Word.

Look, sometimes I don’t have much to say.

Tears For Fears
Pale Shelter (You Don’t Give Me Love) (Extended Version)
Pale Shelter (You Don’t Give Me Love)
Saxophones as Opiates
I never noticed this until now, but between the title track, “Mad World,” “Ideas as Opiates” and “Pale Shelter,” The Hurting is probably one of the most bleak and depressing albums of all time. It’s amazing what you can get away with when you throw some catchy dance beats in there. The Hurting came out when I was all of three years old, so I missed it. I did, however, rock out heavily to Songs From The Big Chair, which came out when I was a much more mature five years old. I seriously have a very vivid memory of three kids in my first grade class running across the playground singing their own version of “Shout” which went “Fart! Fart! Let it all out!” over and over again. I don’t think there’s a better sign of a song permiating the American culture than a bunch of six-year-olds in Ohio creating their own scatological remake of it.

“Pale Shelter” has an odd release history. It was actually the group’s second single (originally released under the longer name you see above), but it failed to catch on in the UK. After “Mad World” blew up the band’s label re-released the song, but in a different mix (and shorter title). That later mix is the version that appears on the album. It too has its own extended mix, which weas included on later editions of the album on CD. No version of this original mix has ever been included on CD as far as I can tell.  To be honest it’s not that different, the biggest difference  in the beginning; the older versions starts off with a  backmasked lyric, while the album version does not. Still, it’s an awesome song, and any mix of it is worth a listen. “Saxophones As Opiates” is a b-side from the “Mad World” single.

In case you’re wondering, the backmasked lyric in the beginning of “Pale Shelter” is  “the sickness in the system is an amplification of the sickness in the individual.” That’s totally deep, yo.

Whale
Crying At Airports (Remix by Shawn J. Period featuring Mos Def)
Crying At Airports (Friend’s Wigga-No-No Remake)
I know next to nothing about this group. I bought the single because it had cool art and Mos Def is on it. It’s groovy little trip-hop/dance tune and worth a listen. I really dig the “Wigga-No-No Remake” with it’s drum-n-bass inspired breakbeats. Curious after hearing the tune, I did some research and found of that Whale had a pretty big hit in Europe with their first single “Hobo Humpin’ Slobo Babe.” I went to YouTube to check out that track and…I think I’m done checking out Whale. Yikes.