| Beck – Lonesome Tears Lyrics | 19 years ago |
|
To me, this song represents why "Sea Change" will be looked at very favorably in years to come. The songs, while downtempo and introspective, are very elegant in their simplicity -- there's not one throw-away line. They're powerfully arranged. And they'll sound as good ten or fifteen years from now. "Lonesome Tears" is a confessional that vows resolution, but ultimately admits (and rages at) the unfairness of love, and descends into a vortex of emotional upheaval at the end. It reminds me of a sad western song mixed up with Southern Gothic imagery (e.g., Carson McCullers, William Faulkner) -- the kind of lyrics that you might find written on the back of a brown paper grocery bag in a ditch along a rural road on a late autumn evening. |
|
| Beck – Round The Bend Lyrics | 19 years ago |
|
"Sea Change" is an album that's far underrated. It's not typical Beck; that is, it doesn't contain the usual manic energy and amazing images and word play that he's better known for. But songs like Round the Bend illustrate Beck's perceptiveness and subtlety. This song is dark and brooding. It would fit perfectly in any film noir set in Los Angeles -- of any era. It's about disillusion, fatalism, greed, and a desire to escape into the unknown and unseen. It's a beautifully crafted piece, with great string arrangements balanced by the soft guitar. (By the way, the line goes "making their daggers sharper/than their faces tell.") |
|
| The Decemberists – On the Bus Mall Lyrics | 19 years ago |
|
Great imagery with no artificial sentiment. I think Anderson Council nailed it. It's about hustlers bonding and surviving. The pills and makeup mentioned are small but very necessary (and accurate) details. The first time I heard it, and right from the bright guitar intro, I was struck by its uncanny similarity to any one of a number of songs by The Sundays (mostly from the album Blind) and when I heard the line "we slept in Sundays" I thought it was a little more than a coincidence... I wonder what Harriet Wheeler would say about it? |
|
* This information can be up to 15 minutes delayed.