The first two lines of the chorus:
'You can never be strong,
You can only be free'
Sums up everything great about Robert Pollard's songwriting. Drama, hope and disappointment.
5d ago
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The first single from Winter Boyfriend from the upcoming album set a, frankly, very different note. 'anx/bodies' is an outlier for us, musically and lyrically, but when putting the final touches to the album it was one of the songs that people seemed instinctively to engage with if they weren't broadly invested in our main thing, essentially indie/indie-punk made by a would-be emo band. At the very least it provoked a reaction.
It's a song inspired by a very specific series of events but is not specifically autobiographical. Outside of the world of this song i am much less forward about sex. I enjoy being 'too much' with friends but i really don't want it going anywhere my family might hear it. Repression is fun! I often wonder if that's similar to what actors feel when doing nudity or whatever. It's a case of, "I don't want to know you've seen me experience that?" Anyway, honesty can help in art, but also maybe so too does a little internal repression.
It was written about a memory of going to a university disco, arriving at the club where everyone was looking hot and cool, and i suddenly becoming very aware of my inability to be calm. It is essentially about over-stimulation and amorousness and the confusion of that smashing like a wrecking ball through any semblance of chill i might have had.
The verse bass riff is really old, easily over 10 years old. I wrote it for a different project, a Death From Above 1979 rip-off thing, and my pal Martin played bass, while i sang and drummed. The song was unremarkable but the riff was cool. There was no way i wasn't keeping it. Also, it explains why it's the only song that uses a fuzz bass tone. Yet.
I have no idea when i came up with the guitar riff but it's one of my favourite parts i've written. It's rythmic and a little bit dissonant, but i think the G# implies an E Major chord, making it A minor natural (sorry music theory experts, probably butchering this).
I was also unsure if i could allow myself to write the chorus which used power chords. It always feels too basic. But it worked in the context of the song. I finished it years ago aside from a few lyrical tweaks and the introduction sound (chord played, tremolo arm depressed as it fades out, recorded and reversed). Also when mixing the song my references were very different and included a lot of 00s and 10s music, including bands that have been grandfathered into the whole 'indie-sleaze' thing, and it made me realise the second verse needed, nay demanded!, a cowbell and some percussion (the other percussion is drumming on glass bottles fyi).
I feel like 'anx/bodies', and the song that follows it, 'on our way home', are two sides of the same coin. One uptight, repressed yet explosive, and the other unrelenting, desperate and flailing. You could almost imagine the latter being later in the same night, getting existential when worse-for-wear. More on that one later.
Jun 19, 2024
i didn’t quite appreciate this song as much as i do now until seeing it performed as the closer to his live show… such a great encapsulation of the feeling of years of life under very late capitalism weighing on you
how hard can you go,
and for how long can you sustain it?
when the force that fights back
doesn’t ever relax
it’s so relentless,
oh how long can you defend
against a cheat code?
at a furious pace,
with a smile on your face
May 5, 2024
hits the conflicts he thinks like a king
What he knows throws the blows when he goes to the fight
And he'll win the whole thing 'fore he enters the ring
There's no body to batter when your mind is your might
So when you go solo, you hold your own hand
And remember that depth is the greatest of heights
And if you know where you stand, then you know where to land
And if you fall it won't matter, cuz you'll know that you're right
— Fiona Apple
At the time of its release, it broke the record for longest album title at 444 characters. It’s also a damn good record.
Nov 21, 2024
Top Recs from @lowartdecay
I'm amazed no one else has mentioned the great Townes Van Zandt. This is my favourite of his, a beautiful voice and songwriter gone far too soon.
5d ago
It's emblematic of everything that went wrong with disco but I love it so much.
Mar 4, 2025
The greatest album of all time (in my opinion). Endlessly relistenable and I grow a new appreciation for each song with every listen. The lyrics are so harsh and funny, Glenn Kotche is an incredible drummer, Jim O'Rourke is a great guitar player.
It's the most entertaining album about a bitter breakup ever. Also no other album sounds like this album, if you fall in love with this, it'll soon break your heart that you can find nothing like it. You'll end up listening to this on repeat.
Jan 7, 2025