound so whiny and off, along with (once again) the bridge. It is definitely a B-side quality track, in that it doesn't quite work, but I still enjoy it.

It's great reading the Wikipedia page for this single because it describes even what seem like minor details as innovative - like the "Imagine I'm in love with you" opening lyric to "I'll Get You" and "She Loves You" introducing a third party to a love song. There is of course the genuinely unusual choice to open "She Loves You" with the chorus, which still sounds fresh today. It all hints at their later experimentation, the way that even now they play around and try new things with their songwriting.

[jacke-12]

Stagger Lee (1958) - Lloyd Price

Genre: rhythm and blues

Peak position on US Billboard Hot 100: 1

Rhythm and blues singer Lloyd Price, known as "Mr. Personality", had a few hits (such as "Personality" which earned him the nickname). "Stagger Lee" was his biggest, a now definitive musical incarnation of the story of Stagger Lee / Stack O'Lee / Stagolee, a dark folk tale about Lee Shelton's real life murder of Billy Lyons in 1895.

There have been countless versions of this song / story, of which I have heard a significant amount of due to a little past project of mine to hear as many as possible (I swiftly tired of this). There are many great ones - Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds darkly comic version on Murder Ballads was mine and I imagine many's first introduction to the character, and of course there's Mississippi John Hurt's also definitive version. (For a more obscure one, I recommend Taj Mahal's. He has a wonderful voice and he even does sound effects.) However, this has remained my absolute favourite version, a raucous, lively track that Tarantinifies the violence (i.e. makes it hugely enjoyable in a morally questionable way).

Bobby Darin's "Mack the Knife", which I have previously reviewed, scratches a similar itch to this track in the way it revels in the dark lyrical content. But I would say this track removes the sinister elements - it is simply too ebulliant to be anything other than hugely fun. I suppose it is sinister in that lines like "Oh he shot that poor boy so bad / 'Til the bullet came through Billy / And it broke the bartender's glass" become so good to sing along to, because he sings it with such eagerness. It's the sort of song that you could easily forget just how grim of a story it is, but that is almost always true of these folk criminals - the fictionalising of them makes details like Lee killing Billy to get his "brand new Stetson hat" back seem badass rather than reprehensible.

The song also sounds live and unpolished in a very appealing way (as does the whole album The Exciting Lloyd Price, a worthwhile listen even if it doesn't all match up to this track or the other single "Lawdy Miss Claudy"). Lloyd Price is fighting to be heard above the muddy chaos backing him, which reminds me a lot of what makes Bob Dylan's electric albums so good - the sound of the live instrumentation, especially the horns here, while not being as crisp or clear as some might like, have so much more character and grit as a result. It doesn’t always sound good, but in a song with a nasty edge like this it is absolutely fitting.

The fact that this sort of song could top the charts without censorship surprises me, but maybe censorship wasn't targeted towards something as trivial as murder. I am glad it did top the charts, as I imagine it would be much harder to stumble across it like I did if it hadn't. One of the best pop songs of the 50s.

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Peggy Sue (1957) - Buddy Holly

Genre: rockabilly

Peak position on US Billboard Hot 100: 3

Buddy Holly was one of the rock and roll greats, who of course tragically died in a plane crash, along with Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper. "Peggy Sue" is a pretty gentle track of his, but it features incredibly unique production that sets it apart from the music of its time.

It doesn't rock as much as "That'll Be the Day", and it isn't nearly as elaborate as "It Doesn't Matter Anymore" - in fact, it is an incredibly simple piece of music - but when I think of Buddy Holly, I think of this song, because I've heard no-one else make one like it. It is the way the drums sound that is very strange and I would say experimental - they are strangely distant, rumbling in the background and fading in and out in an intriguing way. It is a surprising choice because it feels completely disconnected with the rest of the track - the lyrics are silly and without substance, and the vocals are goofy and lighthearted. It sounds like they had a bit of a throwaway track they wanted to make more interesting, and they thought the drums might sound good. Which they do!

It is unusual to focus solely on the drums in a review of a song, but they do dominate the track - there is very little else going on. The guitar is sparing and a little muffled by the drumming, with the one solo. The melody is catchy but unassuming. There's not much to talk about, but the sparcity of it is what makes it appealing. It allows all the elements to shine as much as they can.

While I don't love this song - the best I've heard of his is definitely the fantastic "It Doesn't Matter Anymore" - I think it is an enjoyable little oddity that I've become very fond of. It is trying something different, in an entirely unpretentious way.

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Rock the Boat (1974) - The Hues Corporation

Genre: disco

Peak position on US Billboard Hot 100: 1

"Rock the Boat" is one of the earliest disco songs, and is debatably one of the first to top the charts. The Hues Corporation had a bit of a one hit wonder with this, never matching its success, though I would definitely suggest checking out their three musical contributions to the blaxploitation film Blacula, particularly the roaring "There He Is Again".

Disco is one of my favourite genres because of songs like this. Sure, the whole extended metaphor of a relationship being like a boat is incredibly cheesy, and it seems like they knew it given that this was originally going to be kept as a B-side by the producer, but I think that is a part of the charm. It is a song that is pure fluff, because it just aims to be fun and entertaining, and I would say joyful too. It helps that it is a complete earworm, with one of the catchiest choruses in the genre, but it sounds excellent too.

I have a preference for non-electronic disco like this (and my absolute favourite "Best of My Love" by The Emotions); as innovative as Giorgio Moroder was, I find that the dominant use of synths can remove some of the vibrancy and soul that songs like this have in spades. Tracks like "Hot Stuff" by Donna Summers are of course fantastic, but his production is my least favourite bit of it. I believe songs like "Rock the Boat" sound timeless, which may be controversial, because it isn't dated by the use of artificial instrumentation - although I will say the electronic stuff is more danceable in the modern day. (I should add that this is a far from universal opinion I have - it applies, as a general preference, to disco). The sound of the track is so rich and still sounds fresh to me, being so vivid and colourful - especially during the outro where there are these exciting flourishes of the strings and the horns, and the addition of the soloing electric guitar.

While I can't imagine dancing to this nowadays, this is a song that can lighten your mood, with all the enthusiasm and warmth it emits. It's fun in hindsight to think of what a long and varied history the genre would grow to have, starting with simple little songs like this.

[jacke-12]

Lucid Dreams (2018) - Juice WRLD

Genre: emo rap, trap

Peak position on US Billboard Hot 100: 2

Juice WRLD, who tragically passed in 2019, was a SoundCloud rapper who made it big with this track, an emo pop song that has become one of the most streamed songs on Spotify. What I like about this track is that it doesn't feel like it was trying to be a hit, being a very personal and quite low-key piece of music that suddenly got extremely big.

The backbone of this song lies in the sample of the guitar riff from Sting's "Shape of My Heart". Sting apparently owns 85% of the rights to this song because of it, but that is silly to me because the track uses it in an entirely different way that is very much a Juice WRLD creation. The use of it here is very moody, hanging over the song eerily, dampening the energy of the trap hi-hats and the catchy vocals. It lends the track a distinctly melancholic atmosphere, that helps the track transcend from just being a trap banger into something with a little more richness and depth.

This being said, I have very fond memories of singing this song with friends as loud as possible - it's one of those tracks that a lot of people of my generation know in its entirety, particularly when it first came out. I have listened to the Yellowcard song that this supposedly steals its melody from, and I can see the similarity, but I definitely wouldn't call it concrete and this is a significantly better song (although pop punk is one of the few genres I have a general dislike for). I can't quite put my finger on why it is that this song is so memorable, but everything about it just sticks. I don't remember a time in which I didn't know all the lyrics by heart. It has become an emo rap anthem, where we can all revel together in our collective sadness and loneliness.

It is a nice thing when very emotionally revealing songs like this become cool to love and can dominate the charts. Male artists feeling comfortable to openly be vulnerable in commercial music is always going to be a good thing, particularly in a genre like hip hop which has a history of being hypermasculine. I hope that this song will continue to be remembered as a great example of a song in this vein, and that it won't be lost with music's evolution away from this style.

[jacke-12]

The Beatles singles - From Me to You / Thank You Girl (1963)

Peak position on US Billboard Hot 100: n/a (but 1 on UK Singles chart)

"From Me to You" is the first number 1 single The Beatles had in the UK, despite failing to chart in the US. It is a solid single, and one that used to be an absolute favourite of mine.

It isn't as groundbreaking for the band as "Please Please Me", maybe because it follows a similar formula with the catchy harmonica riff and harmonised vocais, but it is a very self-assured song, sounding as though they knew exactly what they were doing unlike the slightly amateurish (not that I could make it) "Love Me Do". I don't think it is as good as "Please Please Me" but it has an infectious melody that I loved as a kid, sung with so much heart by John and Paul (and drummed with so much heart by Ringo - I don't understand the critiques of him). The one thing that the band lost with their progression into the more experimental material is that here they are truly a boy band, and the connection between John and Paul was never as strong as here - there is no lead vocal, they just sing alongside each other. And that is something that makes the songs of this era really special.

"Thank You Girl" is dismissed as a silly song by the band, a little song for the hoards of female fans they had. Maybe because it is a song I've only known for a couple of weeks, and because there are few things as exciting as discovering new Beatles tracks, I love this song. There are bits I'm not keen on - the bridge sounds slightly off, like it is in the wrong key or something like that, and the strange decision to have those "oh"s in the outro echo feels very awkwardly done. I can understand why Lennon felt it didn't work. This being said, the vocals on this track put a smile on my face; they are so friendly, and cheerful, and sound genuinely appreciative towards their fans. I say this in all these reviews now, but the harmonies are beautiful here too, and so crisp and clear (perhaps this is because I've only heard the stereo mix). And that inclusion of the chugging guitar after the chorus is a really interesting little touch.

I would say that, factoring in both A and B side, this is my favourite single as a whole so far. It is perhaps one of their lesser remembered ones too.

[jacke-12]

...Baby One More Time (1998) - Britney Spears

Genre: teen pop, dance-pop

Peak position on US Billboard Hot 100: 1

"...Baby One More Time" is of course the debut single from pop phenomenon Britney Spears. It is one of the best selling singles ever, topping the charts all over the world and selling over ten million copies. It is a melodramatic teen pop song that has no right to be as enjoyable as it is, but when it sounds this great, it doesn’t matter.

I went into this review with little sense of the way people view this song in retrospect, and it seems still to be positive, but it really felt like this might be the first song I've reviewed that I would consider a "guilty pleasure" (or, to put it more accurately, a song I shamelessly love that probably isn't that good). But when listening to it to try and pick it apart and identify enjoyable details, I swiftly discovered that this is, in fact, a pop masterpiece. It is flawed one, admittedly, with the strangely affected way she sings "baby" being my main gripe, but it is still a behemoth of a pop song, with an impressive amount of detail in the production that rewards a close listen.

It is much more funky than I initially noticed, with the squelchy bass and wah-wah Jimi Hendrix-like guitar sound adding a lot of levity and bounce. There is also a slightly buried hip hop-esque keyboard riff (think "Still D.R.E."), and it reminds me a little of arena rock thanks to those emphatic piano chords that punctuate the track and just its general feeling of grandeur and scale. These are just the elements I feel able to find words for - it is a song full of little touches and developments that make it sound so rich and full.

However, all of these are ultimately secondary to what is the true highlight of this track, the chorus. It is truly one of the best choruses I've ever heard - both this song and "Oops!... I Did It Again" have choruses that sound absolutely massive. There are layers and layers of backing vocals that make the chorus so epic and climactic, so much so that it is hard to emphasise just how huge it sounds without adding a long string of intensifiers before the word. It hits like a truck when it starts. I haven't been able to decipher quite what makes the sound, since this point in the song is so dense, but there is a crashing sound that accompanies the chorus that gives me a little rush every time, and this combined with the anticipatory pre-chorus adds even more weight to it arriving. It makes a track that at its core is teen pop cheese seem so awesome.

It is a song that gets better the more I hear it, but the problem is often that these songs get heard in the background of day to day life, meaning people tire of them without ever appreciating them in a deeper way. It sounds like a huge amount of work was put into making this song sound as it does, and to play it quietly on supermarket radio is highly disrespectful. This needs to be played really loud, as I'm sure it was back in the late 90s.

[jacke-12]

The End of the World (1962) - Skeeter Davis

Genre: Nashville sound

Peak position on US Billboard Hot 100: 2

Skeeter Davis was a country singer who crossed over into pop to sing this hit song. It is another song that leans hard into melodrama and cheesiness, even featuring an oh-so-sad spoken word section as these sort of songs often do. I do love it though; it is a beautiful song.

Much like "A Teenager In Love" by Dion and the Belmonts which I have reviewed, this is a song that works because you believe the emotion of the lyrics, as over the top as they are. Sure, it is fun to laugh at breakup songs like this, but often the emotions they depict are a bit silly from the perspective of someone not experiencing them. If I was feeling lovesick I know that this song would feel really powerful to me - the realisation that the whole world carries on around you after your life seems to have ended is a particularly hard one (I believe that The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows calls this realisation that you are not the main character in everyone's life "sonder"?). So many of these early pop songs require an Oscar-worthy acting performance to make them believable though, and Skeeter Davis absolutely succeeds here.

She has a gorgeous, smooth voice, with a noticeable country twang that I think makes it easier to connect with the singing - accents often serve as reminders of the real human behind the vocals. Her voice is carried on this luscious bed of melancholic strings and piano - its all very grand and huge, but its like she's all alone in a big, elaborate mansion looking wistfully out the window into the rain, the richness around her providing no comfort.

I would absolutely understand someone finding this an insufferably dreary song, since it is entirely humourless and it really wants to emphasise the misery, but it just works for me. I think there is definitely an element of irony in my enjoyment of it - definitely in the very dated spoken word section - but I stand by this being a genuinely evocative and moving piece of music.

[jacke-12]

Heaven or Las Vegas (1990) - Cocteau Twins

Genre: dream pop

Peak position on US Billboard Hot 100: n/a

"Heaven or Las Vegas" is the title track from dream pop pioneers Cocteau Twins most acclaimed album. It epitomises what makes dream pop such an interesting genre - it takes a pop melody and drenches it in so many effects that it becomes something psychedelic and alternative.

Dream pop is a term I tend to associate with music that has a sleepy quality to it, being slightly hazy and mellow, often soothing. But this song lacks that quality - it is dreamlike but not sleepy. In fact, it is incredibly vivid and colourful, much like the experience of dreaming itself, and benefits hugely from being played as loudly as possible so that you can be overwhelmed by all these layers of shimmering vocals and guitar. It sounds like the much better version of how, when learning the piano as a kid, it was fun to always hold the right pedal down so that everything echoed. All the notes played sustain for longer than normal, having the effect of the song washing over you in a wonderfully hypnotic and mesmirising way - particularly in that glistening slide guitar solo.

The highlight of the track is the multi-tracked vocals, particularly when they crescendo for the heavenly chorus - it is goosebump-inducing. Elizabeth Fraser has some of the most recognisable and unique singing in pop music, despite my inability to understand a single word she says outside of the title. Her voice is an instrument more than anything, and a completely necessary part of their sound. It helps as well how it is presented to us: her voice is allowed to sound so expansive. It is given so much space, by being mixed alongside the instrumentation as opposed to in front as is typical. It is really hard to describe what I mean here, as I am trying to describe a musical concept in physical terms. An analogy that has occurred to me is the contrast between having a conversation with someone in your immediate viscinity and having conversation with someone 100 metres away in a woods - the former will be clearer, but less verbal effort will be required, whereas the latter will be distorted through reverberation, competing with other noises, hence needing a more powerful voice to fill that space. So, despite fighting to be heard against this wall of echoeing instrumentation, her voice sounds amazing, soaring above the (in this case, beautiful) chaos.

That is quite possibly a fairly meaningless ramble, and my point can basically be condensed to her voice being a powerful one, but there is an indefinable quality to her singing on this track that I've not managed to find the words for. I suppose that is part of its dreaminess - it is hard to zero in on one particular detail, it being all one united tidal wave of sound. This is obviously true of all good songs, but it is best to just listen to it.

[jacke-12]

Overload (2000) - Sugababes

Genre: girl group, contemporary r&b

Peak position on US Billboard Hot 100: n/a (but 6 on UK Singles chart)

"Overload" is the debut single from girl group Sugababes. It is a really interesting single that their other singles don't seem to quite match (from the few that I listened to before writing this).

It is an extremely unique girl group song, mostly thanks to its excellent hip hop inspired beat. It has a boom bap-like A Tribe Called Quest-esque funky bass, which has always been one of my favourite aspects of golden age hip hop, and then these frenetic pitter-pattering drums that create an unusual contrast with the comparatively slow pace of the song as a whole. There is also a strange breathy sound effect incorporated into the beat that reminds me slightly of the unusual sample choices you would see in someone like Jpegmafia's music. It creates a refreshingly different backdrop for a pop song like this, that still sounds as interesting and new a couple of decades later.

It is a fairly standard girl group track vocally, which isn't a bad thing. It has a super catchy chorus, great backing vocals, lyrics about love and relationships, all the things you would expect. But I suppose that's what makes this song exciting - it takes something very familiar and places it in a fairly unfamiliar context.

It's not that hip hop and pop crossovers weren't common - they were and still are (see "Fantasy" by Mariah Carey) - but I can't think of an example that does it in this particular manner. It has a much more low-key approach than they tend to, taking the aspect of hip hop that feels quite raw and stripped-back, as opposed to aiming for danceability. It makes for a song that I wouldn't call one of my favourites, but that I admire a lot for successfully trying something new.

[jacke-12]

Be-Bop-a-Lula (1956) - Gene Vincent and His Blue Caps

Genre: rockabilly, rock and roll

Peak position on US Billboard Hot 100: 7

"Be-Bop-a-Lula" is the debut single from rockabilly artist Gene Vincent, a song which led to understandable comparisons to Elvis Presley. Honestly though, this track might be the best rockabilly song I've ever heard, besting even the greatest Elvis songs.

It is a surprisingly slow song, but it is so full of pent-up energy that it doesn't feel it. He half-pants as he sings, his voice quivering as though he is struggling to contain himself - honestly, in both connotations that phrase has. It adds a sexual element to these deeply stupid and stomach-churning lyrics (as is unfortunately typical of a great deal of pop music written by men - "she's the queen of all the teens"). Ignoring the lyrical content however, which perhaps we shouldn't, it sounds fantastic.

And we get a lot of that same barely restrained energy through the band too - the rhythm guitar is strummed as though they are trying to break the strings, and the drummer is really pounding those drums. It is the musical equivalent of being angry in a public setting so you can only release the anger by doing something very unnoticeable very aggressively. A bit of this tension is released in that amazing choice to have that screaming saxophone note play before the chorus - it sounds so good - but for the most part this is a song right on the edge of really going wild. The rock is not quite rolling but it is teetering on the top of the hill.

It is a song that goes to show just how much better a song can sound when all its elements are made with a great deal of enthusiasm. Nothing about the song in itself is particularly special, I would say (aside from that saxophone), but the energy it has is infectious.

[jacke-12]

Time Today (2018) - Kero Kero Bonito

Genre: indietronica, synth-pop

Peak position on US Billboard Hot 100: n/a

Kero Kero Bonito are a trio probably best known for their debut album Bonito Generation, a so-sweet-your-teeth-hurt electropop album, that I find stomachable due to the sense of an underlying sadness that the relentless positivity is a cover for. "Time Today" is a single from the also great subsequent album Time 'n' Place. It is a logical transition in a lot of ways - it retains the twee and sugary vocals from Sarah Bonito, but the sadness is much more pronounced, and the overall sound is subtler and less in-your-face.

The lyrics are quietly excellent here, but it would be so easy not to notice how powerful they are. I think for many people in the modern day, they are painfully relatable too. They explore that feeling we all have where we start a day thinking of all the things we want to do and how we have time for all of them, but we are inevitably never able to complete them all. In this track, it gives way to a greater existential fear in the desperately sad third verse - the fear that in the constant worry and busyness of our days we are unable to appreciate being alive. It is a moving verse, and it describes vividly in very simple and non-abstract lines a lot of fears and sorrows that I don't think I had put into words before - most powerfully for me, that dread of a new morning which brings a whole new cycle of things to do and to worry about. And all of this is hidden under a gentle and softly sung melody.

I think the meandering and quite dreamy quality of the melody here is interesting in its contrast with the driving, fast-paced drums that are mixed as prominently as the vocals - it parallels the lyrics, in that she wants a moment of stillness where everything slows down, but life keeps moving forward relentlessly at the same pace.

Without looking into it this deeply though, it is a serene little indie pop song full of details in the production that it is fun to listen out for. Loads of different sounds and textures appear during the very short course of the song, treating the drums with those slightly dissonant sounding synths as a blank canvas to decorate with random bursts of colour. It is an understated song, but it is one that you become very fond of when you give it the attention it deserves.

[jacke-12]

The Beatles singles - Please Please Me / Ask Me Why (1963)

Peak position on US Billboard Hot 100: 3 (but with "From Me To You" as the B-side)

While "Love Me Do" was the first single, "Please Please Me" is the first sign in my view of just how good they would be, improving upon all aspects of the former.

A lot of credit goes to George Martin here for encouraging the band to make this song as energetic as it is (originally it looks as though it was going to be John Lennon's attempt to recreate Roy Orbison's "Only the Lonely", which I cannot picture at all). It is very similar to "Love Me Do" in a lot of ways - they both have a distinctive harmonica riff, John and Paul singing in harmony, throwaway lyrics about asking for love... But it is so much less stiff - it flows much better, with these great little drum and guitar fills. In fact, just the drumming is more engaging - it has so much more flare and excitement than the bored-sounding drumming from "Love Me Do". The melody is so much more fleshed out and interesting too, with much more variation, and the technique of Paul maintaining a high note while John sings the descending melody is really effective here (inspired by The Everly Brothers' "Cathy's Clown"). It's nothing groundbreaking to listen to now with full context, but what it does, it does perfectly.

"Ask Me Why" is another ballad, sung by Lennon this time. It is apparently quite a complex song musically but I don't have the knowledge to identify these things. It does have a pretty melody, and I really love the way John's voice cracks sightly at points, but I have unfortunately noticed those extremely irritating "woo woo woo"s and "aye aye aye"s that occur in the backing vocals occasionally, and now I can't ignore them. I also would say it is a bit of a dreary song at points, a rare case of the harmonies clogging up the song, making it feel way too dense at points for my liking. It is a decent track, but I would rather it was just one person singing it for once, to give it some lightness.

Following this single they of course recorded the album of the same name, a fun record that is worthwhile and important but that is made up of hits and (still decent) misses, much like the two singles from it. It is mind-blowing that Rolling Stone decided it was the 39th best album ever in 2012, as good as the title track and some of the songs are. It gets that high on legacy alone, not on quality.

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Hunter (1998) - Björk

Genre: art pop, electronica, baroque pop

Peak position on US Billboard Hot 100: n/a (but 44 on UK Singles chart)

Björk is one of the most unique and exciting artists of all time. She's also one of my personal favourites; I can't get enough of her idiosyncratic and unimitable vocals. This isn't necessarily what makes "Hunter", the opener from the excellent Homogenic, so fantastic, but still it is maybe my favourite from that album, which is really saying something.

Björk is often effective on an emotional level (see the deliciously angry "5 Years" later in the album) but this is a very different kind of Björk song, with her singing sounding very cold, even threatening. (Having said this, the bridge is an exception, where the song opens out briefly into some gorgeous multi-tracked vocals. Some of the best music moments ever are when Björk belts out her singing like this.) The magic of the song lies more in the eerie soundscape it creates. A lot of credit goes to the producer Mark Bell here, because he manages to make this heavily electronic piece of music feel evocative of being in nature, even of being hunted. Something about the way Björk's voice echoes conjures up the image to me of being in some woods somewhere, her voice nearby but without indication of where it is coming from. It feels like when you're scared and on your own and suddenly you think the threat is surrounding you and present in even the most common sounds - like those haunting backing "oooo"s representing wind in my mind's eye. And it helps that the music itself is strange and slightly unnerving, with the muted, pulsating drum machines, the synths that sound as though they're being played in reverse, and, perhaps most effectively, the very cinematic but menacing backing from the string octet, with those two repeating notes the cellos (?) play reminding me a little of John Williams' Jaws theme. Everything sounds like a warning that you are in danger.

The intriguing lyrics also add an element of mystery to the song, since they are almost impenetrable and it is never quite clear to me what she means by any of it. It seems like they've been analysed by many people, including Björk herself (whose great explanation of the seeming non sequitur "I thought I could organise freedom / How Scandinavian of me" is that it is basically an inside joke amongst Icelandic people that Scandinavian people are too organised). I prefer to leave it unanalysed - I like not knowing what she is hunting, and why. It is like a cold open to a film, where it will all later be explained, and I suppose in a way it is just that, being the first track on the album.

I highly recommend the music video too. It sounds terrible when you describe it (she gradually turns into a bad special effect bear - the one on the single cover), but it is very well done and matches the surrealness of the song perfectly. It is an underrated music video, as is the song as a whole - sure, it is well liked by fans, but this is one of her very very best and it deserves to have that status.

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No Milk Today (1966) - Herman's Hermits

Genre: baroque pop

Peak position on US Billboard Hot 100: n/a (but 7 on UK Singles Chart - a non-US single)

Herman's Hermits were one of the most popular of the British Invasion artists, but I feel they are rarely mentioned nowadays - perhaps because they seemed to lean towards humourous fluff rather than more serious music (but from a brief foray into their other songs for this review, they are charming and enjoyable). "No Milk Today" is a bit of an exception, a song about a relationship ending, told in an interesting way.

It is inspired by a once common aspect of life I have never really experienced - milkmen dropping off fresh milk to houses in the mornings. The narrator has to leave out a "no milk today" sign since the relationship ended and there is only one person living there, so they no longer need as much milk. I love art which explores how things that appear mundane ("how could they know just what this message means?") can be indications of something much more significant. I do think though that there could be an even more effective way of exploring this concept than these lyrics, one that allows you to figure out why the "no milk today" sign is significant rather than immediately explaining it all to you. However, this song is ultimately a pretty light-hearted track that I have no reason to expect subtlety from. And it is still a unique approach to the breakup song.

It would also be extremely easy to not realise the sad subject of this song. It is a jaunty track with a sing-along melody. It reminded me immediately of something like "Up the Junction' by Squeeze - something about the very simple, repeating tune that is an immediate earworm. He sings about the end of his hopes and the end of all his dreams as though he hasn't a care in the world. I love how catchy and cheerful these miserable lyrics become. It makes me laugh everytime. I have no idea if it is intentional, but its a fun contrast.

The harmonies are lovely too, as is typical of baroque pop. And it has those elements of classical music of course, like those lively strings, and, my favourite, those chimes during the chorus which I think sound distinctly like the bells in the sticker collecting minigame from Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games. (That's a very obscure reference but it really takes me back.) Baroque pop can be great for taking these often grand and dramatic orchestral instruments and using them to make cute little tunes like this.

[jacke-12]

Blue Skies (1978) - Willie Nelson

Genre: country pop, standards

Peak position on US Billboard Hot 100: n/a (but 1 on US Hot Country Songs)

This is outlaw country icon Willie Nelson's country version of the standard "Blue Skies", from his warm, beautiful, amazing (all the good words) cover album Stardust. I really could pick any song from this album, but this is the one that I think is my favourite.

You have covers that are lazy rip-offs, a sign of a lack of new ideas. You have covers that are aiming to completely transform the original song and place it in an entirely new context. And then you have my favourite kind, covers that are made with a huge amount of love for the original material, that allow the strength of the original to shine through while also making it their own. Fellow country icon Johnny Cash was very good at this in his later career, and Willie Nelson does it impeccably on this song, and the whole album. He sings this song with so much care, and so gently that you could initially think he wasn't trying, but he has such a lovely soothing voice that he doesn't have to exert himself for it to sound rich and full. I really believe he loved these songs - listening to this song especially is like having a parent sing one of their favourite songs to you as a child. It gives me those strange contrasting feelings of comfort, and sad wistfulness for when it really was just all "blue skies smiling at me".

The instrumentation is also excellent - it is so tranquil with those super soft strings in the background and that little acoustic guitar solo. There is a melancholia to it though that I've hinted towards a little, with that mournful harmonica that hangs over the song, and the introduction of the piano during the climax feeling more forboding than joyful, a storm threatening the titular blue skies. But that is what showcases how well written these standards are - it is up to the performer and then the listener to decide what emotions and interpretations to take from it, and the lyrics tend to allow for any of them. Here I feel the contrasting emotions present is an example of how, when we feel one extreme of an emotion, we are also likely to experience the opposite extreme - in this song, happiness and sadness. I'm sure a psychologist could explain why that is, but it is that unusual element of the human experience that this song conjures up for me.

I love how much music can add to lyrics like these, which simply don't work on their own. Often those that we call "lyricists" - Willie Nelson included I suppose - write lyrics that can and maybe should be viewed independently to fully appreciate them. But maybe the best reflection of what makes music so effective is when the lyrics need the music to be appreciated, making the performer a poet too. On this song, despite not having written a word of it, Willie Nelson still manages to add so much meaning.

[jacke-12]

The Beatles singles - Love Me Do / P.S. I Love You (1962)

Peak position on US Billboard Hot 100: 1

To keep things varied and enjoyable for myself in keeping this blog going, I wanted to do something a bit different and gradually go through all The Beatles singles and rank the songs as I go (aside from ones I decide don't count). It'll be good when I feel too lazy to think of a random song to write about, since I know all these Beatles songs so well.

If we ignore "My Bonnie" with Tony Sheridan, as we should, this is The Beatles' first single, and first US number 1 hit when it was eventually released there in 1964. The A-Side is pretty good; it is so so simple, so repetitive, and lacking in any substance whatsoever, but it is charming as a result, in context with where they would go in a few years. The lyrics are clearly thrown together with little thought - they are deeply stupid, but amusing - though the enthusiasm of the singing compensates for it a bit. For example, the contrast between that whiny "ple-e-e-ease" and Paul doing his sexy Elvis voice with "woah-oh love me do" I do find quite funny. And that bluesy harmonica riff from John is great, and I think probably what makes it worthwhile. There is just something lacking in this track however - I think it's the way it plods along slightly. It is a song that needs a bit more rock 'n' roll.

As cheesy as the track is, I do think the B-Side here is the better track. It is a precursor to when they would be releasing some of the best ballads ever written. It isn't nearly at the level of something like "And I Love Her" two albums later, but it has one of those entrancing Paul McCartney melodies, in this case a surprisingly melancholic one. It makes you doubt whether this narrator will be coming home - especially with those solemn single note harmonies from John. And I also like the way the guitar plays that one note again and again forming a bit of a drone, which is one of my favourite ways for a song to create an atmosphere, in this case a moody, weary sounding one. The singing does teeter slightly towards sounding bored though, with it just needing some more emotional force in the vocals to make it truly stand out.

These are far from being great songs, but they feel like solid beginnings, with some really good vocal harmonies. They just lack a bit of energy; they are a little too retrained I feel, which is perhaps a result of them being a new and inexperienced band lacking in some confidence.

Rankings so far:

P.S. I Love You

Love Me Do