March 2012
21 posts
Listen
Goodtime Boys - Harrow (off Are We Now, or Have We Ever Been, 2011, Tangled Talk)
I grip my skull to clear your name from my mind, the last convulsion as I let go. With open eyes I realise everyone forgets sometimes, everyone forgets themselves, everybody battles with time as we lose we cry “at least I tried”. At least I tried. Nothing is worth it unless it swallows you whole. Nothing is worth it unless it consumes you whole. I hope it’s worth it.
Listen
Jodeci - Pump It Back (off The Show The After Party The Hotel, 1995, Uptown)
Being Scottish is weird. You’re forever part of a small nation that’s constantly in flux and battling perceptions from people worldwide without alienating your weird national identity. It’s weirder still when Scots slang and humour - such an important piece of our lives - is at odds with the world around it. Take Jodeci’s “Pump It Back”, one of the many slow jamz that remains stuck in the wildly foreign 90s RnB landscape, a time when sexiness was embodied by the image of power-led, shirtless, wolfmen howling adlibs at a full moon about fucking you right/tonight/aaaaall night (insert short laugh followed by a breathy “yeah”). It’s a very different world from today’s RnB solo stars - think of The Weeknd’s inability to decide whether he’s going to make you come or have a kohl-smeared breakdown - particuarly when the vocal group has totally disappeared from the RnB landscape - but that’s another digression altogether.
If you’ve never met a Scot, allow me to let you in on the fact that saying that you’re going to “pump” someone (like my favourite bit at 1:46) should NEVER be meant as anything other than a crude sexual joke. If you’ve ever told someone you’re going to “pump” them real good, I’d be amazed that you’ve ever been laid in your life. Sometimes the benefits of being an outsider are found in little surprises like listening to a Jodeci album cut from a 1995 cassette tape you bought in a seaside town one weekend.
