Things Are Looking Up

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 attendant 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. Originally posted on September 25, 2006)

Hank “You Are The Child Of Betrayal” – Though the new EP by Hank may lack the lo-fi “wait, was this recorded live at some crazy party in a basement someplace?” quality of their How To Prosper In The Coming Bad Years album, the songs remain spare, concise, and catchy, with an emphasis on contrasting Cab Williamson’s deep, droll monotone with the expressive voices of his female band mates. “You Are The Child Of Betrayal” is a grim title, but the song itself is rather optimistic. The singer seems a bit surprised by her own happiness and good fortune, and though she’s calling up her friends to let them know, she’s obviously a bit worried that she’s about to jinx herself. I especially love the way her voice pitches up slightly each time she sings the word “up” (as in “things are looking up!”), conveying an excitement and enthusiasm tempered by doubt and cynicism. (Click here for the Hank MySpace page. Originally posted November 8th, 2007)