Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Song of the Day - Day 365

Today's song is...


A Self Called Nowhere


I love the juxtaposition in this song, from the quiet beginning with the guitar, to the explosion of music with horns and drums and then back again. The bombastic horns are one of the things I love best about John Henry and I don't think they are exhibited on any other song on the album quite so well as this one. I also love the way Linnell sings the song, particularly the chorus because I can so easily picture him belting out the words. There is a fantastic bass part layered under all those horns and other instruments that particularly shines through on the last instrumental section. And I am really fond of the distortion effect on the cymbals that washes over everything at the end. Suffice it to say, I love this song a lot.

3 comments:

  1. This was one song I was fascinated by early on in my TMBG discoveries. John Henry is a great album for horn sections. Gosh.

    ReplyDelete
  2. "...And I'm looking down the stairwell", djzhoooo, ft-t-doooomm! Best arena rock moment. Great chord progressions, great contrast between the quiet and bombastic moments, great sweeping phase effects at the end, great song.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Always fun to hear Linnell put on the Boston accent. I imagine that moment John mentioned must be totally awesome live -- like when they blast into the instrumental part on Road Movie to Berlin.

    ReplyDelete