The Wrap Around Song

[Soot and Stars]

I'm always curious about different ways people listen to, get inside and develop an intense love for a song. For me there are some songs that I don't really feel upon the first or even the second listen. A song is a lot shorter than an album and you would think that it'd be a lot quicker impulse to know whether you like it or not. Sometimes I have preconceived notions, unfairly high expectations based on past songs from the artist or I don't absorb all the layers of a song the first time around. A lot of times though a particular part or highlight of a song will grab me the first time and make me listen or make me wrap myself around the rest of the song and I end up liking it 100%. Sometimes I jump need that one little nugget to get my curiosity.

My specific example here would be with an artist called Meg Myers who is kind of like today's Fiona Apple only angrier with a more modern sound. I REALLY liked her first EP of songs in 2012 but she never really made it off the ground commercially. Anyway, when she released a new song on her website I listened to it and thought it just blended in with her other songs and I thought she was uninspired and on autopilot at this point. I mean it was a similar vibe, similar production technique and same vocal tone and build. Then I gave it a second listen and I noticed that while she has screamed as at a climax in her songs it's always been brief and never been a carnal and as fierce as the building wailing scrams she goes out on the last third of the song. After this I listened to the song again and again absorbing every part and loving every element of it. It's now my favorite by her.

NEW TRACK: Heart, Heart, Head (click me)

The Short Of It

What's a song that one little nugget, one little hook, just one element of it made you give it another listen until you ended up loving the whole song?​

 

[Cosmic Harmony]

The first song that came to mind for me was the first single to Paloma Faith's second album.

Picking Up The Pieces



I loved Paloma's first album. Like, really really loved it. I'm talking at least top 100 ever material. It was quirky, vintage, classy, and just all around fun. It's like what I would have loved for Amy Winehouse to have been instead of being so depressingly tragic all-the-time (not just with her death). Anyway, back to my very informal point....when "Picking Up the Pieces was released I was super excited and it had high standards to live up to, which it failed to reach tremendously.....initially anyway.
The song was sappy, very beat driven, and just came across as very poppy to me and not in the good way. I love Paloma though so I still picked up her "Fall to Grace" album anyway, which "Picking Up the Pieces" is the first song on. Maybe it was stubbornness because I don't like to skip songs ever or maybe it's because Paloma's vocals are really good on that cut. I don't know but in any case it grew on me. It's quite sweeping and powerful with strings and backing vocals. It's still really beat driven, which I still am not crazy about but it does drive the song along and makes it a stronger song than the ballad it would otherwise be.

 

[Soot and Stars]

^^^^^

That was a really cool answer Cosmic. We can't have the only examples of this. Anyone else?

 

[electric funeral]

I heard Alice In Chain's first album at a friend. When Dirt was released I had very high expectations. And they did not let me down!! Especially the song Dirt.

It's so intense and massive, it draws you into it. If I have a mind for some A.I.C. I always play this song first. And very loud with headphones!!

 

[Vehicle]

Aerosmith

From the album Night In The Ruts



Think About It



When I bought this album, after maybe 1/2 dozen listens, I was beginning to feel like I'd wasted $8.00 of hard earned grass cutting money.

It didn't seem like there was any real beginning, middle or end to this album.

Just a juxtaposition of songs that didn't really have any real oomph, you know?

Then I heard something that I thought was pretty cool.

At about 40-45 seconds, Joey Kramer hit the snare twice, instead of only once.





Don't know why, but I thought that one little thing was just way cool.

So, that was the foothold that kept me listening. He does it a second time a bit later in the song, not as cool as the first one, but still cool.

Anyhow, from that, I started hearing the rest of the song.

Lo and behold, there's Perry & Whitford, at their crunchy, grinding best.

Also, I heard Tom Hamilton doing what he does best. Be Tom Hamilton.

So anyway, long story short, that little double snare thing started not just a wrap around song, but an entire wrap around album.


Night In The Ruts grew on me over time, and to this day, if I get an Aero Jones going, invariably, NITR is the one I reach for. (Walking in the Sand still gets skipped every time, though)




Looking back now, this is one hell of a fine album, considering they weren't even speaking, and they were all very dangerously deep in their addictions.

It's underrated, I think, because after the album's release, Tyler wrecked a motorcycle, and tore up his ankle and foot so bad they couldn't do any real touring to support it.