So. Whose got some love for 'Eight'?
Now, I'll admit something here... it wasn't one of my favourites when it first came out. I can't imagine why after listening to it recently after letting it gather dust on my shelf for a long while. I dunno... it just seemed to be 'just another NMA album' when it first came out, especially after how much I loved the (still somewhat under-regarded IMO) Strange Brotherhood. And yes, I have dipped into it occasionally over the years, and liked it a lot (sometimes) but never enough to regard it as a favourite. Yes, I am an idiot.
Because, recently, this great album finally and truly clicked with me for some odd reason that I can't explain. I now regard it as one of NMA's top 5 albums. I mean, what's not to like? You've got the usual live bangers (R 'n'R, Stranger, Orange Tree Roads), Justin channeling Tom Waits (Someone Like Jesus), political stuff (You Weren't There) mellow stuff about world travel (Paekakariki Beach) and everything you would want from an NMA album. Maybe there a track or two that were a bit 'filler', but that's bearing in mind that NMA throw away 'filler' tracks that many bands would kill to have on their albums...
This is a bit difficult. You bring up two very different NMA albums, 'Eight' and 'Strange Brotherhood'. Between the two, the one I play more often from start to finish, I should add, is in fact 'Strange Brotherhood'. There's just SO much happening on that one, both in musical and emotional terms, that you can pick it up quite instantly, just by listening to it. It's also an album where the vocals, and delivery of them, differs very much from song to song... and I fcukin' LOVE that!
Mr. Sullivan has some gorgeous pipes on him!! He should continue on this path, the path of testing out the waters with it / of it... maximize his voice's complete, fullest and truest potential, capacity, capabilities. Mr. Sullivan should never worry and fear about how he might think or feel it comes across, because, all said, there's a genuine and sweet purity naturally built into his voice... not many people of this earth were blessed so greatly, in that way. :) He should just sit back, so to speak... relax, close his eyes and "go with the flow", with his instinct, heart, and just fcuk the rest! He has to let it go and let his voice do its thing naturally and not fret or think twice about it. He has to trust and have greater faith in himself. I believe in you, and I'm certainly not the only one either.
"Use the force" Justin. "Use the force".
(uh, that was a Star Wars reference... y'know, just in case it wasn't understood by folk)
:)
All that said, I do love the stuff on 'Eight'. My personal favourite tracks are "Stranger", "Orange Tree Roads" and "Paekakariki Beach". I love the others too, but those other ones I much prefer to hear only in a live setting, rather than off a recording... whereas the afore mentioned three songs, I adore both on record and in a live setting. Actually, "Stranger" is one of my top 20 NMA tracks, to date. In lyrical terms, it resonates quite profoundly with me. For the most part, I'm a real sucker for confessional type lyrics rather than story telling / story recounting type lyrics. And, the opening guitar riff, just fits the song so perfectly!!
Stranger
(Sullivan) 1999
When it comes down, we know we're alone
You could scream and nobody would hear
Today my face in the glass is a stranger's
Furrowed with the lines of fear
All the little truths denied, all the little deaths we died
I always thought that it was worth something
All the little rays of hope, always coming back when we needed them most
I always thought that it was worth something
Once we went back to the house we were born in
The glass was smashed and there were boards on the doors
and it seemed so right that the past was all laid to waste
and our trail covered up and lost
All the little deaths we died, all the little truths denied,
I always thought that it was worth something
And all the battles leave their scars
and the gods of Fate still laughing at us
I always thought that it was worth what it cost
Let everyone else decide who's right - I don't care any more tonight
I only know that it is worth something.
xXx
(https://i.imgur.com/OyHLHAxm.jpg?1)
Nice threads there, MARKXE. :)
But, does anyone here know what happened, there? :-\ The actual lyric / last word, appears to have been intentionally misquoted... but why, though? Check it out for yourselves...
Orange Tree Roads
(Sullivan) 1999
It was late, we were driving home in the rain
I thought I saw something, flying across the two-lane
It was, white like an angel - or like curse
There and gone, in a second, in front of us
In our house, all the trophies, are gathering dust
All the things we remember - but only just
We won't need them anymore
Once we were lost, but we can be found
On the Orange Tree trail, on the roads heading south
Standing in the sun, in the fields of grain
Will you still love me, when everything is changed?
In the shadows of the mountains, we were watching the sky
Hale Bopp flying motionless, out across the night
You turned to me and said with a smile
Everything these days seems to be some kind of sign
No one cares anymore, where you've been
So you find a quiet place, to shed that old skin
You won't need it again
Once we were lost but we can be found
On the Orange Tree trail, on the roads heading south
Standing in the sun, in the fields of grain
Will you still love me when everything is changed?
Would've been a slightly better touch, I think, if the font chosen for the t-shirt's back print had been done in JS' own hand-written style. Would've made the words / question rub off much deeper, heavier, no? Hmmm... :-[ I'm not sure what I am trying to say, is being related / articulated properly. Damn, I really should've paid more attention during English, while at school. Sucks big time, when I can't express my thoughts and such, verbally or written-wise. :-\ Hopefully, folk can magically understand what I am trying to relate, say... just the same.