O · Song!

Squeeze - "Pulling Mussels (From The Shell)"
(4:00, 5.98mb)
Track 1, Argybargy, 1980.

I remember seeing an ex-member of Squeeze, Glenn Tilbrook, sing a song solo on an Australian variety show maybe 8-9 years ago. And I remember expecting the song to be like "Cool For Cats" - think of the almost rapped vocals with a strong Cockney accent over New Wave backing. Of course, I was vaguely disappointed, as the song he played was much more melodic and nuanced - and thus less entertaining - than their one hit wonder suggested.

You could say that it more closely resembled "Pulling Mussels (From The Shell)". It's simply a great song, from their third album, Argybargy. The song has a nice, subtle, dynamic push and pull, and sonically resembles the trebly, upbeat production of an Elvis Costello or XTC (Costello produced their next album, in fact). It has a great piano solo from pianist Jools Holland, who soon left Squeeze and later went on to host a UK music television show. The vocals of Glenn Tillbrook have a naivety and smoothness to them that you don't hear in Squeeze's contemporaries. If Elvis Costello had sung "Pulling Mussels", it would have been with a sneer, or at least a snide knowingness. Instead, the lyrics, about working class people in the UK on holiday at the beach, are a portrait rather than overt social commentary.

Two fat ladies windowshop something for the mantelpiece
In for bingo all the nines, a panda for sweet little niece

The emptiness of the holidays portrayed is implicit rather than explicit - you hear it in the chords and rhythms and in the dynamics rather than in the vocals or the lyrics.


Iron and Wine - "It's The Same Old Song"
(3:01, 5.54mb)
Random track I found at the Passing Afternoon fan site.

Sam Beam is reliable, in a way. Count on him for an unusual and effective cover of a song from a completely unexpected genre. Those who have heard his cover of the Postal Service's "Such Great Heights" (it was featured in Garden State apparently, I haven't seen it though) know this. He took the upbeat synth-pop and deconstructed the song by slowing it down, getting rid of anything electric or electronic, and making it sound like it was recorded in country Tennessee in 1935.

He does the same old trick for the Motown classic, "It's The Same Old Song" (written by Holland, Dozier, and Holland, originally performed by The Four Tops presumably backed up by the usual Funk Brothers).Sayonara the riff at the start, bye bye the Motowntastic bass and drums. What's left is the bare bones of the song, slowed down a bit, with a bit of slide guitar, and the country Tennessee in 1935 treatment. It sounds mournful despite the major chords, with Beam's shy voice betraying a whole bunch of resignation and uncertainty.

The country Tennessee in 1935 thing is a neat trick actually; Beam actually records his demos track by track on a computer with a shitty microphone, the same way I used to record my old songs last century. And that's probably Iron and Wine in a nutshell. That he re-records a tune called "It's The Same Old Song", and gives it a different meaning would be funny in itself, but that he records the song so it sounds like every other Iron and Wine song is the icing on the cake. Very droll. At the same time, the sentiment in the song is still genuine; it is these contradictions and emotions that give Iron and Wine the tug on the heart.

I'm half-tempted to take a bunch of Iron and Wine songs and give them the pop treatment: add 120 beats per minute to the tempo, add a distinctive riff or two, put in big pop beats, and release them under the name of Irony and Whining, or Plastic and Mixers, or something.