Nothing beats those moments in songs, those goose bump inducing
moments – the ones that make you sigh an “aaahh” out loud. It’s those talky
bits in songs that get me going, the little snippets that remind you that your
favourite musician has a speaking voice, articulating those words in your ear
as you wait for the bus on a dreary Monday morning, or are sat on your bedroom
floor at 1:00am with your favourite vinyl as loud as possible. You’ve seen it
done wrong - not just
wrong but spine shiveringly wrong. Here is my choice of the best 5 songs
featuring those oozy talky bits.
THE HORRORS – Who Can Say
There’s no nice way to be dumped, but there’s certainly a beautiful and poetic way, especially if involving a forever charming Faris Badwan, a white tux jacket and red rose; stood performing on a theatre stage flicking his skinny legs and hair about. You wouldn’t mind being told that another girl had caught his eye, and that kiss he just gave you: that kiss was a kiss that could only mean goodbye. Cue skin tingly synths and suave deep, glossy vocals, you really wouldn’t mind being dumped by him and his bowtie, in fact you’d probably be too hypnotised by the depth of his voice, and of course those fabulous legs.
THE VIVIAN GIRLS – Take It As It Comes
This song embodies teenage girl angst to such a perfect extent, it follows the narrative of kickball katy, wining in her bedroom phone in a generic American 90’s teen movie fashion, about a boy, “Should I call Johnny? What else to do? Alone on a Saturday night” to which the advice is bestowed “You've gotta think with your head girl, Not with your heart, If you ever want a love so true, Oh girl, take my advice, take it as it comes”. Their bedrooms are pink, covered in doodles of naked females, rollerblades and the cure posters; and they are everything you want to be. They are pizza sleepovers watching the breakfast club and dirty dancing, they are putting lipstick on and dancing round your room to the doors, they are eating marshmallows and drawing doodles in the back of your maths book- and they are the best girl band since bikini kill.
IGGY POP – Candy
Sung with Kate Pierson of the B-52's, this song is the sleazy, slimy and slightly creepy Iggy you know and love. This song feels like the first conversation after a row on a bus in front of everyone, that you can’t help peer at despite knowing it’s none of your business. It’s raw, it’s bitter and it’s beautiful. It’s a debauched love letter, a sincere yet impatient cry at the beautiful, beautiful girl from the north; the imagery is rich, you can almost see the rain drizzling down your kitchen window, “It's a rainy afternoon, In 1990, The big city geez it's been 20 years- Candy -you were so fine”. The angelic tone of Kate’s vocals cut through Iggy’s gravel, sat perched at a bar wearing a navy ball gown she purrs, “Yeah, well it hurt me real bad when you left, I'm glad you got out, But I miss you”, creating what is Iggy’s most beautiful and honest, and in my opinion best song to date.
LOS CAMPESINOS! – You! Me! Dancing!
forget to 2 minutes build to this track, the almost nonsensical, rambling musing Gareth appears with towards the end is the highlight of this song. “And I always get confuse because in supermarkets they turn the lights off when they want you to leave, but in discos, they turn them on. And it’s always sad to go, but it’s never that sad, because there’s only so many places you’re guaranteed of getting a hug when you leave. And on the way home, it always seems like a good idea to go paddling in the fountain, and that’s because it IS a good idea”. This song is a pisstake, a dig at everyone that is cool and a confession of how bad your dancing/bedroom skills are. This song is wobbling home at 3am after being kicked out, it’s vomiting on yourself and it’s feeling invisible and jumping into a fountain (it’s being so high you don’t recognise yourself when you walk past your reflection) and this song is everything good about being a hyper, self indulgent, self deprecatory, uncool dickhead being embarrassing and not letting anything, least of all dignity getting in the way of having a good night.
MAJOR LAZER – Jessica feat. Ezra Koenig
Vampire Weekend’s Ezra provides the smooth and hypnotic vocals on this mastermind of a song. “My bathing suit is drying on the porch, My mother is crying upstairs, It’s batmand, you’re batman, All I want is my Jessica.” This song feels like it should never have been discovered, instead resting in the dark corners of the internet, brought out every once in a while by a 14 year old girl on tumblr, it’s almost of the same ilk as pizza party. This song is no longer boat shoes, baby blue sweater draped across shoulders, pin stripe Ralph Lauren shirt and pale peach chinos, sipping wine and pondering over various philosophical dilemmas Ezra, this is “cool” Ezra, playing with the big guns, making half unbelievable, half BEAUTIFUL music.
And the rest:
Vampire Weekend - Ya Hey
Desire - Under Your Spell
ABC - The Look of Love
All Saints - Never Ever
M.I.A - Paper Planes
Happy Mondays - Step On
David Bowie - Modern Love
Blondie - Rapture (sort of counts)
THE HORRORS – Who Can Say
There’s no nice way to be dumped, but there’s certainly a beautiful and poetic way, especially if involving a forever charming Faris Badwan, a white tux jacket and red rose; stood performing on a theatre stage flicking his skinny legs and hair about. You wouldn’t mind being told that another girl had caught his eye, and that kiss he just gave you: that kiss was a kiss that could only mean goodbye. Cue skin tingly synths and suave deep, glossy vocals, you really wouldn’t mind being dumped by him and his bowtie, in fact you’d probably be too hypnotised by the depth of his voice, and of course those fabulous legs.
THE VIVIAN GIRLS – Take It As It Comes
This song embodies teenage girl angst to such a perfect extent, it follows the narrative of kickball katy, wining in her bedroom phone in a generic American 90’s teen movie fashion, about a boy, “Should I call Johnny? What else to do? Alone on a Saturday night” to which the advice is bestowed “You've gotta think with your head girl, Not with your heart, If you ever want a love so true, Oh girl, take my advice, take it as it comes”. Their bedrooms are pink, covered in doodles of naked females, rollerblades and the cure posters; and they are everything you want to be. They are pizza sleepovers watching the breakfast club and dirty dancing, they are putting lipstick on and dancing round your room to the doors, they are eating marshmallows and drawing doodles in the back of your maths book- and they are the best girl band since bikini kill.
IGGY POP – Candy
Sung with Kate Pierson of the B-52's, this song is the sleazy, slimy and slightly creepy Iggy you know and love. This song feels like the first conversation after a row on a bus in front of everyone, that you can’t help peer at despite knowing it’s none of your business. It’s raw, it’s bitter and it’s beautiful. It’s a debauched love letter, a sincere yet impatient cry at the beautiful, beautiful girl from the north; the imagery is rich, you can almost see the rain drizzling down your kitchen window, “It's a rainy afternoon, In 1990, The big city geez it's been 20 years- Candy -you were so fine”. The angelic tone of Kate’s vocals cut through Iggy’s gravel, sat perched at a bar wearing a navy ball gown she purrs, “Yeah, well it hurt me real bad when you left, I'm glad you got out, But I miss you”, creating what is Iggy’s most beautiful and honest, and in my opinion best song to date.
LOS CAMPESINOS! – You! Me! Dancing!
forget to 2 minutes build to this track, the almost nonsensical, rambling musing Gareth appears with towards the end is the highlight of this song. “And I always get confuse because in supermarkets they turn the lights off when they want you to leave, but in discos, they turn them on. And it’s always sad to go, but it’s never that sad, because there’s only so many places you’re guaranteed of getting a hug when you leave. And on the way home, it always seems like a good idea to go paddling in the fountain, and that’s because it IS a good idea”. This song is a pisstake, a dig at everyone that is cool and a confession of how bad your dancing/bedroom skills are. This song is wobbling home at 3am after being kicked out, it’s vomiting on yourself and it’s feeling invisible and jumping into a fountain (it’s being so high you don’t recognise yourself when you walk past your reflection) and this song is everything good about being a hyper, self indulgent, self deprecatory, uncool dickhead being embarrassing and not letting anything, least of all dignity getting in the way of having a good night.
MAJOR LAZER – Jessica feat. Ezra Koenig
Vampire Weekend’s Ezra provides the smooth and hypnotic vocals on this mastermind of a song. “My bathing suit is drying on the porch, My mother is crying upstairs, It’s batmand, you’re batman, All I want is my Jessica.” This song feels like it should never have been discovered, instead resting in the dark corners of the internet, brought out every once in a while by a 14 year old girl on tumblr, it’s almost of the same ilk as pizza party. This song is no longer boat shoes, baby blue sweater draped across shoulders, pin stripe Ralph Lauren shirt and pale peach chinos, sipping wine and pondering over various philosophical dilemmas Ezra, this is “cool” Ezra, playing with the big guns, making half unbelievable, half BEAUTIFUL music.
And the rest:
Vampire Weekend - Ya Hey
Desire - Under Your Spell
ABC - The Look of Love
All Saints - Never Ever
M.I.A - Paper Planes
Happy Mondays - Step On
David Bowie - Modern Love
Blondie - Rapture (sort of counts)
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