Foals – Rarities 2
Still addicted to Foals, and I managed to find a fantastic website with tons of great mp3s. Thanks Mr. Anonymous Web Site Maker!
I have to say that I was not quite into the vocalist from the original band, but both Try This On Your Piano and Look At My Furrows Of Worry are still quite good. If you like The Edmund Fitzgerald, you’ll like these. There is lots of super fast guitar melodies, which come together spectacularly, insanely fast drum sections and screaming like something off a Fall Of Troy record.
For the more lighter Foals stuff, we have Olympic Airways (an early demo) and Red Socks Pugie (live). Both tracks are slightly different from the album versions, but both are arguably better. Olympic Airways, is nearly completely different, except for the bass riff (even that has been made faster) and the lyrics. Red Socks Pugie is just a tweaked version from the studio track. All those small changes add to their best song, and somehow make it even more incredible.
The Libertines – Rarities
There are so many reasons people are drawn to The Libertines, everyone has their own take on their music. I love them becasue of their uniquely melodic songs, mixed with superb lyrics and their uneveness in playing which I believes creates something extremely special. Because of this, I leap at the chance of finding any secret demos or unreleased tracks. And because they wrote so much, it seems like we will never find all of it, but here are some tracks which I have found and that I find to be the best.
Who’s Got The Crack? – Mentioned previously, it’s probably not as good as the original, but it’s nice to hear Pete and Carl singing it.
Dreaming Of You – Similar to “Who’s Got The Crack?”, it’s good, but no as good as the original.
I Got Sweets – A jazzy number from Carl, with bluesy chords and great lyrics. Maybe not their smartest song (just replace “sweets” with any illegal substance), but still a good life moto, just like with “I Get Along”. Great, clean solo at the end.
The Delaney [Live] – A more normal type of Libertines song, it has distorted guitars and screaming, never die choruses.
Never Never – My favourite b-side, it’s a shame that few people will hear this because it was not included on the album. It’s really infectious and has an absolutely fantastic chord progression.
Foals – Rarities
Yup, I like Foals a little bit more than last time. I managed to find some of their excellent singles which are not on the album and now I am hooked once again. I much prefer these singles, they are less poppy and there are a lot more things going on within the tracks.
Astronauts And All – Brilliant futuristic sounding song, pounding drums, beeps and bloops and there are some cool lyrics. Yannis talks once again about escapism: “Let’s trade all these types of things, for wings.” Maybe their best song. Just maybe.
Hummer – More of the same, really, but still really fantastic. Be warned this is incredibly catchy.
Mathletics – Their most famous single, pre-album, it has really complicated picking and really smart drum rhythms. I don’t really like the minor verses or the odd distortion on Yannis’ voice.
For once, I am stumped for words. They are just all really, really great. Or is that they are all the same?
Lightspeed Champion – Rarities
I’m afraid I have gone and written another post about Lightspeed Champion, I am sorry. Anyway here are my favourite rarities from the God of music himself:
Hooker Song – Catchy harmony and catchy lyrics, but still in his style of aggressive but cute songs; “Kill me baby, won’t you kill me?” Similar to “Patricia the Stripper”, the story is based around Dev’s awkwardness after hiring a hooker.
Happy Birthday – Showing off his guitar skills, this is how I introduced my anti-Lightspeed Champion friend to worship him. With sweeping crescendos from the violins, this track could have easily been on the album. Lyrics are once again, a critical attack on himself. But how else do you want it? Thanks to The Cold Cut blog for this one.
Flesh Failures – My favourite rarity, this was simply an extra track from the bonus CD of his debut. It’s a song from the musical Hair, and it really suits Dev’s style. Its just a repeating small chord pattern and Dev singing alone. Half way through, he is joined by some beautiful backup singers, which really boosts his vocals.
Another Song About Being Alone – One of the best Christmas songs I have heard (I’m not really into the “classics”), we just have to hope he records this properly. Oddly, it was released on his youtube account, just before Christmas.
