![]() ![]() Also memorable: that video, with Bush’s iconic red dress and her equally iconic interpretive dance moves. One of the most idiosyncratic debut singles the world has ever heard, and one of the most memorable - there just aren’t that many Brontë-inspired oddball singer/songwriters around, sadly. It’s since become something of an Australian classic, despite the fact that Howard himself had long since grown tired of it. The first the world heard from Nick Cave and the band who would become The Birthday Party, although this song was written by guitarist Rowland S. If you weren’t listening to this on Halloween, you were doing it all wrong. ![]() Also, as a measure of its ubiquity, I heard it being played last year on a flight between Kuala Lumpur and Bahrain - they censored all the “fucks,” but clearly didn’t realize “cunt” was also a curse word. Sure, her career since has been an ongoing exercise in being let down, but this is still a killer single. The experience of listening is not unlike having your head put into a blender. Into the course of precisely 86 seconds, Bad Brains managed to cram two verses that delivered a strongly worded critique of consumer society, a brief instrumental break, and coda that manages to strike some note of hope (“A peace together/ A piece apart/ A piece of wisdom from our hearts”). (One caveat: we’ve generally avoided one-hit wonders, who are a category of their own, although a couple did sneak in.) Of course, this discussion inevitably led to list-making, and here’s the result: our picks for the 50 best debut singles the world of music has to offer. The list is nearly endless, but once you start to think about it, picking out the best isn’t quite as easy as you might think - “Alison” wasn’t Elvis Costello’s first single, for instance, nor was “Take Me Out” Franz Ferdinand’s debut or “Unfinished Sympathy” Massive Attack’s. Thirdly, the landing on the new tempo feels massive, with the aforementioned unisons and kicks introducing the bulk of the song that would be a great number all in itself, but feels even more impactful because of what comes before it.Apropos of not a great deal, the music nerd contingent at Flavorwire central recently got a-talking about our favorite debut single. Without Thompson's kick, the tune would feel suspended, and the slowdown wouldn't nearly be as impactful. The kick has such a unique driving force in music it solidifies a track's tempo by filling up the bottom of the sound, driving people to dance and jump more than any other instrument. I really hear Thompson's kick drum as doing a lot of work to keep up the energy. Secondly, despite a 35 percent decrease in tempo, the song retains if not increases its energy throughout the four measures. Alex Kapranos has deemed their tempo decision "kind of the wrong way to do it, but it kind of works in that song." He's underselling it the slowdown more than kind of works. Firstly, it comes at an unorthodox spot, but it's sold wholesale by the whole band to the point that it doesn't feel odd - it just feels fitting. The slowdown works so well on "Take Me Out" for three main reasons. ![]()
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