Entomology

This is News From Nowhere with a fresh lyric and an improved vocal melody in the versey/bridgey bits. More "finished" now, I think. Comments, as ever, welcome.

Entomology

Looking out from the sixteenth storey
At the people down below
Running round like ants in panic mode
Suddenly exposed

Some are workers
Some are drones
Some are soldiers
With their cover blown

And though they number millions
Each one knows
When it comes right down to it
You’re on your own

It’s a lonely town

At a flat twenty blocks away
A social worker calls
Busts the door and gags into his phone
At the sight of human bones

As you’re standing in the subway
Waiting for a train
Screaming in the empty, seething crowd
You watch somebody, heedless, blind
With tasselled shiny shoes
Crush a bug making for a drain.

It’s a lonely town.

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posted by MajorDundee (3 comments total)

Dig the new lyric, man. I'm a sucker for extended metaphor, so nicely done. It seems to fit the sound a bit better than the original, to me.
posted by askmeaboutLOOM at 3:42 PM on May 17, 2010

I listened to "News From Nowhere" a few days ago, but left the page during the guitar soloing towards the end. Your guitar work is always awesome, so it's not that, but I sort of lost interest for whatever reason. But now with this repost I decided to go back and listen to the first version again before hearing this one. Both versions stuck with me more this time, and I agree that the new lyrics work really well, along with the new vocal melodies. I also prefer the actual vocal performance here. It feels more natural and effortless to me.

After hearing this track a few times, it now strikes me as one of your more catchy songs. I know it's a bit contradictory to call something catchy if it takes several listens to "catch it", but I think that's the best kind of catchy.
posted by edlundart at 8:38 PM on May 17, 2010

Thanks for the comments guys - appreciated. Relistening with fresh ears I still think a better version of this is there for the taking. It's somehow a question of meshing the vocal notes with the chords at just the right time. There's a sort of plangent quality hinted at in the melody of lines like "running round like ants in panic mode" and in the last verse that doesn't quite sustain through the rest of the track. But........motivation is ebbing and the exploration of new ground beckons. I'm just a rock 'n' roll tart really!
posted by MajorDundee at 12:24 PM on May 18, 2010