Track Attack- "Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want" (The Smiths, 1984)

(Welcome to "Track Attack," where each Tuesday a "new" song will be reviewed. Anything is fair-game for this feature, from meticulously lush 70s folk to blown-out 2000s R&B. Today's track is a brief, but brilliant piece of 80s indie pop. Arguably the pinnacle of sadness for a band who had an affinity for the sad.)

Discussions of sad sack miserablism start and end with the Smiths. Other bands lay claim to melancholy (Mazzy Star) or hold the championship belt in outright depression (Joy Division), but the Manchester quartet retains ownership of immutable sadness. It's the reason "This Charming Charlie" is so incredibly funny. Lauren LoPrete was able to find the one pop culture figure capable of matching the Morrissey fronted group in the head-hanging department. Charlie Brown was by all accounts "a good man" and the world conspired against him anyway. So it was with Morrissey in the Smiths. When he wanted a place to call home, he was kicked out. "Miserable Lie" wouldn't let him experience the thrill of a first time without reminding he and his lover, "There's something against us." Even with his steadfast commitment in "Girlfriend in a Coma" he's left to shakily beg, "I'd hate anything to happen to her," atop sawing strings and Andy Rourke's gulping bass. Where melancholy can be a torturous invention of the mind, the sadness Morrissey was experiencing was all too real. His brain wasn't inventing reasons to be glum. He'd been dealt shit hands and was reacting the way a lot of us would, by rocking back and forth in a ball of woe.

Though the band would write better songs (I still rank "I Know It's Over" as their best), no effort in their catalog can match 1984's "Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want" in terms of sorrow. Appearing as the B-side to their fifth single "William It Was Really Nothing," it's everything the chart placing track isn't. Despite the song's 1:50 run time, the tempo moves at a glacial pace. Gone are Mike Joyce's booming drums, Rourke's rolling bass, and Johnny Marr's spidery guitar. In fact Joyce and Rourke don't even appear on "Please, Please, Please...," giving a sliver of credence to the foolish assertion that they were replaceable. Even Morrissey, one of rock music's greatest vocalists, has seemingly "checked out" here. He doesn't use any of the sliding vocals that closed out "William It Was Really Nothing" or let out falsetto cries. Instead it’s one exasperated sigh. The figure on the bed of the cover may as well be Morrissey, whispering "haven't had a dream in a long time," as he brushes back his jet black quiff. Like Marr's acoustic guitar playing and background soloing, he's lifelessly still.

Never getting your way will cultivate that kind of defeatism. Hopefully we all understand that 100% of our wishes can't be granted, life doesn't allow for such fulfillment. But how often do we consider the idea of rarely, if ever, having a prayer answered? I'd like to think I could handle it, that I'd maintain a stiff upper lip, but that's a lie. Endless rejection of every kind would be suffocating. It wouldn't be long before I'd be like Morrissey pleading "Please please please, let me, let me, let me, let me get what I want, this time," just so I could breathe fresh air again.

Perhaps the better question is what would happen when such a loser finally wins? Would they run off jumping and praising a higher power like the crippled man of the Book of Acts? Or would the celebration be marked by another sigh, one of relief? In the case of "Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want," the "victory parade" is signaled by Johnny Marr's shimmering mandolin. I've somewhat joked before that you can hear heaven in his outro, but I'm largely serious when I say it. As mechanically rhythmic and reverberated as it is, his part is exceptionally humane. A tiny stream of comfort washes over me when I hear Marr's picking. I know the same is true of Morrissey who has broken down in tears as those familiar notes ring out. For once in his life though it's not woeful sorrow he's experiencing, but joyful sadness. Lord knows it would be the first time. 

If you have suggestions for songs you want to see featured in future editions of Track Attack, feel free to leave them in the comments section.

"Here"- Pharrell, Johnny Marr, & Hans Zimmer

Orchestral folk-singer isn't exactly a hat you'd expect omnipotent singer/rapper/producer Pharrell to don, but on Amazing Spider-Man 2 track "Here" he wears it extremely well. After manning the boards on faux-disco cut "It's On Again" with Alicia Keys and Kendrick Lamar, "Here" sees Pharrell working with the far more random duo of Smiths-guitarist Johnny Marr and go-to film-scorer Hans Zimmer. Even knowing ahead of time that the three would be working together on the superhero flick's soundtrack didn't stop me from marveling at the credit list when I first saw it. If I was forced to create a more-random trio to craft a song this year, under penalty of death, I'm not sure if I could.

As I said in the opening though, Pharrell wears the hat of orchestral folk-singer incredibly well and not simply because he looks great in any hat. The collaboration works because no one is stepping on anyone's toes. Hans Zimmer's strings don't have the same massive oomph that marks his other superhero scores. They still glide skyward, but it never feels like an overreach. Likewise, Marr abandons his guitar wizardry for a plaintive acoustic figure that undergirds Pharrell's tender crooning. Lyrically nothing Pharrell is saying is revelatory; he generally sticks to unfettered declarations of love "on all existence." But he's so remarkably self-assured that you buy every word he's saying. By pulling back the curtains, "Here" places the spotlight firmly on Pharrell and he doesn't shy away in the slightest. 

(The Amazing Spider-Man 2 soundtrack is out April 22, but you can hear "Here" on Stereogum now.)

What's New(s)?

Kendrick Lamar appearing on Amazing Spiderman 2 soundtrack

Less than a week after making a ferocious appearance on the Divergent soundtrack, it's been announced that "King" Kendrick Lamar is set to appear on the upcoming Amazing Spiderman 2 soundtrack. Out April 22, the soundtrack will also include appearances from: the omnipresent Pharrell, Smiths-guitarist Johnny Marr, alt-country rocker Phosphorescent, and R&B star Alicia Keys. Keys is teaming up with the aforementioned Lamar on the cut "It's On Again", which was created specifically for the film and produced by Pharrell. 

Composer Hans Zimmer, who co-wrote "It's On Again", brought together the appropriately named "Magnificent Six" for the film, which includes: Pharrell, Marr, Dave Stewart of the Eurythmics, Incubus' guitarist Mike Einziger, Junkie XL, Andrew Kawczynski, and Steve Mazzaro. The high-profile album will feature new songs from Pharrell, along with Phosphorescent's "Song for Zula" from last year's standout Muchacho LP. 

Check out the film trailer and Phosphorescent's swooning orchestral piece "Song for Zula" below.

"Song for Zula"

Iggy Pop and New Order play "Love Will Tear Us Apart"

It's safe to say without much hyperbole that "Love Will Tear Us Apart", Joy Divison's first chart hit remains not only the band's most well-number known number, but one of the most beautifully pained efforts of the 80s. Curtis' bellowing voice on the song is one of fear and wonder, knowing the warmth love affords but also the brutal cold it can bring.

Last night at Carnegie Hall during a benefit for Tibet House, Curtis' former bandmates (who famously reformed as New Order) trotted out the iconic number, with help from punk-rock luminary Iggy Pop. Considering Curtis' own admiration for Pop (whose The Idiot album he listened to not long before tragically committing suicide), the move was one of pure wonder. Pop's performance on-stage suggests he's very aware of the magic as he struts and flails around the stage, calling to mind the way Curtis himself used to chew up a stage. By the end, the entire crowd is applauding and it's easy to understand why. Joy Division's own shelf-life wasn't long, but their impact certainly is.

 

See the video for Johnny Cash's "She Used to Love Me A Lot"

March 25, Columbia/Legacy records will release Johnny Cash's Out Among the Starts, a "compilation" album that gathers together lost works from Cash recorded during the early 80s. To promote the work, a stark video for "She Used to Love Me A Lot", directed by The Road's John Hillcoat has been released.

In the black-and-white clip, Hillcoat captures uncompromising scenes of America, where individuals toil away in obscure poverty and the line between prison and the outside world is impossibly blurred. Scattered amongst the frayed images are: pictures of Cash's burnt-out lake house, the cave where he attempted suicide, and the room he last recorded in. "I'm in need of something, something you ain't got," Cash sings with his freight-train voice. Whatever that missing element was, the Man in Black never stopped chasing it.

Check back in tomorrow for more of the newest in new(s) and follow AllFreshSounds on Twitter for updates throughout the day.