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March 22, 2006
mind your pens and quills
There is something about this song in particular- the crosshatching of the guitars, the mix of late-night drama and strangely confident vocals tinged with regret, and that huge chorus- that compels me to direct a party. Not plan, but direct. Maybe bring in some local actors, provide them with weak characters to work with, then mix in some of my actual friends and see what happens. Pay a couple to fake a breakup halfway through. Have someone make a really embarrassing but also passably entertaining drunken speech about 1) life and 2) what they plan to do with theirs, that must include the phrase "pardon my french" juxtaposed with the phrase "raison d'etre". A party with that much drama, both organic and contrived, would make a perfect setting (in the jewelry sense) for this song, which really should be the center of attention- it's a song that shines, albeit in a muted, restrained way (it's like a celebration dotted with footnotes of heartache and remorse).
'Capitol' can be heard from a few different angles: the guitars are dark (inky), but Josh Nowlan's vocals are clear and resplendent, moving above the throbbing bass and drums so easily and buoyantly that you'd think it was due to some gorgeously odd chemical or physical property inherent in the noises themselves- but one of the most interesting (I think) aspects of this song is the chorus, and specifically, the lyrics. Nowlan sings, "fever takes me over and over", followed by "(pronoun)'s so (adjective), I can't resist"; not to make it seem as if Nowlan is singing an incomplete MadLib, but despite the fact that I've listened to this song more than 35 times, I still cannot discern exactly what he's saying there (maybe "she's so keen"? I doubt that's it, but who wouldn't love a chorus with the word 'keen' in it?). Which works out pretty well- makes the song even more open, even more widely applicable- since the song's meaning is so malleable, it becomes relevant to almost any kind of strife or crisis (especially the romantic variety). Matt Fluxblog wrote a fantastic entry about Enon's 'Conjugate the Verbs' that discusses this particular phenomenon (i.e. our ability as listeners to bend and shape a song to serve our own purposes).
Cities have made a great debut album- one that's full of big hooks, big sounds, and lots of energy ('Capitol' is pretty representative of the whole). I'm sure people will draw comparisons to Interpol and the Killers (mostly on account of the guitar sound and the prevailing dancey drumbeats), but I have to say that Cities make music that's about 1000x more charismatic and lively than anything the Killers have done, and unlike Interpol (who, I suspect, hate themselves), Cities seem to genuinely enjoy the process of creating music (it definitely comes across on the album). The band is releasing their self-titled debut on Yep Roc Records (home of Kingsbury Manx), on April 18th, and you can pre-order it right here.
Posted by Kevin at March 22, 2006 12:20 AM