“Song”
Both captivated,
vocalizations and drums,
embed in their minds.
Steve D
Tag: music
Spare Parts for Broken Hearts – Songs that Stick to My Brain part 2
It’s time to return to my review of Spare Parts for Broken Hearts, the L.A.-based rock band whose eight singles have inhabited my ear space for the last couple of months.
When I listen to and review an album, the goal is to understand the music as a whole piece, rather than a critique.
I reviewed Spare Parts for Broken Hearts’ first for singles a few weeks ago. Today we’ll listen to the back four.
Previous post: Spare Parts for Broken Hearts – Songs that Stick to My Brain part 1
“You’re softer / When we collide“
Gentle acoustic strums open “Pleasure Delay”, paired with lead singer Sarah Green’s off-kilter verses. The sound steadily builds with rhythm guitar and then drums.
Then the chorus hits with atmospheric sound–crashing cymbals, heavy chords, and eerie vocal tracks from Green behind the lyrics: “I could really show you something / I could be your one and only”
This song is a plea, perhaps for connection, but with a darker self-awareness, or maybe an admission: “But if you’re gonna die would you do it for me”.
“Take my hand and watch it burn”
“Say When” opens with a kind of slurring verse that seems to be directed at a former significant other. The music treads forward inexorably to a wailing chorus of old wounds: “Say when / Tell me you don’t want me then you hurt me just to stick around”.
In the second verse, the music quiets to a walking bass line and light drums, but Green’s vocals retain the anguish: “Take my hand and watch it burn / Oh I am shaking / From the love I can’t return”.
As in the first crop of songs from my previous post, “Say When” exemplifies Spare Parts for Broken Hearts’ ability to embody diverse and often conflicting emotional tones between songs, within songs, or even within a single verse.
“Build a bridge / Burn it down together”
“Mush” is the first song I ever heard by this group, and I was immediately struck by the weighty post-grunge overtones and Green’s ability to take her voice from warm and breezy to a full-throated gale and back in an instant.
I’m counting this entry as two songs, because the acoustic version of “Mush” is just as poignant as the full-band version. If someone had shown me the acoustic version first and told me it was the original, I would have believed them.
The authenticity of Spare Parts for Broken Hearts’ music is what resonates with me. It feels real, and even when the tones of the music seem to contradict the anguished lyrics, that contradiction feels intentional.
It makes listening to these songs a layered experience, even after the tenth or twentieth time.
Steve D
Spare Parts for Broken Hearts: Songs that Stick to my Brain part 1
See part 2 here.
I’ve spent the last several days listening ad nauseum to eight songs by Spare Parts for Broken Hearts, an LA-based rock band about whom I’ve been aware for at least a year, but had neglected to spend any significant time with. I’ve been missing out.
Last week I finally bought all eight singles that are available for download from their website. From what I can tell, they have yet to put out an EP or LP, but I’m still pleased with their eight-song playlist on my phone. (Reading the about page on their site, they plan to release an LP this year!)
Today, I’m going to take the first four songs from my playlist and look at them a little more closely. I’ll do the other four songs I have in a follow-up. I’m just doing these in the order they appear on my phone. If you’ve never read one of my album reviews before, I like to review the musical and lyrical tones of the songs and try to interpret them together. So this is not a critique so much as an attempt at understanding this music.
“I don’t want to be the voice of your prophet, your profit”
“Dirty Milk” opens with a fast, distorted bass line, feedback chords, and ringing cymbals. Lead Singer Sarah Green’s voice is melodic with just the right bit of scratchiness: “I am anonymous / Are you just like me / I need a friend”. And the refrain: “I don’t wanna be the voice of your prophet / I just want to be alone”
The song repeats its only verse and refrain twice each, never relenting until an abrupt ending that briefly fades out with squealing distortion feedback. This pace is more what you would expect from a heavy post-grunge band, but it’s not what Spare Parts for Broken Hearts typically do.
“Tell me the story from a different angle”
“Big Win” is more of a slow burn to start that builds into a soaring chorus: “All that I want from you / You can’t take back”
Even as Green’s voice rattles and nearly drowns out the dirty guitar chords, she still finds the space to lower her refrain to a gentle, almost sweet level, only to come back to a final chorus with fury and anguish. Spare Parts, or perhaps Green herself, perfectly blend these opposite emotional levels in most of their songs.
This is easily my favorite song of the bunch.
“I could swim til the bitter end”
“Cold Wave” similarly transitions from floating verse to torrential chorus and back. These transitions are jarring in that the listener feels the sudden weight of Green’s pain. Her first belting cry of “With no air” is powerful on its own, but its true meaning is only revealed when she growls: “I’m holding my breath / With no air”.
These songs run 3-4 minutes each– an average length– but each one is so full of sound and feeling that they feel like frozen moments.
“Where you end I begin / Severed”
Most of SPFBH’s songs are laden with inner turmoil, but perhaps none feels as forceful as “Ever”. Green’s wail on the first word of the chorus is a challenge and a rebuke: “What you can’t give / You can’t take from anyone.”
Plucking strings and distortion-rended chords. Soft hi-hat and crashing cymbals. Airy verses and wailing choruses.
All of these elements mingle throughout most songs for Spare Parts for Broken Hearts, and they never feel out of place or forced.
That the band can embody these dichotomies so completely is a testament to their songwriting skill and their authenticity. Whatever inspired these songs, I believe it, and that’s part of what makes them unforgettable.
I’ll come back with the other four songs in a couple weeks.
How do you like Spare Parts for Broken Hearts so far?
Steve D
Haiku Sunday – Undiscovered
“Undiscovered”
Recommendations
lead down the rabbit hole to
new musical lands.
Anybody want to listen to some power metal/melodic death metal? Unleash the Archers had popped up in my YouTube recommendations before, but none of their songs caught my ears until the one below. After listening more closely, I’ve just ordered this album Apex off their site.
Steve D
Leaning on the Small Things
Have you ever started writing something without knowing at all where it was going? That’s what this post is.
Today (Tuesday) was my first day back at work after a 5-day vacation to a family lakehouse. Five days doesn’t seem that long, especially over an extended weekend, but it was a strange return anyway.
I’ve found it more and more difficult to let go of work. Difficult is not the right word. I look forward to letting go of work things at the end of the day. But I feel more and more guilty about it. I don’t think anyone is placing that guilt upon me, except myself.
Our lakehouse vacation was supposed to be an escape from work, from our recent spate of home improvement projects, and from the occasional monotony of semi-quarantined life.
It was all of those things, for the most part. I just had one afternoon where I selfishly decided not to spend a lot of time with my son, and it’s been bugging me. I don’t think anyone else felt I was ignoring my family, but that’s how it felt to me.
All this is adding up to the notion that I am often too hard on myself, and I have trouble letting go of little things that have more to do with my perception of myself than with my interactions with other real people.
So I spent much of today (again, Tuesday) trying not to stress over things that are either done and in the past, or completely out of my control.
Fortunately, a few things made me feel better over the course of the day:
- a solid yoga session, which is really the only reason I can be productive for 8-10 hours a day
- reading and chatting with my son before his bedtime
- This song, by an incredible singer/songwriter from somewhere near DC:
I’m going to listen to this for the third or fourth time tonight and then go to bed.
Steve D
Mini Movie Reviews #1: Medieval Action and Modern Music Dramedy
I’ve managed to watch a number of movies/documentaries over the last few weeks that I hadn’t seen before. None of them blew me away, but I have some thoughts, so I thought I’d touch on each one.
None of these are particularly new, so many of you may have seen them already, but they were new to me. I’ll share two today and two in the near future. And maybe I’ll have watched even more movies by then, too. Continue reading “Mini Movie Reviews #1: Medieval Action and Modern Music Dramedy”
Aaaand it’s the holidays
I had intended to finalize the 12th and last chapter of “The Grand Mythos” on Monday and post it to Wattpad, but I had some online shopping to do.
I generally avoid the consumerist craze known as The Holidays, but we’re doing a fun gift exchange with my in-laws this year, and I wanted to get something on a deal.
The short version is there are too many options, I’m indecisive, and I’m probably overthinking what my intended giftee will think of their main gift. Buuuut… it’s 10:30pm as I write this and I really don’t want to stay up all night writing a real post.
So you all will get chapter 12 and the attendant announcement post this week. For now, have an impressive Evanescence cover.
Haiku Sunday – Chorus
“Chorus”
Voices, lights, music,
a cacophony of sense
uniting our hearts.
Steve D
Quick Rip: Did Ed Sheeran Just Create a New Super-Group?
The short answer: I sure hope so. Continue reading “Quick Rip: Did Ed Sheeran Just Create a New Super-Group?”
Quick Rip: Of Monster’s and Men’s New Sound?
“Alligator” is the first single from Of Monsters and Men’s third album. Fever Dream Comes out July 26, and the first single already has me wondering is we will yet again hear an evolved sound from the fascinating Icelandic group.
This performance on Fallon features the five main members–they usually have 3-5 touring members–playing a layered chorus of distorted guitars that more closely resembles post-rock than the band’s previous alternative folk rock sound.
Maybe “Alligator” will be anomalous on the new album, but a move in this direction actually makes sense to me. 2011’s My Head is an Animal had an airy feel with lots of vocal choruses. 2015’s Beneath the Skin still used a lot of acoustic sounds and vocal harmonies, but its tone was darker and hinted at the more ambient, emotive power of their music.
Whatever direction the band has chosen, I’ll be happy. Of Monsters and Men has (clearly) become known for long droughts between albums, but each one feels fresh and unique. I can’t wait to hear what Fever Dream sounds like.
Steve D
Evening Satellite Publishing 