As If I’m Attractive

Geordie Greep “Holy, Holy”

Congratulations to former Black Midi member Geordie Greep for writing the most Steely Dan-ish lyrics I’ve ever heard outside of anything Walter Becker and Donald Fagen actually made themselves. The Dan-ness carries over to the vocal melody and cadence, but the arrangement mixes in some aggro-prog flavor along with the suave Latin percussion to keep it firmly in Greep’s established lane. The lyrical conceit is brilliant – the first half of the song you’re hearing some freak narrate an encounter with a woman at a bar, making himself out to be some kind of international big shot Lothario, and the second half you’re listening to him set up that meeting in detail with a sex worker. He’s not interested in sex at all, he just needs people in that bar to see him as important and sexy. Greep’s grand but twitchy voice is uniquely suited to this concept, grandiose enough to sell the over-the-top pomposity but anxious and desperate enough to make you first notice that something’s off about this character and then make the leap into full-on comedy in the second half. He sounds so sweaty and skeevy and hilariously pathetic. It’s like when a character actor creates the perfect role for themselves.

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Broadcast “Please Call to Book”

“Please Call to Book” is a song that Trish Keenan wrote and recorded on her own as part of some fan contest built around fans sending in lyric ideas on postcards circa 2006, and it was found by her collaborator James Cargill after she passed away in 2011. I don’t recall this contest happening or if any songs from it were officially released, but it’s amazing to me that she’d keep something as good as this on the shelf. It’s a very simple acoustic ballad but I actually hear a lot of Paul McCartney in Keenan’s melody here, so it comes across like a spooky yet sweet cross between English folk and early Beatles. As with most of the material on the two recent Broadcast demo compilations, the recording highlights how extraordinary Keenan was a musician on her own, and while it’s a blessing to get to hear some “new” Broadcast songs, it just makes losing her so young hurt a little more.

Buy it from Bandcamp.