A moment of clarity and 200 solemn faces...

Silver Street
By Ben Folds

Or in this case, the moment of clarity.

I remember dling the original demo tape Ben Folds recorded before starting Ben Folds Five and this song blowing me away. I could never understand why this song never made it to an album. Sure, it eventually made it to the 'Ben Folds Live' album, but it totally doesn't count.

Anyway, up front it's a song about someone who is stuck in the same place. trying to justify his existence by securing his position year after year, accepting his short coming because 'thats just how it is'. But to me, this is a song about being too cocky... thinking you have everything under control but in reality, everything is just falling further and further into fantasy land. It's hard to maintain objectivity when you only have one point of view...

Deadwood
By Dirty Pretty Things

Ok.... So my 200 solemn faces are just songs I've been listening to alot lately, but I'm sure I can assess some meaning out of them. I mean... what is psychological assessment if you can't bust out a little pop-psychology every now and again.

So... according to my 'back-of-the-cereal-box-psychology-degree' assessment, this song is about my inability to let go of the past and focus on the more important aspects of my life. What they are at the moment, I have no idea. I'm no psychologist...

Razorblade
By The Strokes

Yeah... I dunno what this has to do with anything....

If anything, it's an indication of me putting too much importance in other peoples feelings, but at this time of night, it's too late and too cold to put any faith in my cognitive abilities.

The long and short of it is that all of these songs are good songs, and indeed, are all from extremely good albumst I'll have to share with you sometime. But for now, this is the best I can manage. Not that I mean this in a bad way, but I hope these songs get stuck in your head as much as they have been stuck in mine the past few weeks.

What became of the likely lads?

Don't Look Back Into The Sun
By The Libertines

As you may or may not remember, The Libertines are one of my favorite bands... But if you listened to their second (and final) album, it's kinda of obvious that they were on the rocks. I mean, every second song is about how they can't stand to be around each other anymore and Pete Doherty could barely stand up towards the end of it.
Which brings us to this song, which depending on who you ask was either their first song or their last recorded song. I kinda lean to "last recorded" since their earlier stuff has a very fuzzy sound, plus this is totally another song about how the band is breaking up.
Plus, it leads itself to the story that whenever you hear Pete shout "Let me go!" in the song, it was actually Pete screaming in real life because he had to be restrained in the recording studio to finish the song. Apparently he turned up late, and stoned out of his mind, and they could only get him to do a little bit of recording before leaving a few hours later, leaving Carl Barat to make up a song with whatever they had down. Although, this could all be wrong... so don't quote me.

Fuck Forever
By Babyshambles

Pete Doherty went on to do a lot of things after The Libertines broke up, mainly cocaine and Kate Moss, but he did manage to get himself together and start a band as well. Babyshambles is a dumb name in my opinion, it was named after a recording session he did with the Libertines during the height of the bands problems.
The album itself wasn't up to the same level as the previous ones, but this song is definitely a stand out. It sounds very rough, but thats half of the charm! Even though its a recording, you can never really tell if Petes going to be able to make it all the way through the song, or if hes going to pass out in a gutter and kinda murmur the rest of the words. It is also a great song to shout along to in clubs.
It's always hard liking a band with Pete Doherty in it tho, considering hardly anyone actually knows hes a musician since Woman's Day and New Idea pretty much hammered him every chance they got... Not that he didn't deserve it or anything, but still. He was only acting like a rockstar, in the same way that Mick Jagger et al did before him. In someways, in this time of environmentally friendly, straight edge "rock musicians" he's the only true rocker left.

Bang Bang You're Dead
By Dirty Pretty Things

Carl Barat, on the other hand, did not get messed up on drugs and started a new band with the drummer called "Dirty Pretty Things" which was named after a DJ slot he used to do. Where Doherty brought the messy "everything's about to fall apart" feel to his album, Barat brought the jangly guitars and structured rock choruses. Personally, I think he did a better job.
Carl Barat however, seems a little incapable of letting go, as this seems to be another song about Pete being a wanker. But, its still got a tops horn section at the start and fun chorus, so its not that bad. The album itself is also much more listenable than Babyshambles, with a couple of other awesome songs like "Doctors and Dealers" and "Gin & Milk".
I always felt kind of sorry for Carl Barat. I kind of think he was the real musical force behind The Libertines, and despite all the overhype NME might have given, he'll never be as well known as Pete. I mean, never mind that neither of these bands have gotten terribly recognized outside of the UK or anything (although Dirty Pretty Things deserved it)... I guess at least the drummer got to be in an episode of the Mighty Boosh...