As the Beatles went on, many of their song titles became increasingly cumbersome. Lucy in the sky with diamonds; With a little help from my friends; Being for the benefit of Mr Kite; She came in through the bathroom window; Everybody’s got something to hide except me and my monkey.
Obviously, there’s the odd Blackbird, Revolution and Because as well. But fewer. Less She Loves You, more The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill. I wonder if you analysed the word count of a song title on a group’s tenth album versus their first what the stats would show. Sometimes, maybe often, reflectinga group becoming a little more bloated, a little more self-indulgent over time.
So I decided to theme this episode around one word song titles of just one syllable. Clearly there are many greats not featured here. But more importantly, the terser the title, often the more concise the song. Perhaps tellingly we’ve only got one 6-minute “epic” in this episode, the excellent Don’t by Big Thief.
Another plus for a subject such as this is that I can cast the net wide. So consequently I’ve taken the opportunity of spreading the love around some under-represented genres.
Little Simz‘ furious 3-minute slab of invective delivered through the cheapest microphone available – Boss – flies the flag for contemporary Anglo-Nigerian hip-hop. Meanwhile the group Gabriels are described as “a singular form of avant-R&B, twisting gospel, doo-wop, soul, funk and disco”.
Rather like the mangled subtitles thrown up by imperfect machines, the descriptions of groups on Spotify are an unintentional art form in themselves. Montreal’s She-Devils are an art-pop duo who distil dreamy 60s girl group pastiche and crude, vinyl-sampled textures and sounds into fractured David Lynch-ian swells of imaginative, uneasy indie rock.
I do hope you enjoy this adventure in Monosyllabics.
