Hormonally Yours: Shakespear's Sister

Hey all, first of all I'm sorry for the recent lack of updates but my midterms got in the way of everything else in my life but my studies. Anyway, I haven't really been listening to much music lately, but I was hooked to an old album I've got which I was listening to for the last week, as if it had come back from my teen days. Actually this one was one of the firsts CDs I owned (my very first one was Joyride by Roxette). I'm talking about "Hormonally Yours" by the already disbanded british duo Shakespear's Sister. Formed by ex-bananarama (woohooo! 80s!) Siobhan Fahey and Marcella Detroit they released two albums, but this is the only one I've actually listened to.

I don't think this band got much air time in America, but it did land some top 40 tunes in britain. As far as I'm concerned only the song "Stay" got into America's top 40 at some point during the years 92 and 93, but oh well, it doesn't matter anyway. I'm not here to talk about how much of a hit one artist is. I've constantly had my things against pop music, but I do think Shakespear's Sister makes a honorable mention of pop (brit pop) music I REALLY like. It's very well elaborated and produced (no, it doesn't sound like a all-girls/boys band, nor like Robbie Williams). Remember it was around the firts years of the 90s. For that time the music in this album doesn't sound cheesy at all or anything. As I said it is very original and well crafted music.

Now, what I love about this album? Again, variety! The album landed three singles: "Stay", "I Don't Care" and "Hello (Turn Your Radio On)". The three singles are very different. the first one being a small ballad with a predominance of Detroit's falsetto high-pitched voice and a dramatic come into appearence by the other half of the band, Siobhan Fahey. The whole band has a concept of a sibling rivalry in it. Most of the songs are interactions between the two members of the band (both vocals), and in some of them there is a marked challenge between both of them (specially in this song). I'm not sure if this all completely true because I remember the video so well, I used to like it a lot, it was about a dying man and his girlfriend (Detroit) singing "stay stay with me" to him and then Fahey coming into scene and trying to take him from her with a malicious smile on her face singing that she should go accept facts and face reality ("you'd better hope and pray that you'll wake one day in your own world, 'cause when you dream at night they don't hear your cries in your own world"). I guess you more or less get an idea about the whole song. Fahey's appeareance in the song marks also a difference in the song's tone, it began as a ballad but suddendly it turns into a slow guitar based rock. Interesting, but I guess the video just makes it better.

About the other songs... well, I like "I don't care" because of its light hearted statement ("We hurt the ones we love love the most, it's some sort of form of compliment...I don't care if you talk about me, I don't care if you act like a queen..."). Once again you can see the whole topic about sibling rivalry, but again, this is much more light hearted than stay. The music is also very poppish and rythmic, all which gives it a proper tone for the whole topic of the song.

But definitely the song I like the most (and is amongst my top 20 favourite songs of all time) is "hello (turn your radio on)". A very simple beautiful song about the fragility of an intrascendent life. Let me copy the lyrics:


woke up this morning
and the streets were full of cars
all bright and shiny
like they'd just arrived from mars
and as i stumbled through
last nights drunken debris
the paperboy screamed out
the headlines in the street
another war and now the pound is looking weak
and tell me have you read about the latest freak ?
we're bingo numbers and our names are obsolete
why do i feel bitter when i should be feeling sweet

hello, hello turn your radio on
is there anybody out there ?
help me sing my song
la la la life is a strange thing
just when you think you learned how to use it
it's gone

woke up this morning and my head was in a daze
a brave new world has dawned upon the human race
where words are meaning less and everything's surreal
i'm gonna have to reach my friends
to find out how i feel
and if i taste the honey is it really sweet
and do i eat it with my hands or with my feet ?
does anybody really listen when i speak
or will i have to say it all again next week



The piano based melody adds to the whole feeling of the song. I love it dearly and it made me cry the first time I listened to it (call me cheesy hahahahha!). This song is sung by Fahey and she really does a great vocal work in this one. The final guitar lead solo finally leads to a conclussion, an explosion of feelings... "life is a strange thing, just when you think you learn how to use it it's gone...."

As I said before I like this band a lot. Really it's too bad they disbanded after realeasing this album in 1991. It's really has a really charming into it and I really wish they had released some new material. Oh, if you were wondering about the name of it, the album's mood swings were inspired by the pregnant state of both members at the time, thus the title "hormonally yours" which I like a lot :)

Facts:

Websites:
Fav songs: Hello (turn your radio on), Stay, I don't care, My 16th apology...
Similar artists: Perhaps post Eurythmics Annie Lennox would be a safe bet.

Air - Alone in Kyoto

Song: Alone in Kyoto
Artist: Air
Album: Talkie Walkie / Lost in Translation OST
iTunes music store link: "Alone in Kyoto" by Air


Here's another song I love in this film OST. Alone in Kyoto has to be one of the most mysterious songs I've heard in years. It tells you so much without really telling you anything, To me the whole meaning of the song is about mood and certain discoveries you get into musically and through images. It's hard to explain. Air, being the electronic pop band it is, made this song rely a lot on synths and electronic samples, but they tried to take care for the humanity of it. The final result is an amazingly human song full of feelings, sensations and small details, but with an inexplicable aura of mistery.

Then the piano chords again with the voice sounds just repeating something. In the end, the sound of the waves along with the piano once again. It's the final extasis of the song which makes you think that the conclussion might be an open one, with a different meaning depending on each listener.

Again, I have to say that as someone who has spent two years around Tokyo and Japan this song is VERY VERY representative of the way you sometimes feel while living there. I think the scene in the film in which it appears is very appropiate (Charlotte, fed up with Tokyo's confussion, leaves for Kyoto to see the traditional Japan, and realizes the beauty of its traditions and its simplicity while there... it's just a brief scene but it's very important for the whole meaning of the film).

I will review the complete album soon. Hope you enjoy listening to this song. I really find it to be a huge work of musical art and complexity in such simple grouping of melody, rythm and harmony.... plus mood!!

My Bloody Valentine - Sometimes

Song: Sometimes
Band: My Bloody Valentine
Album: Loveless / Lost in Translation OST
iTunes Music Store link: "Sometimes" by My Bloody Valentine

I have a huge respect for this band. To me they redefined the direction of music during the late eighties and the start of the nineties. I won't say much about the band except that Kevin Shields is a master composer and all his material is worthy of listening.

Anyway, about the song. I had heard this one on the Loveless album a long time ago. However it was only when I heard it in the film Lost in Translation in which I could gaze at the beauty of it.
So, what's up with this song? Well... it's a mid-tempo song about love. But it's not a love song. Actually, you can't really even tell what the vocalist is singing about because the voice mixes up with the rest of the heavy guitar sounds. You can only clearly hear the progression of chords and realize that it's heavy... As heavy and mesmerizing as a relationship can be. Yeah, I have a very special feeling for this song because to me it signifies a very real and difficult to explain sensations and feelings.

Heavy distorted guitars along with acoustic chords,a synth line going up on the scale, making it feel like a progression to an extasis which never comes. "Close my eyes, feel me now... I don't know how you could not love me now". I feel it's the perfect song for when you feel your going through hard times in a relationship and you want to do something about it. Then I also think it's really great for when you want to attain something that seems impossible, but you want to try to anyway because you feel if you don't you will regret it later, even if you never reach your goal. These are my thoughts about this song.

Actually the song follows a very simple structure of chords. But the heavily distorted sounds make it beautiful and full of TEXTURE!! You have to hear it to believe it. It's the most beautiful violent, harsh,ethereal and full of hope love song I've heard.

Finally, I can only recommend seeing Lost in Translation. As a former expat living near the Tokyo area, I can tell you the film really does portrait many of the feelings you get when you are alone in THAT one city. And listening to this song during a special sequence in the film is just mesmerizing. I loved this film so much that I cried when I heard this song while watching it.

A few changes in music discoveries...

Hey all, today I was thinking about the way I'm managing this blog. It's evident that I'm not putting much dedication to it, as I've been updating it very irregularly. One of the reasons I'm doing this is that, reviewing new bands, I try to find out as much as I can about them and their music, so it takes quite a while for me to be able to feel I know new bands and be able to "review" them.

So I was thinking maybe I should continue doing this... BUT, from now on I will do some other stuff. what do I mean? Well, everyday I have songs I focus on most of the day. Usually it's one or two songs I listen repeateadly during the day on my iPod. Sometimes it's complete albums I'm hooked to for some time and listen to them over and over. So I'll start reviewing not only new bands, but also particular songs and albums. I will not focus on the bands so much as the music in itself from now on.
I will however continue reviewing bands, but in order to be a bit more constant in this I want to focus on smaller things too. So I hope I will be posting more in coming weeks and months.

Hope everyone reading this will be glad about these new changes. I'm sure it's a valid way to make people get to know new music.

By the way... For every new song and album I review I'm putting a link to the iTunes Music Store, so you can hear samples of the songs I'm writing about. You need iTunes in order to access the store. Get it from http://www.apple.com/itunes
It's a really great program in itself for managing mp3 (it was voted the best PC program of 2003 by PC World)