So, Lana Del Ray’s new album has just dropped.
That way you bristled just now in reaction to the word “dropped”, dear reader, gives me hope that you are no stranger to the sensation of rising bile that is so often engendered in pernickety souls by the most insignificant offence to good taste, however particular said infraction might be to oneself.
Anyway*, here’s the thing: Lana’s album is called Chemtrails Over The Country Club and features a song called Chemtrails Over The Country Club within which the phrase Chemtrails Over The Country Club is repeated in its entirety in the chorus many times.
This – yes, “just” this – annoys and has annoyed the hell out of me and drains my enjoyment from so many things I really should be able to enjoy more.
I have lived my pop life getting excited by new songs and anticipating accompanying LPs but sometimes the announcement of an album title, by itself, is enough to prick my bubble of excitement.
Oh, I know most album titles are a crock, with serial offenders such as Sting graduating from pretentious gibberish (Regatta De Blanc) to “I am considerably better read than yew” pretentiousness (Ghost In The Machine/ Synchronicity) to the “I have successfully ascended up my own arsehole” pretentiousness of The Dream Of The Blue Turtles, but no amount of …Plasticfacecarntsmilewhiteouts or XTRMNTRs will nudge my blood pressure more than a smidge upwards.
No, this is a specific issue. I’m not against title tracks for albums, especially when they are a kind of manifesto like Let’s Dance or Welcome To The Pleasuredome (although, how much more satisfying is it when the title is a variation on that of the big hit – from The Look Of Love to The Lexicon Of Love, f’rinstance), and I’m not against songs whose clever title becomes the refrain in the chorus.
Maybe it’s the lazy repetition – although, how could I have come to love pop music if I had a problem with lazy repetition?
I think it’s more to do with feeling cheated of that which gives me such a thrill – the way I go all tingly on The Things That Dreams Are Made Of, the non-single opening track of The Human League’s Dare, when Phil intones “Do all the things you’ve never dared” or right at the climax of Public Enemy’s masterpiece when the last line of the last verse is “It takes a nation of millions to hold us back”.
The “Aha!” moment, I suppose you might call it.
I don’t know what a rational person would make of this condition – perhaps it’s just the least interesting symptom of the “I saw them first/ liked them before you” trainspottertwattery of the pop anorak? But, in that spirit, I would like to salute my man Kevin Rowland for doing the equivalent of opting for a “Panenka” three times in a row, by finishing the three Dexys Midnight Runners albums with There, There, My Dear (..I’ve been Searching For The Young Soul Rebels..), Come On Eileen (Toora Loora/ Toora Loo Rye Ay) and The Waltz, where – Oh you beautiful man – he stops the song just to be sure he doesn’t leave the studio without getting to sing Don’t Stand Me Down.
Does this make any sense to you, or does your personal universe contain some other peccadillo which is quite invisible to the chap or lady next to you but will cause you to explode like an overinflated tyre?
(*I have grown to love a number of podcasts made by our American cousins, but every time I hear one of these bright, articulate people use the word “anyways” I want to scream into my phone, but that’s one for another day..)
Piddlingly Tiny Irritations, Part Three: Naming Your Album
by 43 Comments
https://youtu.be/NIQmBZiUOAQ
I’m sorry I’m not getting it! What exactly don’t you like about the title? The fact it’s repeated?
Er.. now that you mention it, essentially, yes. The phrase is so diminished by re-use that it’s comparable to being at a party with a friend who first tells you a funny story and then you’re beside him (or her! ©️ James Acaster) while they proceed to tell the same story, in turn, to several other people.
Even My Albumy Walbum would be be less likely to cause me to break out in hives.
I know this will mean nothing to 99.9% of actual humans, but I thought it might
resonate somewhere within the sugar walls of this asylum..
My least favourite album title of all time might be Ogdens Nut Gone Flake. I’m obviously missing the reference or something, because it just sounds to me like a random collection of words that don’t fit together easily and don’t trip off the tongue.
The cover being a take on Ogden’s Nut-brown Flake, a brand of tinned loose tobacco that was produced in Liverpool from 1899 onwards by Thomas Ogden
For younger readers, the album cover was round, like a tobacco tin.
Though the original tin of Ogden’s was rectangular.
I didn’t know that.
I didn’t until I’d read about the cover about 5 minutes before posting.
That is the reculangrity of the tin.
Tobacco tins are either rectangular or round. Strikes me they could have chosen a round-tin tobacco. This one, for instance. Savory’s Baby’s Bottom would have made a fine Small Faces LP.
I wonder if pipe tobacco tins were round and cigarette tobacco tins were rectangular?
That would make sense, because the rectangular ones would more comfortably accommodate cigarette papers and maybe a rolling machine.
God, I loved the 90s.
Well Tom Long, my uncle’s favourite, was definitely rectangular.
Wasn’t it supposed to be a bit of a (OK, not very good) druggie play on words, as in “if you smoke it, your nut’s gone!” sort of thing? I love the album. Fabulous stuff. And I have the record with the round sleeve.
Over on the R Rated version of The Afterword (didn’t you know?), instead of a polite soirée, the analogy I used was Monsieur Barthes throwing a strop in a strip club because the young lady came to the stage already fully disrobed..
Strop in a strip club
Strip in a strop club
Frostrup in strip clob
Ripped slob strobe-schtupps a clip
I’ve been listening to The Fall too much, I think
Mariel- L-L-L.A.
“This is my smokey-voiced late night movie show. It freaks me out!”
PiL dispensed with all that naming malarkey by titling their 1986 offering Album
(or Cassette, or Compact Disc)
And Van’s Latest Record Project
(no, I’ve not listened).
JJ Cale simply titled his albums numerically for a bit.
Peter Gabriel didn’t bother with a title for his first 4
I’ve sometimes wondered if that was inspired by the beer etc in Repo Man.
The n you get the album title that is so strong, the band thinks it should write a song with that title for a later release:
AC/DC – If You Want Blood (You Got It).
1978 Live album and then the track pops up on 1979s Highway To Hell
Def Leppard – On Through The Night
Title of their debut album, and then a track on second album High n Dry
Elvis Costello – Almost Blue
Track of that name on Imperial Bedroom
Foo Fighters – The Colour And The Shape
Title track turns up as a B Side to Monkey Wrench
Jesus And Mary Chain – Pychocandy
Album with no title track, but it was on an earlier EP
Primal Scream – Screamadelica
Title track turns up on an EP a year later
Queen – Sheer Heart Attack
Took 3 years before a title track saw the light of day on News Of The World
(and probably more …)
Zep’s Houses of the Holy is another obvious example, although because Physical Graffiti is an album of offcuts, the song was probably recorded for the previous album. If that makes sense.
Yep – left off HoTH because it didn’t “fit the flow” of the album; also too many songs for the time constraints of the LP, so held over for future use…
Julian Cope song World Shut Your Mouth is not on the Julian Cope album entitled World Shut Your Mouth
Teardrop Explodes song Kilimanjaro is not on the Teardrop Explodes album entitled Kilimanjaro
Pedantic point: Psychocandy was on Some Candy Talking, which post-dates the LP.
While I’m here:
The Fall – Perverted By Language
Title track never officially recorded, now turns up on live CDs.
Pulp’s His’n’Hers, Grace Jones’s Living My Life, Dodgy’s Homegrown….
This was the subject of the first thread I started on here. There are LOADS of these… aren’t musicians WEIRD?
Queen did Seven Seas twice, the sneaky buggers.
Well, really! Artists singing the title of the song in the song of that title…whatever will those crazy dudes do next?
I wonder how many times Lana will be repeating ‘Rock Candy Sweet’ for our delectation come June 1st?
Springsteen repeats “Hiding on the Backstreets” 27 times at the end of the song Backstreets, not the title track though.
‘She Loves You’ repeats “She loves you” ad infinitum, and it remains arguably the most thrilling three-minute pop song ever.
Only 11 times I think
13, ackchewerly 😏
No no.
No no no no.
No no no no.
No no THERE’S NO LIMIT!
If that’s the game we’re playing…I give you…the mighty Soft Machine….
(All together)
I did it again
I did it again
I did it again
I did it again
I did it again
I did it again
I did it again
I did it again
I did it again
I did it again
I did it again
I did it again
I did it again
I did it again
I did it again
I did it again
I did it again
I did it again
I did it again
I did it again
I did it again
I did it again
I did it again
I did it again
I did it again
I did it again
I did it again
I did it again
I did it again
I did it again
I did it again
I did it again
I did it again
I did it again
I did it again
(repeat ad nauseam)
The none-more-Afterword Tom Waits:
Oily Night
Oily Night
Oily Night etc
Chemtrails etc: but is it any good?
“Ah, yes…” said the Devil “…it’s very nice – but is it Art?”
Very good indeed.
And this thread is actually on the same blog (sorry, Forum) that recently raised hackles about Van’s new album title?
The shame of it Over The Country Club.
I’m just in awe of the O.P. ( tips hat ) 🎩
“Help” was a single from the album »Help«, which also had (sometimes another version of) the song “Help”, which also appeared in the movie called »Help«. The first few lines of the song start with the word “Help”, too.
Lazy bastards.
Just the sort who’d sooner “do it in the road” than take the effort to book a nice hotel for the weekend – maybe somewhere scenic that has nice walks.. oh yeah, I suppose that’s too much like exercise..