25.9.08

THE LUCKSMITHS SAVED MY LIFE

except they didn't. but i love them, and if i was in need of a lifesaver i think i couldn't do much better than marty and the gang.

why do i love the lucksmiths? i honestly have no idea how i even got into them, i vaguely remember liking there is a boy that never goes out and their cover of there is a light that never goes out, but am not sure how that even came about. i remember i was aware that they existed for years before ever hearing them - they come up when you search for the smiths on songmeanings.net, which is still my go-to site for indie lyrics and general emo lolz at the comments to a lot of the songs. if you want people going really overboard about american emo/pop punk, go and read what some people have said about brand new songs. go on, i dare you.

anyway, back to the lucksmiths. i don't know much australian music really - it's bad, but i mainly seem to listen to american/british/swedish/canadian stuff generally. but the lucksmiths are sooo good, i should really check out more from australia and other countries in general. the lucksmiths aren't my favourite band, as much as i can have a favourite band, but they're pretty close - they manage to have a really recognisable sound without being boring or too samey, which is pretty impressive are being around for as long as they have. their songs often have such great melodies and tunes that they make me feel like my heart is about to burst, or something - they're so great at the pop, it's awesome. and then... it's like, they could just be a great guitar pop band but not much more. but the lyrics are amazing.

i think marty writes most of the songs. what marty's great at is the rhyming. now, rhyming in english is fucking hard - way too easy to get stuck in a rut where you use the same predictable, clunky rhymes as everyone else. but he is so good - and often really funny with it. i mentioned in a bit a while back that i liked his rhyming fiction with kitchen, and he's like that in most songs. it's just lovely, whether it's better with weather, consonants with consequences, meant and government... it's just generally good stuff.

i also really love tali's voice. marty sings a song or two, but tali is the singer, and his voice just suits the songs so well. it's really expressive and technically good, i think, although to be honest i have no clue about any of that. and it suits the music. i also love his accent! australian accents are nice, usually, and here it's no different. i also love that he drums and sings at the same time - he makes up for phil collins, okay, he does it well, like it's meant to be done. look up live videos on youtube - it's so great!

and then after all that they're just ridiculously cute and smart and happy and sad. they've got a song for most moods. they sing about fiction and scrabble and summer only they call it 't-shirt weather' and they're never cloying but always pretty honest and sweet. it's good stuff generally.

9.9.08

6

sufjan stevens - chicago

everyong likes this song, right? it's sufjan, and people love him. and it's one of the best on the album. i found out the other day that until quite recently, chicago was the second biggest city in the USA. it's called 'the second city' still, despite LA having taken it over sometime since the 80s. this song is pretty beautiful though, in pretty much all versions... i'm kind of partial to the acoustic one, but the regular is great of course, and so are the other variations.

his voice just sounds so sweet! and gentle. and the song is great, really great - i love songs that namecheck cities and driving to them, anyway, i'm just a loser like that, so to have them being part of this lovely little song is just... really nice. it's so well-written, and kind of... light and high but really listenable and just pretty awesome. he's a good songwriter and his voice is lovely. sorry this post is so rubbish. but i love this song. it's understated, and that works.