In the midst of today’s ever growing musical world, it can be hard to find anything; sometimes people don’t even know where to begin. While this may not show you every song, album or EP that you’d ever dream of hearing, let this inspire you to search and dive into the infinitely deep hole that is the modern music world.
Eight months ago, I wrote what I thought my last music review would be, OZMA’s Spending Time on the Borderline. After completing my time at CFHS’s journalism class, I didn’t think I’d get the chance to write reviews again, even though I enjoyed writing them. Now, months and months later I’m back with something new. In my time away from the Hi-Line, my own music taste has changed and developed greatly, and I hope to bring some of that to the table, along with reviewing what people want to hear.
For my comeback review, I chose an album I’ve had on repeat for a few weeks now, Orange Juice’s 1982 album, You Can’t Hide Your Love Forever. Orange Juice was a scottish jangle pop band that started out in 1979. In terms of general sound, they might remind most people of something like The Smiths, with the jangly guitar, played by Malcom Ross, and the unique vocals done by Steven Collins. While not very popular now, this band went on to inspire the decently famous Scottish dance-rock band, Franz Ferdinand, and their inspiration is very clear.
On to the album itself, You Can’t Hide Your Love Forever was the band’s first album, featuring 13 tracks, with their second most popular song coming from the first track, “Falling and Laughing,” a song about being in love with someone, but being aware of one’s own vulnerabilities. At the end of the song, the singer’s perspective repeats, “Falling and laughing ‘cause I want to feel the pleasure with the pain,” basically having the singer accept their faults and being willing to take the chance of love, wanting to experience the good and bad side of it. Overall, as with most jangly guitar bands, the riff on the song is ear-wormish, and I find myself humming it without thinking about it.
Another song that’s my personal favorite would be “Tender Object,” which I can only describe as a rolling song. It feels like the wheels on a train, starting slow as it eventually speeds up and takes off. The lyrics themselves tell of someone who’s wracked with regret, and with the solemn lyric “I trusted you,” it’s clear this person feels betrayed. The tail end of the song has the singer describing how they walked down to an arcade, sees their reflection in the window, and feigns or pretends to have affection for the reflection, all before saying that they could be kidding us. The final part repeats as the singer tells us that they walked down to the arcade, and instead of feigning affection, they laughs at their own reflection. It’s interesting to note that when talking about reflections, people usually think of mirrors, which reflect everything in front of them, but windows don’t do that. Only under certain lighting circumstances can you see a bit of yourself, along with everyone and everything outside that window.
Another song on the album that I wanted to give a mention to is “Untitled Melody,” a song about two people who are transparent with each other, where the singer buys the listener sunglasses, possibly so that they can’t see each other as clearly, with the singer also buying themselves a pair. One lyric that particularly stuck out to me is “I need you more or less, You need me more and more,” and the second verse flipping the “I” and “You” around.
Looking at the album as a whole, I think it deserves a 6/10. It’s fun and very appealing to the ears, but doesn’t run very deep with any storytelling and messaging, which is something I personally enjoy a lot in music. Still, it’s quite an enjoyable listen if you’re into ‘80s pop or you like really jangly guitars.
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