Favorite Song on Terroir Blues?
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- Posts: 16
- Joined: Tue Jun 17, 2003 5:49 am
Then I wonder why you like "California." Musically, it is not much to listen to. In my opinion, most of Jay's songs rely on beautiful lyrics. And if you say one of Jay's songs has bad lyrics, then it pretty much makes the song very bland, in my opinion.awol wrote:All Your Might - may be one of Jay's best songs ever
California - great melody, awful lyrics
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- Posts: 32
- Joined: Mon Jun 16, 2003 7:19 pm
- Location: Toronto, Canada
Eric: the tune has exactly the off-kilter dreamlike quality you're describing, and it definitely makes the listener's ears perk up, wondering what they've stumbled into. But the basic melody of the song's so great that I would've liked to have seen "Hard is the Fall II", maybe just Jay and a piano, with the rest of the alternate versions. Just wishful thinking. Can't get enough Jay, in whatever form he takes.
I just picked this up, maybe three hours ago... still taking it in. I'm still having a hard time accepting the lack of rock! I mean, I'm going back as far as Sebastopol, here. I had the same gripe with that one too. I read a quick review stating that this album showed a return to a more "band-oriented" sound, so that got my hopes up but... I just can't get over the idea that if these songs were done with Son Volt, they would be tremendous. I don't get it.
Sorry, man - my fault
Though fond of analog tape -- "I just like the way it sounds, especially on acoustic instruments," Farrar explains --and arcane (at least by contemporary-rock standards) instruments such as the sitar, flute and bottle-neck guitar, Farrar continues to experiment through magical accidents. The album's second track, "Hard is the Fall," reverberates with what seems to be a delay pedal gone mad. The surging echoes are something else entirely. "It's four takes of the song layered together," Farrar explains. "We didn't plan it. Mike and I were playing the song back, and [Son Volt alum] Eric Heywood was listening to a separate mix, and he got all four takes coming back at him. He said, 'You guys gotta listen to this.' We all liked it. We never tried to line up the takes, and the odds that they did line up were pretty incredible. We had to go with it.
"It sort of fit the essence of what I was going after," he adds, in a rare moment of interpretation. "It's the gist of the song: Is this a dream, or is it real?"
"It sort of fit the essence of what I was going after," he adds, in a rare moment of interpretation. "It's the gist of the song: Is this a dream, or is it real?"
no rolling back is my fav.
california is a close second.
as far as the opinion that "california" has bad lyrics, i disagree. i live here on the west coast and know a lot about the places and things that he's singing about. the song really conjures up the feeling i get when i travel up and down the coast...just a thought.
california is a close second.
as far as the opinion that "california" has bad lyrics, i disagree. i live here on the west coast and know a lot about the places and things that he's singing about. the song really conjures up the feeling i get when i travel up and down the coast...just a thought.
Personally, I don't think the space junk is that bad..... no, fuck that, I LIKE the space junk..... I think it serves a purpose to actually break up the album into distinct "sides" (if you will)..... for example, there is no doubt that the most emotionally devastating song is "Dent County", backed by the lovely instrumental "Fish Fingers Norway"..... these songs are between Space Junks IV & V, and "V" actually has a sort of uplifting moment that portends the rest of the record. Anyway, if I don't make sense, all I'm saying is that I think the Space Junk kind of splits the album into discernible parts that are really interesting taken by themselves. The "junk" itself is kind of reminiscent of many of the Byrds more experimental tracks, which I love. My favorite song if not "Dent County" MUST be the stunning elegy "Cahokian", about an area I am very familiar with, both physically and mentally.... that song occupies an area of the brain that all of us are familiar with, knowingly or not..... This album truly boils my synapses......