Category Archives: To Revisit

7. Upside Down & Inside Out – OK Go

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There is very little to say about OK Go that hasn’t already been said, other than that their music and songs often get upstaged by their mental videos. It’s worth closing your eyes and opening your ears, though.

It’s like a freight train

That being said, here’s one of their videos. No prizes for guessing which two of the cast absolutely win it for me.

Which is the lyric? Well…

Gravity’s just a habit that you’re really sure you can’t break

But I’ll go with:

I wish I had said the things you thought that I had said

You and me both, brother.

Artist: OK Go
Album: Hungry Ghosts
Producer: Dave Fridmann and Tony Hoffer
Released: 2005, Paracadute/OK Go

6. Cheer Up (You Miserable Fuck) – David Ford

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After the evening I’ve had, the soundtrack has to be David Ford’s I Sincerely Apologise for all the Trouble I’ve Caused. The title alone tells it all. It reads like a suicide note, but it isn’t.

I Sincerely Apologise for all the Trouble I've Caused by David Ford

Which is the song?

I Don’t Care What You Call Me feels right, but we don’t all have that protective coating.

State of the Nation is the best song on the album: a damning indictment of several entities who should be indicted, as relevant today as it was in 2005. But that’s politics and too depressing and distracting to dwell on right now.

I’ll pick Cheer Up (You Miserable Fuck). Is that the redemption? Depends on who is saying it and who is on the receiving end of those words.

Either way, a thoroughly beautiful, and brutally honest album from a magnificent songwriter.

Artist: David Ford
Album: I Sincerely Apologise for all the Trouble I’ve Caused
Producer: David Ford, at home in Lewes, East Sussex
Released: 2005, Indipendiente/Magnolia

5. Call Your Own – Amandla

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Soundtrack for the evening (yes, I know it’s morning) is Amandla’s Falling Alone.

Personal because Claude Coleman Jr. was a close friend, absolute gentleman, and legendary drummer.

And also shit at table football. You’d think a professional drummer would have hand-eye co-ordination, but you would be sadly, sadly mistaken.

Claude is the drummer in Ween, and later Eagles of Death Metal, whilst being kind of hot at graphic design, which is how I met him. He’s kind of hot anyway.

Which is the song?

I’ll go with Call Your Own. A simple love song to an unborn infant.

And I’ll leave you with my memory of Claude walking into the office in Kentish Town where we worked, which was the Jewish News, and what was then totallyjewish dot com. Dude strutted in, surveyed the room full of writers and misfits and said quite loudly, in his upstate New York drawl: “Damn! Jewish women got it goin’ on!”

You ain’t wrong Claude. But only he could get away with that.

Artist: Amandla
Album: Falling Alone
Producer: Claude Coleman Jr.
Released: 2001, Sounds of Black Sheep

4. Joanne – Zoë Wren

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Soundtrack for the evening is Zoë Wren’s Inspired. Ostensibly a covers album, it’s clearly a very personal work for Zoë.

It’s kind of personal for me too. Not least because I got to meet Zoë on one of my very first shifts working at Colchester Arts Centre. Which is where I kinda fell in love with her, and loaded up on her impressive merch, in some sort of findom Stockholm Syndrome trance, presumably. But more accurately, she is a beautiful artist and thoroughly lovely person.

Which is the song? Well, Who Knows Where the Time Goes is a little too personal. We played the Fairport Convention original at my sister’s funeral and so I can’t ever listen to that song again. And nobody can ever come close to Sandy Denny anyway.

Can you cover a Joni Mitchell song and get away with it? Apparently so. Zoë’s interpretation of Both Sides Now nails it.

But I’ll go with Joanne. Apparently by Lady Gaga originally. Not an artist I’ve invested a lot of time in learning about, but the song is an emotional killer, and Zoë will show you why.

Artist: Zoë Wren
Album: Inspired
Producer: Tristano Galimberti
Released: 2019, Folkstock Records

3. No Love – The Get Up Kids

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Soundtrack for the evening… The Get Up Kids’ debut Four Minute Mile was made on a tiny budget. Teenage drummer Ryan Pope even had to be signed out of school by his mum to make it to the recording session.

Album cover of Four Minute Mile, by The Get Up Kids

Is this album the foundation of emo? Rites of Spring might argue. After a night blasting this, my neighbours may argue too. But we’re not arguing here, we’re loving.

Which is the song? Better Half is the emotional killer, and sign of what was to come for TGUK. The song about Amy (Don’t Hate Me, and damn, I still love you Amy) bruises me. No Love is the redemption.

Which is the lyric?

I can’t put my hands all over you, but think of what the two of us could do

Or maybe the crux of the matter is:

I don’t want you to love me any more

Kind of gets a dude off the hook, doesn’t it?

Artist: The Get Up Kids
Album: Four Minute Mile
Producer: Bob Weston
Released: 2001, Doghouse Records