Funnily enough, it’s another XTC song that comes to my mind - something about the “Alison Green” melody: Anyway, I rather like “Girl Least Likely”, but it’s nothing earth shattering. 3.5
"Girl Least Likely" seems to have been the very definition of "middle of the road", scoring mostly around the 3 mark, and ending up with 37.8 points from 13 votes, for a score of: 2.91
Today's song (brace yourselves!) is: All Things Originally the B-side to the 7" single of "Come Home Billy Bird" but also released on CD as part of the "Absent Friends Companion", a bonus CD which came with some pressings of "Absent Friends" in France. You might be thinking this is also on the boxset, but it isn't- the boxset only has an "Alternative version" which is much less... interesting Here's the song, a hymn to all the great creatures on this planet (and a pretty comprehensive list of them too!)
And here's the alternative version from the new boxset. I haven't compared them directly but there's one pretty glaringly obvious difference...
All Things It is becoming a recurring feature to drop in references to Christianity, Anglicanism and hymns. This is a very catchy tune marred only by the annoying automated voice. Switch it to a human voice reading it out and it would be fine. The vocal on the box set version sounds to me much more hesitant and less committed to the tune. It sounds like a runthrough (my face will be red if it turns out to be the same vocal). The music is also much less lush. In short, the b-side version is much better despite that one questionable decision. 3/5
All Things Not the most inspired variation of this tune I've heard. 2.0 (Losing the voiceover wasn't a bad idea, but the track itself is on the hopeless side no matter how it's presented.)
All Things Oh goodness... that automated voice is just awful! I found it unlistenable! I like the idea of turning a hymn into a kind of 'secular hymn' and do think it works, but the changes to the words of the hymn and that blooming voice just ruin it. (Its still sadly so relevant and we probably have lost our way back home...) 0.5/5.0 for the b-side - I do not want to hear that version again! 3.7/5.0 for the box set version. It sticks more closely to the original hymn (e.g. all things 'bright and beautiful', and 'great and small' instead of 'big and beautiful' and 'cute and small' as the b-side has), which I much prefer. I wonder why he changed it? @Vagabone no need to turn red, as it's not the same vocal - the words in the 1st verse are different!
All Things... Not sure about the extra voice also, but then when I listened to the second version I felt like I was missing it! I don't mind this song. I prefer it to Girl Least Likely anyway. Although it does feel like it goes on a bit too long, which maybe could have helped off it had a big build up or something. 2.8
Catching up with you all (part one): The last lines I love, especially coupled with the melody (that's what I meant by "inspired ending"), but I wish she'd gone for an instrumental or "ba ba ba"s in the chorus for the reasons I gave upthread. I completely agree with these assessments, so my score is inbetween with a 1.5. Thanks for the full background (which, having not followed Ben Folds, I didn't know)! The on-the-spot improvisation in reply to something from the audience is something I really enjoy in live concerts because it's so rare and doesn't really suit most pop and rock artists who are not known for humorous lyrics. It reminds me of one of my favourite German bands, Phrasenmäher, sadly not very well known in Germany, though they did set the world record for the longest officially released song in 2014 with their 90 minute version of "Zwei Jahre in" (a sometimes satirical, sometimes silly song about trends and fads coming and going). It inventively extends the word chain and association of the chorus for an extra 86 minutes with new lyrics for each line (apart from a few repeated words). I used to attend many of their live shows for their humour and audience interaction as well as their talent for writing catchy songs in various styles. What Ben Folds did in Chicago is something that they would have also done, but from the few songs in the "Rock That Bitch" slot I've just listened to, it's a bit of a one-trick pony theme-wise whereas Phrasenmäher came up with short improvised songs several times per concert whenever something unusual happened (like some technical problem). The best of these was at a gig I had the fortune to be at ten years ago where one of the guys had a coughing fit because he had a cold, and his brother made up a catchy tune and daft lyric about him being a kind of superhero with coughing as his superpower (hard to imagine now after the pandemic, of course). Spurned on by the audience reaction, by the next tour, they had developed this chorus into a fully-fledged song with verses and it became a live favourite wherever they played in Germany because it wasn't tied to the first city lyrically. While it didn't make the next album, I was over the moon when they finally released a properly produced studio version on a limited edition EP years later. So I can totally understand how it must have felt for the audience in Boise to witness "Idaho" for the first time and then even see it released on record. Incidentally, Phrasenmäher also wrote dozens of songs named after cities and towns they would visit on their upcoming tours, tongue-in-cheek tributes to the audience's hometown, which were usually about why it sucked compared to other German places: quite risky (no pandering to the audience and no bashing of other places à la Utah), but they always went down a treat and were also released as videos and on CD.
All Things This is the first time I have have heard this version, and I sincerely hope it is the last... that voice-over has really upset my happiness today The box set version is a little better, but I still find it to be pretty uninspired fayre. 0.5/5 (1.5/5 for the box set version)
I'm surprised the swearword got through uncensored. Of course, I meant to say "Rock This Bitch" (sorry, Ben Folds fans). Let's see whether it gets through again. Ah, it seems to have been a case of preemptive censorship by @Hazey John II himself.
All Things I am so out of tune with this thread sometimes. I really love All Things. And I like the computer voice. It's not super original, but I miss it in the box-set version. Also miss the jingle-bells in the box version. They add a needed brightness and the track feels empty without them. And there are synths missing in the bridge part. I wonder why they included this stripped down version in the box. Not nearly as good to my ears. 4/5 for the b-side version.
(Idaho, all is forgiven) All Things I applaud the sentiment, but... 1/5 (and 2.5/5 for the alternate)
I'm far more on your side than am I on theirs. I only gave it 3/5 but that's perfectly respectable. I really try not to be influenced by what other people are saying, even when it's a tidal wave in one direction. (And yes, the b-side version is definitely the better version to my ears, too, for the reasons you mention)
All Things I've got a slightly distorted view of this one - I own the 7" to Billy Bird, but I don't own a record player. Somehow, I must have transfered it to mp3 at some stage, but it means I've been listening to a crackly version for the last two decades. And given that the song itself has that kind of slightly woozy-discordant effect anyway, I've certainly not appreciated it at its best. But, despite that, I kind of like it. It's a definite example of 'weird Neil' as coined further upthread, but that's not a bad thing. I like the way the musical elements feel like they're almost working against each other, and I don't have a problem with the speak-and-spell - I wouldn't have used it quite so much, perhaps, but the boxset version is a bit pedestrian without it. Not as good as Girl Least Likely, but more interesting, and better than Idaho. A strange selection of b-sides, though, given what else he was sitting on at the time. 2.5/5
Just wondering, did you type these all out yourself?! Or did someone else torture themself to decipher most of those animals? This is definitely the winner of the DC Animal Cup! Edit: I wonder if any other artists have more than one song in their catalogue that mentions plankton and jellyfish(y)?
All things I’d only heard the box set version of this so it was... odd to hear the other one. Fun fact! The author of the hymn, ‘All things bright and beautiful’, Cecil Frances Alexander was a well known Derry resident, so this might have been a regularly heard composition in Neil’s childhood. 2/5
Catching up again (part two): Yes, me too. It's the vocal melody of the verses that is so familiar, but I can't put my finger on it. Yes, it would have been a perfect fit, but I also agree with @Hazey John II that it would have been too obvious. The lyrics are fine (though the chorus is a bit too repetitive) and I enjoy the style, but I agree with @Vagabone that it's not great. I like it better than three of the lesser tracks on the album, but luckily there are still better songs to come up for a tracklist switcheroo. 3
All Things Never heard this before and I don’t think I have missed anything. The demand for extra tracks to fill singles during the multi CD single era really produced some barrel scraping amongst a lot of artists. 1.5
I don't think I ever heard the B-side version of this (I mean, surely I'd remember it...) and the box set version made little impression on me. But the B-side version makes me laugh my head off. Just trying to reverse engineer the absurd man who would think this was an appropriate tribute to the natural world. What was he trying to do? Who is he singing to? Whatever his ambitions, surely he understands the subject matter about as well as the computer voice... I was going to say it's way too long, but of course, there has to be room for the creatures of the snow. It's actually got the real Millennia Strings on it! What a ridiculous thing. It... can't have been considered for the album... can it? Extinct species as absent friends? Might try it as a Happy Goth replacement... I can't justify a properly high score but this has really endeared itself to me. There's at least one more time I know of when Neil's sense of humour and mine are perfectly aligned but I hope there will be more like this lurking in the depths. 3.5/5 Yes it was, but only because I assumed it would be censored! The swear filter is a constant source of bemusement to me - I've had quite a few British ones get through. But these days I am trying to observe the spirit rather than the letter of the law and filter myself anyway...
This thread fell off my radar again, and it seems like I missed the Absent Friends album entirely - which is fine, because for me it's his dullest album. I listened to it again a few weeks ago and was mostly bored. The title track is good, and 'The Happy Goth' stands out because it's amiable in a kind of a b-side way (without being very good), but 'Charmed Life' is the only actually great song on the record, so I'll give that one a five out of desperation. 'Come Home, Billy Bird' is only saved from being his worst single because 'Gin-Soaked Boy' exists. The b-sides for this album, as I recall, were rather a joyless bunch and this period marked the low point of my decades-long engagement with The Divine Comedy. I was relieved when the next album was much stronger and sparkier.
Haha, I can assure you that I did not. (Although, mildly tempted to try to fill in the gaps...!) I copied it from ashortsite, not sure whether Alphi or some other brave person did it!
I’m ashamed to say that having mocked this version for years, as soon as that daft voice isn’t there, I agree that it does feel a bit weird! I can only imagine that Neil wanted to remove the synthesised voice but didn’t have the multitracks for the finished version any more- so he went back to a rough version or a demo of some sort? Thanks to everyone here for pointing out the differences - now I know what they are, they’re quite obvious really. This is something I’ll come back to, but yes there are two songs which we know to have been written and recorded during this period which not only could have been great B-sides but might even have made the album. Quite why one of them got saved for a B-side on the next album and the other didn’t get released until the 2020 bonus disc, I have no idea. This song feels very much like “hmm, let’s do something daft for this B-side”, but who knows? I’m with you - I like the side of Neil that goes “Yeah, this is completely ridiculous, let’s do that...” - the Liberation version of “Europop” probably being my favourite example. Rating the original B-side, I really like the string arrangement; it’s very intricate - as is the percussion. And who doesn’t enjoy the occasional random computerised animal name being barked out at seemingly inopportune moments? SEAL ASP LABRADOR RETRIEVER It’s a 3.3 from me, which shocked me - I really thought I hated this song until I listened to the boxset version, which made me suddenly realise that it’s actually an alright song, and THEN I realised that I actually missed the silly voices. I’m glad I’m not the only one who prefers the next album. I feel you and I may be swimming against the tide there, though...
For completists, instrumental versions of 'The Happy Goth' and 'Charmed Life' also slipped out on promotional publishers / sync compilations released around the same time as that promo. Hannon really seemed to be looking for a secondary (primary?) revenue stream in the mid noughties!
