Swallowed Complete

Planningtorock “Think That Thought (Stringed Up Version)” – I’m not usually a person who privileges acoustic instruments over synthesizers (it’s often the other way around), but this new string-based arrangement can’t help but to make the album version sound like a home demo. The album recording compensates for its thin fakey string sound with a pleasing backing vocal that answers and counters the lead, but it’s just nowhere near as elegant. Whereas the song had been a bit lost in a track that called attention to its artifice, the string arrangement doesn’t burden it with nearly as much context. In addition to the removal of the second vocal and its attendent responsive lyrics, there’s a shift in pronouns in the first verse that completely changes the meaning of the song. In the first version, she sings about trying to dig beyond her conscious mind to uncover what is truly motivating her, and recognizing the resulting echo chamber in her brain: “When I think about that thought, that thought thinks about me.” In this take, the lyric shifts ever so slightly outside of herself, as she attempts to predict and understand the thoughts of someone else while unable to shake off the tainted filter of her own perceptions. The song becomes much sweeter, and the low key pizzicato and breezy melodies echo that sentiment while also mimicing the fluid tangle of notions and motivations within a mind.

Another great thing about this arrangement is that in cutting out some clutter, it highlights what an amazing Led Zeppelin song this would have been. Seriously, just listen to this and think about how it would have sounded if performed by Houses of the Holy-era Led Zep. She comes a bit close to Robert Plant vocalization already, but the instrumental parts definitely seem like something Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones would have written around that time. (Click here to buy it from iTunes.)

Jumbling Towers “Beggars” – Since there are some obvious and well-known touchstones in this track — Matthew Friedberger’s playful yet seasick jauntiness; Walter Martin’s late night urban romanticism; Jack White’s most over-the-top faux-old timey vocals — there is some temptation to simply list off its components and leave it at that, but it all comes together to form something rather special and unique. There’s a wonderful economy of tone in this arrangement as it rations out its limited set of textures in a highly deliberate and effective manner, with the song passing through distinct sections as though they were rooms in the same house. It’s catchy in a fairly traditional sort of way, but it’s ultimately a mood piece focused more on the specific sound of its instruments, most especially the crisp, cool tone of the Rhodes keyboard. (Click here for the Jumbling Towers MySpace page.)