No Man’s Woman

Posted on March 10, 2015 by Wolverina

Trying to think up an appropriate song for International Women’s Day, that would also be easy to write about, was not as easy as I thought it would be. This song is probably not quite right for it, but it’s the 10th now anyway and it is a song I found easy to write about.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qD_Z3td4nR

I have incredibly mixed feelings about Sinéad O’Connor’s No Man’s Woman. It’s not the most famous of her songs, or my favourite of her songs, but it’s the one I have the strongest but most contradictory feelings on.

I love the first half of the song. Uplifting, catchy, powerful, a little cheesy pop rock singing the merits of moving away from seeking fulfillment via a relationship with a bloke. A song about not putting up with abuse, settling, compromise and being defined by someone else. And fuck all your friends for thinking you’re lonely as opposed to alone for doing your own thing.

The times I am most likely to want to leave my relationship are the times when I am most treated (by family, societal expectations, friends or my partner) as part of a pair, the part that should give for the other, to wait around for approval. It’s a reassuring song to know it is okay not to want that, a type of reassurance that’s desperately hard to find sometimes.

And then halfway through, the climax of the song starts singing about the importance of god and his forgiveness. And what I can relate to breaks down and I’m staring into an alien world. I’m not strongly atheist, but seeking comfort through religion is not something I can understand or empathise with particularly well. It was like finding out my grandmother had her church praying for me after I crashed my motorcycle. For the record, I never had the heart to find out if it was for me to heal or if it was for me to stop riding motorcycles. I just don’t know how to react to this and it’s frustrating.

The video clip is the same thing as well. Despite the cheesiness, I love the subverted implications in the scenes of crashed cars, isolated beaches, railway tracks – it’s all about self escaping, not being rescued. The wedding scene at the beginning is particularly powerful, clearly showing her fleeing from the marriage for her own reasons, on her own terms. The nod from the severe mother figure only approving until she leaves her partner is a nice touch to that piece. I did also like in the final scenes that the spirit/fishermen only left her the guitar, left her the method of becoming herself again.

But on the other hand, as my partner pointed out, for a music video about not wanting men, it has an awful lot of men in it. For a song about freeing yourself from unwanted and unfair burdens relating to men, it is still all about them.

Everything’s Fucked

Posted on February 24, 2015 by Wolverina

This post is being written a little late for my ‘fortnightly’ ideas of writing about a song. I’m just not up for that much, so rather than going for meaningful art-appreciation like I was intending and going nowhere fast with, instead I’ve gone with one that sort of sums up my feelings lately:

Frenzal Rhomb’s Everything’s Fucked.

Obviously it’s a bit explicit and obviously youse all want the full effect so I’ve embedded a live uncensored version. The (slightly, it still has fucked) censored version, the one I have in iTunes is also a track on youTube.

Frenzal Rhomb’s Everything’s Fucked, I have to admit, is one of the most cathartic songs to be screaming along to in the car, and incredibly catchy despite itself. I’m not a huge fan really, but they are a lot of ridiculous fun amongst the childish bullshit and stunts. I have more time for them than I probably should.

Another aussie band, they formed in the early 90s and seem to have mostly just been fucking about ever since, sometimes with more and and other times less success and controversy. They’re hard to ignore, and are sort of the other side to Australian alternative music to the sound in the Happyland song I posted. Simple punk rock screaming with ocker accents, charging in with completely derro attitudes.

I wish the line “Prime Minister’s a racist cunt” could be a little less accurate over a decade on though.

A Music Happyland

Posted on February 10, 2015 by Wolverina

Last post I mentioned shitty riot grrrl videos which is not an entirely fair description of what I have been listening to (as a comment on me, the music or riot grrrl). I primarily listen to music in the car and in the past three months, I’ve driven at least 10 000kms, so the amount of music I listened to skyrocketed. It feels appropriate to try this out as a fortnightly post theme, just a clip from a song I have enjoyed and maybe a bit on why I think it’s important.

Don’t You Know Who I Am? – Happyland

I don’t really need to write much on this one, though I don’t think it got much play outside Australia. The reason to enjoy this song is obvious: its power is in its plainness. An incredibly catchy, upbeat tune with increasingly sarcastic lyrics, it bites into the hopeful celebrity lifestyle and associated meltdowns. Plus the video has super creepy bunnies dancing around all threatening.

For those unfamiliar, it’s pretty much the peak sound of late 90’s Australian music, which follows as it’s part of the project Welcome to Happyland between the vocalist and bassist of Spiderbait, Janet English and Regurgitator’s Quan Yeomans (two of the biggest Australian bands of the 90s). To my (very musically uneducated) ear it sounds exactly like what a cross between those bands should. Regurgitator’s electronic sounds, Janet’s amazing ability to sing sweetly, alternating between dryness and powerful rage without skipping, and the mocking humour disguised in earnest rage common to both.

Simple effective earworm, straight forward themes, it stays fun while poking fun. The hilarious and beautiful demand of pretend you know who we are.

It’s a good song.