Lyrics
I'm not going to write an entry for every song the band have ever covered live, or even the just the ones that have been released on live albums, because that would still require me to buy a whole bunch of those and I ain't made of money. But if they've been released on singles, whether they're the a or the b-side, they'll get an entry. So, "Fake Plastic Trees".
Just to cement the Radiohead comparisons the album received, this was the b-side to the only single to come out of Radiation. It stays extremely faithful to the original, so I'm kind of at a loss for what to actually say about it. I don't know, Hogarth's vocal delivery is somewhat less slurred than Yorke's. That's a difference, I guess. I don't think it affects my enjoyment of the song one way or another, it's great either way.
I suppose if you want to play someone else's song live because you love it, without trying to put your own spin on it or whatever, that's probably OK from time to time, but it really shouldn't be b-side material.
Video: Fake Plastic Trees
There's no 'tube of the Marillion version, but the original's much the same, so that'll do. It's got a pretty nice video.
Showing posts with label non-album tracks (Hogarth era). Show all posts
Showing posts with label non-album tracks (Hogarth era). Show all posts
Thursday, 26 July 2007
Thursday, 5 July 2007
Icon
Lyrics
It sounds extremely incomplete, (which may well be because it actually is, since it was rejected from inclusion on Afraid Of Sunlight by everyone but Hogarth, and relegated to a b-side to "Beautiful" instead - I don't know if they bothered to clean it up any for that, the band have tended to take a pretty lazy attitude with b-sides, I think) but I find that that actually works in its favour. It always gives me the feeling of drifting in and out of sleep, with that endlessly repeating flute and bass acting as the song that's stuck in your head that night, and Steve Hogarth's mumbled lyrics as the thoughts running around your head.
Some of those thoughts are pretty good ones, and hence bear repeating; "Even if the good old days were good/The past is a terrible place to live", others not so much; "A trick of dry ice/a trick of the dry eyes"? But I can forgive those, because they make for authentic stream of conciousness; not all of your thoughts can be winners. I like toast.
Personally, I think I'd have voted for inclusion on the album, I think it could slot in nicely between "Afraid Of Sunlight" and "Beyond You" without interrupting the album's flow, and the line from which the song gets its title, "Icon therefore I am", may not be quite as clever as it wants to be, but it does fit in pretty fabulously with the album's theme. Afraid Of Sunlight is all about the trappings of fame and success and how they inevitably seem to lead to self-destruction in one form or another. Icon therefore I am, I think, leads into the disillusionment represented in "King" - it's the realisation that your heart's not in your work any more, that you're just going through the motions because that's what people expect of you, because that is what made you an icon.
But on the other hand, while including "Icon" certainly wouldn't detract from the quality of the album, I'm not sure that it'd add anything that isn't already well covered by the eight songs that did make the cut either, and I am absolutely in favour of erring on the side of caution in these matters.
It sounds extremely incomplete, (which may well be because it actually is, since it was rejected from inclusion on Afraid Of Sunlight by everyone but Hogarth, and relegated to a b-side to "Beautiful" instead - I don't know if they bothered to clean it up any for that, the band have tended to take a pretty lazy attitude with b-sides, I think) but I find that that actually works in its favour. It always gives me the feeling of drifting in and out of sleep, with that endlessly repeating flute and bass acting as the song that's stuck in your head that night, and Steve Hogarth's mumbled lyrics as the thoughts running around your head.
Some of those thoughts are pretty good ones, and hence bear repeating; "Even if the good old days were good/The past is a terrible place to live", others not so much; "A trick of dry ice/a trick of the dry eyes"? But I can forgive those, because they make for authentic stream of conciousness; not all of your thoughts can be winners. I like toast.
Personally, I think I'd have voted for inclusion on the album, I think it could slot in nicely between "Afraid Of Sunlight" and "Beyond You" without interrupting the album's flow, and the line from which the song gets its title, "Icon therefore I am", may not be quite as clever as it wants to be, but it does fit in pretty fabulously with the album's theme. Afraid Of Sunlight is all about the trappings of fame and success and how they inevitably seem to lead to self-destruction in one form or another. Icon therefore I am, I think, leads into the disillusionment represented in "King" - it's the realisation that your heart's not in your work any more, that you're just going through the motions because that's what people expect of you, because that is what made you an icon.
But on the other hand, while including "Icon" certainly wouldn't detract from the quality of the album, I'm not sure that it'd add anything that isn't already well covered by the eight songs that did make the cut either, and I am absolutely in favour of erring on the side of caution in these matters.
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