Rooney, "Are You Afraid?" (2007)
Warning: This post may cause seizures in some people.
Although the Rooney comeback single "When Did Your Heart Go Missing?" (which you should immediately head to Hype Machine to get, if you haven't already) is tremendous -- irresistibly catchy Motown handclap pop, which Rolling Stone even compared to Culture Club -- it's not very representative of the rest of the album, whose influences lean more towards the heavier side of 60s rock (as its cover art already tells us).
But the album's next best song, "Are You Afraid?", after a heavy rock opening, features some keyboard vamping and very heavenly harmonies on its chorus, which makes the track totally ELO. There are certain clichéd expressions in music writing, but one that remains evocative for me, especially when I remind myself to think of it literally, is "kaleidoscopic harmonies." As a kid I loved watching those beads seemingly fall apart and pull together. The picture splits and reforms, and is unfailingly beautiful for that process. Now I am no longer with a childish... with a childhood toy, so I listen to something like "Are You Afraid?" instead.
Warning: This post may cause seizures in some people.
Although the Rooney comeback single "When Did Your Heart Go Missing?" (which you should immediately head to Hype Machine to get, if you haven't already) is tremendous -- irresistibly catchy Motown handclap pop, which Rolling Stone even compared to Culture Club -- it's not very representative of the rest of the album, whose influences lean more towards the heavier side of 60s rock (as its cover art already tells us).
But the album's next best song, "Are You Afraid?", after a heavy rock opening, features some keyboard vamping and very heavenly harmonies on its chorus, which makes the track totally ELO. There are certain clichéd expressions in music writing, but one that remains evocative for me, especially when I remind myself to think of it literally, is "kaleidoscopic harmonies." As a kid I loved watching those beads seemingly fall apart and pull together. The picture splits and reforms, and is unfailingly beautiful for that process. Now I am no longer with a childish... with a childhood toy, so I listen to something like "Are You Afraid?" instead.
posted by Brittle-Lemon at
11:31 PM
5 Comments:
HM links are down, but googling for certain words along with another word beginning with the last letter of the alphabet is productive.
AYA is an unholy orgy in which Carole King has to service all of ELO and Blue Oyster Cult. (I still haven't decided whether that's a good thing.) In light of this fact, and given WDHYGM's reflecting influences from five-eight years later, it seems that we're heading for a concept album in which each track is the distillation of a decade. Can't wait to hear "Noel Coward Is A Big Ol' Flapper Girl"...
By
Anonymous, at 12:08 AM
Hype Machine is back up for me, but going directly to fuelfriends.blogspot.com will also net "WDYHGM" for anyone interested. The song should come up on the Stylus Jukebox later this week, which is why I didn't write much about it here.
I need to just scrap the post's second paragraph and substitute for it your orgy metaphor. Of course, I do need the current post as an excuse for the purty kaleidoscope. So purty.
By
Brittle, at 12:41 AM
I think he meant that RIAA has been going after anyone posting this song. The blogs that had it have removed it.
Video on youtube though!
By
xolondon, at 9:00 PM
Ah. In that case, sssshhh. If we keep really quiet no one can see us.
By
Brittle, at 4:52 PM
Argh, it's impossible to hear this without getting that early 80s soft-prog vibe, which isn't exactly my favorite thing. But the song's alright. Still I liked "When Did your Heart..." better, which reminds me (more fondly) of Bowie's "Modern Love".
By
daavid, at 10:03 AM
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