Oasis – Champagne Supernova

Oasis - Champagne Supernova

Speaking of iconic albums celebrating 25 years this month, Oasis‘ legendary album, (What’s The Story) Morning Glory? also fits the bill. It featured hit after hit and if you ask different people what their favorite song from this record is, you will likely get different answers each time. For example, Some Might Say that it is that song; or Wonderwall, which usually tops ‘Best of’ chats and lists; or Don’t Look Back In Anger, recently crowned as the greatest song of the 1990s by listeners of Absolute Radio. However, if you ask me, the best track is one that wasn’t even released as a single in the UK (it was a single in the US though), Champagne Supernova, which is why I chose it as this week’s #ThrowbackThursday entry.

At “just” 07:30 minutes, I love the way this song starts. People complain about the lyrics being psychedelic –i.e: making no sense–, but I think they are great. You give them the meaning you want . You can complain about the track being too long (up to you), but everything else is spot on. Oasis might not exist as a band anymore, but thankfully, we’ll always have this record and, in particular, Champagne Supernova.

This writer, he was going on about the lyrics to “Champagne Supernova”, and he actually said to me, “You know, the one thing that’s stopping it being a classic is the ridiculous lyrics.” And I went, “What do you mean by that?” And he said, “Well, Slowly walking down the hall, faster than a cannonball — what’s that mean?” And I went, “I don’t know. But are you telling me, when you’ve got 60,000 people singing it, they don’t know what it means? It means something different to every one of them.

Noel Gallagher, Oasis

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Lomon – Little Visitors

Lomon is a Seattle-based musician who feels out of place, as if he had been born a thousand years early. His style is described as psychedelic indie electronic, and perhaps that is the case in general, but this particular song we are featuring today, Little Visitors, is actually closer to glam rock. There’s certainly a David Bowie vibe to it.

Passionate about science fiction and all things related to space, Lomon, aka Zander Chocron, usually writes songs about our planet, taking care of it, and space exploration. Little Visitors, for example, is a metaphor for the human race not appreciating the beautiful planet we have. All in all, Lomon is certainly an artist with plenty to say and the creativity to do so in quirky and interesting ways. Check him out below.

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No Doubt – Don’t Speak

No Doubt - Don't Speak

This iconic album, No Doubt‘s Tragic Kingdom, is 25 years old this month, and, as a homage, I decided to feature one of its songs as this week’s #ThrowbackThursday entry. Usually, with bands or albums this popular, I try to highlight the lesser-known gems, but I can’t do that this time around. I got a soft spot for Don’t Speak and can’t pick another song (which would probably have been Just A Girl, which is pretty popular anyway) over it. I’m sorry.

Enjoy this classic song from 1995.

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Rough Gentlemen – Black Gold

It is not precisely a secret that by adding contrast between different sections of a song –particularly, between the verses and the chorus–, the resulting songs will be more interesting. This is what makes Come Together so great! Yet, plenty of songwriters make the mistake of having a chorus that sounds too similar to the rest of the piece. Luckily, that wasn’t the case for Rough Gentlement, a four-piece rock band from Canada, with their latest single, Black Gold. A banger with an infectious chorus made even better by the high contrast it has with the rest of the tune.

After starting in 2017, the Canadian band has garnered a following in Quebec and this year released this new single in preparation for a future EP. Black Gold is an energetic rock inspired by the various crises the world has gone through this year and how we just have to keep marching on. Not only it is a catchy track, it also has meaning. Check it out below!

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Night Traveler – Watching You

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to add a new entry yesterday, but I’ll try to make up for that today. Here, I bring this musical crush from Night Traveler, a terrific duo from Austin, Texas. I discovered this song back in August but between prioritising submissions and other plans, I had been delaying its inclusion here. It’s about time that changed because Watching You certainly deserved better than that. It’s a really great track.

The duo recently released their debut EP, Dreams You Don’t Forget, for which Watching You was its latest single. An atmospheric track of searing indie pop with traces of melancholic 80s music, this song got everything you need to put it on repeat, including the perfect vocals for this type of music. Actually, I dare you to listen to this great tune just once. I had to put it on repeat.

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Desoto Jones – Nonfiction

Back in 2007, a little alternative rock band from Pennsylvania released Aurora, their debut album, which got overlooked despite being one of the best rock albums of that year, perhaps even of that decade. I’m talking, of course, of Desoto Jones and for this week’s #ThrowbackThursday entry, I thought we could reminisce about one of the gems in that record.

Three of the five members of Desoto Jones –they are still active– are brothers and while they were recording Aurora, their father passed away. Nonfiction is a an emotional song the brothers dedicated to him. Its acoustic overtones and the heartfelt lyrics intertwine into a beautiful track that doesn’t get old. Listen to this song and then play the whole album. You will see why it is a shame this record didn’t become more popular.

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Sour Honey – Snub

Sour Honey is a four-piece alternative rock band from Manchester that had to swim against the current pretty much from the start. Formed out of two other bands: Young Monarch and Cosmo Calling, their debut gig and launch party had to be cancelled due to the lockdown. This didn’t prevent them from releasing their first single then and a series of cover videos just to keep the momentum going. Set on maintaining the ball rolling during these trying times, Sour Honey is back with a second single, Snub, a clear statement telling the world that this young band is going places.

I really love the guitar riff during the pre-chorus and the overall soundscape created by the misty vocals and the multiple layers of music coming together. It is another example of the amount of talented musicians who are out there waiting for a chance to be heard. Something tells me we’ll keep hearing from Sour Honey.

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Kat Victoria – Tell Him

Kat Victoria is a young and multifaceted artist that cannot really be tied to any genre in particular. She has released six singles so far and each one of them is different. I mean, one of them is even categorised as freestyle rap. However, the song I’m featuring today, Tell Him, lies in the grey area between alternative rock and pop-punk.

Tell Him is an interesting track with an infectious chorus that I’m sure many listeners will enjoy. I think it’s really impressive what Kat can do pretty much by herself, including shooting a music video for her song (which you can watch below). As her bio on social media pages say, this talented songwriter makes music from her bedroom. I can only imagine what she would be able to do in a top-notch music studio. Definitely, check her out.

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The 93 – 09

Hopefully, by now, you are familiar with the work of The 93 after we featured them here back in June. I hadn’t been in contact with them before writing that entry but since that entry was published, I’ve got to know Sylwester (one of the two brothers who form this awesome duo) quite a bit and I can say he is one of the kindest and coolest person I have met (as well as one of the most active supporters of T.A.M!). This has allowed me, in some way, to be part of the process behind the release of their new EP, Space, which got out across all platforms in the last 2 days. They worked incredibly hard to get everything ready on time, from composing and making arrangements, to producing the songs, all of this while also taking care of their day jobs/occupations.

Now, something you have to understand about these two brothers is that they aren’t doing this for fame or money, but pure love of music. Their main goal is actually finding people who can connect with them, using music as a language. And that brings me to Space, inspired by their passion for sci-fi movies about space travel. I had an opportunity to listen to the whole EP before it was mastered and I can tell you that even then, the whole record -which consists on five tracks, an intro and an outro- sounded amazing. The 93 tried hard to make it sound as close to audiophile-grade as possible and you can certainly notice it. I simply cannot get enough of the guitar riffs on these songs.

We are familiar already with one of the tracks in this EP, 03, as it is the one featured here before. What I didn’t know then was that the theme of this song was mysticism in the future through sound. Even cooler, however, was what inspired the Intro and Outro, which was basically what you would feel if you were travelling in a space ship, looked out the window and saw a nebula for the first time. 12 is a great track about the current state of the world (2020, hi!) and how we should focus more on peace and prosperity. I was close to featuring this track today but, in the end, I opted for 09, because, quite simply, it is my favorite track in the EP.

From the intro that would make Tom DeLonge jealous for not coming up with it himself for Angels & Airwaves, to the surreal vocals and atmospheric soundscape of the track; everything in this song is flawless. Written as a letter to our architect (or God), The 93 meant to express with it their fears and doubts while respecting said architect. I assure you, you will want to put this song, and the whole album, on repeat.

These two brothers came from a small village in Poland to the UK a few years ago chasing the dream to do music, as they believed they had something to say. I personally think the whole world got lucky because of that. Don’t believe me, just give them a chance.

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Tonic – Do You Know

I got a request last week for this week’s #ThrowbackThursday entry: “If You Could Only See” from American alternative rock powerhouse, Tonic. So, naturally, I complied by featuring a different song from the same band (=. I got nothing against “If You Could Only See”. It’s a great song, possible Tonic’s best and undoubtedly their most iconic track to date (after all, it was 1997’s most-played song in rock radio), but that is precisely the reason I opted to talk about a different, lesser known gem included in their 2002 album, Head On Straight, Do You Know.

This song is a guitar-driven alternative rock song with a melodic chorus, but the reason why I’ve always liked it so much is that it got terrific lyrics, which shine the most during the great chorus. I don’t think this tune got much attention back then when it came out, but it’s not too late to give an overlooked outstanding song a second chance. Tonic and Do You Know certainly deserve it.

Remember that Egyptian Summer
The fork lightning over the bay
When we forgot everything
We forgot our troubles
When love was kind
And the silence was noise
But Underneath a marble sky
I never seen you look so happy
In your life.

And you were always cracking jokes
And laughing at my funny ways
And as the thunder rolled
Well so did my sorrow
We told lies
We told them all the time
But underneath a marble sky
Nothing mattered.

I need a thunderstorm
To distract from the pain
Cause tomorrow might be the same damn sorrow
I need something to happen
The heavens to burst
The sky to tear open
The passion to run and flow like a river
Out of my eyes
Once it’s out of my heart
It’s such a cold and desolate
Happy ever when
It’s such a cold and desolate
Happiness never came.

We sat at the bar and we talked
about the things we used to like
And romanticised the pain
Always remember it’s a crying shame
Like reaching for the heavens
but the heavens never came
And I’ve played the victim long before you arrived
These are not my people
It’s not my scene
not my style
So I’m going back
I’m going back to the city
Please forgive me

Good Strangers, Egyptian Summer

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