
Cable Car Disaster – I Broke My Synthesizer
If you ever wondered what turn the Smiths might have taken had Johnny Marr opted to replace Morrissey with a singer penning songs to his beloved synth, we got you covered. In a music world dominated by serious declarations about feelings and the true meaning of the world, this little ditty feels like a welcome relief.
Of course, then again, it might not have been such an odd choice after all. Yes, Morrissey was treasured by millions of Brits because of his penchant to write lyrics that dealt with real problems that other pop-stars ignored. Furthermore, much like British weather, the food, and their choice of politicians, the words were gloomy and hopeless. Writing about the terror of having to repair a broken synth could have tickled people’s fancies.
Musically, Cable Car Disaster’s single is a gorgeous cacophony of indie-rock noise that keeps growing throughout the tune like someone suddenly deciding, “Hey, I’d rather this be an industrial rock song, not an indie-rock one, but can’t really be bothered to start again“.
I Broke My Synthesizer is a fun, mischievous rock tune about daily life’s little reasons to get the blues.
Furs – Getting Late
We are told that music is supposed to make sense of the things that simply cannot be touched upon or explained by mere words. That’s a statement that most people would agree with, but ask them what their favourite modern instrumental happens to be or why there are so few pieces of music missing vocals that chart, and you’ll be hard-pressed to find an answer.
The world of the pop single is as busy and competitive as the Olympics 100 meter dash and with just as many elbows being thrown about. Singers look to unpack as many clever lines in as little space as possible. Sometimes, for the sake of brevity, truth and honesty get overlooked.
Furs’ Getting Late is as much as single as it is a jam, but that doesn’t mean that the three minutes of run-time are spent only fiddling about. Instead, just like a great spirit of old, this lo-fi rock song finds just the right frequency and attempts to capture and hold it for as long as possible. In a world where truth is hard to come by, this is one of the best things that we can hope for.