Fate Line Friday from October 10th

Jen here – so it’s my turn again and we’ve discovered that our Fate Line Friday posts bespeak our personalities – or at least according to our resident psychiatrist Dr. John. So unlike John, I’m no music nerd, and unlike Simon, I’m no muso equivalent of the Happy Buddha, but I do know what I like. What creeps into my brain and soul and gets me every listen. Here are (yes again) two songs that do it for me. And while I agree that it is “all about the bass” – I think, for me, above all else in these songs or any songs, it’s all about the voice!

The first tune is from a band of young men from New York I saw a few years ago – Vampire Weekend. I have been hooked ever since and their most recent album has become a staple in my house or on a long drive – and this song, “Hannah Hunt,” a favourite. It draws me in with its melodic simplicity, sparse production soundscape (that reminds me of the opening bass slide sequence to The Eagles’ “One of These Nights), odd harmony and haunting piano (not unlike the piano part played by Carmen on our tune “Your Touch is Deep”). But what really gets me, what I wait for every time, is the ending when the song goes epic, he jumps the octave and looses it ever so slightly in his desperate plea for love.

Another ear worm of late has come from the 70s again, and The Faces – a band whose production sound we’ve tried to emulate on this record – trashy roomy drums and jangly flat picked and hammered guitar. “OOh La La” has me from the opening strum of its loose but vibey rhythm. But the rarely heard young Ronnie Wood’s voice (pre-Stones), scratchy but still musical and ever so characterful, is what draws me in with his own hooky mournful plea about the wisdom of the ages or aged! “I wish that I knew what I know now when I was younger” indeed!