josh blog

Ordinary language is all right.

One could divide humanity into two classes:
those who master a metaphor, and those who hold by a formula.
Those with a bent for both are too few, they do not comprise a class.

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19 Dec '01 06:55:27 PM

And remember, "keyed up".

19 Dec '01 06:55:06 PM

I can't sing in the right range to "Time Bomb" either, but I'm well aware of that fact. Probably because "Time Bomb" is more chorusy - and anthemic??

19 Dec '01 06:53:37 PM

And now the exuberance I feel when "Following Through" starts is still unbelievable. So much happens in the first 3 seconds!

I have trouble singing this in the right range too.

I couldn't tell you what the lyrics are about even in the most general sense; I forget between listenings that the chorus goes "I can do it anywhere with anyone at anytime don't you forget/this is my life and it's going to be good, don't you know", which might at least give me a sense that they're defiantly standing up for the narrator's right to happiness and autonomy or something like that.

Still the lyrics are important, though.

19 Dec '01 06:46:52 PM

As in other songs the "yeah"s in "Automatic" do not appear on the lyric sheet.

19 Dec '01 06:45:54 PM

In "Secret Curse" the lyrics are arranged like this:

secret curse
anonymous hex on flavorless food and terrible sex
a day of no rhythm a night of no rest
and I do not know what sin I have not confessed

secret curse
terrible blight I'm deafened by sound and blinded by light
caught when I flee and beat when I fight and I'm cocky when wrong
and timid when right and I don't know what crimes have yet to come to light

but it's getting worse
indelible mark, tired at noon, wired at dark
a terrible bite, but never a bark, I don't know what else I can do

And on the first two verses "secret curse" goes right with the following lines, rhythmically speaking, but for the third verse "but it's getting worse" is said with the previous verse's lines, so that there's a slight irregularity. Or in other words something to thwart expectations and make things more interesting.

19 Dec '01 06:40:42 PM

Also, the line "I used to think that justice had to rule for happy lives, but now I'm not so sure" makes me wonder if Travis has been reading the Republic.

19 Dec '01 06:39:55 PM

Does the beginning to "Come Home" count as an in medias res entrance?

"Called in sick to work today, I couldn't have gotten a damn thing done."

Reminds me also that the song takes about 40 seconds before the vocals come in, as a number of songs on Change do; but they feel more like catching something in progress than introductory material building up to something. (The music has been playing for a while, then he decides to sing.)

19 Dec '01 06:33:44 PM

"Pay for the Piano" still does a lot less for me than the other songs save "Secret Curse". I wonder if it's because I find the verse parts less engaging. The chorus is alright. And I guess that the second verse, where the band brings it down a bit, is OK too. (They come back up before the second chorus though.)

19 Dec '01 06:31:39 PM

Note regarding minimal musical materials still being interesting: the guitar part, that eventually turns into a solo at about 4 minutes in, on "Superpowers".