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Match up : #36 - Printable Version

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Match up : #36 - Shane Kroeker - 04-21-2008

Match-up #36 - Family Band Vs. Cordelia
Listen to the two songs in the match-up Back to Back, and consider the lyrics of the song. Feel free to post an unbiased analysis of both songs in this thread, but please refrain from cheerleading or making predictions for your favourites.


Re: Match up : #36 - chris - 04-22-2008

This should be a tight one...


Re: Match up : #36 - mojo_mattv - 04-22-2008

really? Cordellia? Really?


Re: Match up : #36 - sean.bonner - 04-22-2008

When I voted, the song I voted for was getting it's ass handed to it.
Nice comeback!


Re: Match up : #36 - downie_24 - 04-22-2008

20 votes apiece right now....this one's going down to the wire


Re: Match up : #36 - The Horrible Esthete - 04-22-2008

chris Wrote:This should be a tight one...

And it is!

Why, though, I cannot fathom....


Re: Match up : #36 - Marcus1970 - 04-22-2008

Just a shade shy of tying this thing up.


Re: Match up : #36 - grimes - 04-22-2008

The Horrible Esthete Wrote:
chris Wrote:This should be a tight one...

And it is!

Why, though, I cannot fathom....

Well I for one found it to be a tough choice. Family Band is the best song off WC, and probably the most rockin' song they've written since Phantom Power. Cordelia is a classic, and I think it's image has been enhanced by the fact that it is played live so rarely.


Re: Match up : #36 - The Horrible Esthete - 04-23-2008

grimes Wrote:Family Band is the best song off WC...

I don't share that opinion, but even if I did, it woudn't be saying much

grimes Wrote:.... and probably the most rockin' song they've written since Phantom Power.

Don't share that opinion either... and for me, "rockin" doesn't necessarily equate to "good" or "likeable"

grimes Wrote:Cordelia is a classic, and I think it's image has been enhanced by the fact that it is played live so rarely.

Perhaps.

[We all have our opinions and tastes, of course, so consider the following as an explanation of mine and not an attempt to devalue yours.]

For me, it has absolutely nothing to do with "classic" versus "fresh" or "oft-played" versus "rarity"; it's all about substance. While both can be categorized as "rockers", I find Cordelia to have so much more depth than Family Band; Cordelia, for me, drips with "soul" and "passion", whereas Family Band, despite its pace and liveliness, feels so much more flippant and insincere....even bland.

It's incredibly difficult to articulate.....but to me FB just seems pedestrian compared to Cordelia. The best explanation I can make is that the arrangement of Cordelia's intrumental parts is more scale-oriented in the blues-rock tradition. FB, on the other hand, seems to mimic today's "pop-rock" formula, which, from where I stand, is proliferated by punk themes moreso than blues-rock themes. It has that hyper 4/4 tempo and driving monotone bass line blanketed by guitars downpicked on every beat, and an emphasis on catchy vocal melody. That's neither 'good' or 'bad' per se, but Cordelia's blues-rock pedigree far better suits my personal preferences.

I feel that Cordelia is amongst the very, very best of this band's work. The main lead riff is on my short-list of "best Hip riffs", and I think that the bass riff during the "It takes all your power/To prove that you don't care/I'm not Cordelia, I will not be there" parts is probably the coolest of all of Sinclair's bass riffs. Plus, there's far more raw emotion in the Gord's Cordelia vocals -- I feel the "angst" of which he is speaking, wheras FB has no true emotional effect on me aside from putting an extra spring in my step, so to speak.


Re: Match up : #36 - screw_ball - 04-23-2008

Family Band is a great pop song and it's definitely rockin', I won't deny that, but Cordelia is a fucking masterpiece.


Re: Match up : #36 - grimes - 04-23-2008

The Horrible Esthete Wrote:It's incredibly difficult to articulate.....
haha, I think you managed to articulate it quite well. I don't disagree with anything you've written about Cordelia - hell I voted for it too. But it was a tough choice for me.