Tired And Lonely With No One To Blame

Javelin “Tell Me, What Will It Be? (Take Two)”

Javelin is doing at least ten different things in this track to signify “pleasant, lazy rainy day” in my mind, and conveniently enough, it’s raining this morning and thus it feels absolutely perfect in this moment. I have no idea whether this song would feel the same for you, though. It’s hard to say exactly why a lot of these sounds push particular buttons in my mind, or what exactly about, say, this particular organ sound triggers memories and associations that are both weirdly specific and maddeningly vague in terms of origin. So much of how we respond to music is probably tied up in sense memories from our early youth we can barely recall or fully process. Lately I often wonder why, for example, certain types of melodies and textures trigger these Pavlovian responses in me, and turn off others, and vice versa. There are so many artists right now who have these sort of melodies that I can’t deny are melodies, but they do almost nothing for me, the tune just doesn’t register at all. I often think that it’s just that those droney, overly simplistic melodies are not very good, and write it off as “oh, this is for background listening purposes only” but you know, maybe it’s just that I just don’t have the memories required to appreciate it.

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Jay Reatard “It Ain’t Gonna Save Me”

If someone you knew told you the things Jay Reatard is singing in this song, you’d either do everything you could to talk them out of their depression and negativity, or want to just slap them in the face. Set to music, however, it’s a joy — the concentrated bitterness and aggravation in the lyrics are diluted by the song’s tunefulness, and the overall effect is to use everyday angst as fuel for a cathartic good time. Basically, this is why we have punk rock. Or, at least, the good punk rock. Hardcore generally gets the slap in the face.

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