Standing room only
June 16, 2006 | 12:00am
There’s a particular kind of music that I like to call driving music. Not that I actually drive, of course (we’d have 10-car pile-ups everywhere if I were behind the wheel). It’s just the kind of music I like to listen to when I’m between destinations.
Our lives, whether as students, corporate slaves, world leaders, artists, or professional slackers, tend to get pretty busy – sometimes, too busy for us to have any time to ourselves to just sit back, relax, and maybe think a little. The downtime between leaving Point A and arriving at Point B is often the only time we get. I spend this time listening to my driving music and feeling grateful for the traffic.
My lost-in-transition soundtrack is made up of songs like Belle and Sebastian’s Get Me Away From Here, I’m Dying, and Broken Social Scene’s Anthems For A Seventeen-Year-Old Girl. They sound perky and upbeat. They sound like easy listening, and they’re easy to space out to when you’re absentmindedly staring out your window at the billboards along EDSA. The sweet vocals are warm and soothing, and you find yourself nodding along with the beat and feeling a little more relaxed.
When you’re tired of spacing out, however, and you start seriously listening to the music, you discover that these songs are actually really depressing. I don’t know how many times I’ve felt like crying after playing Anthems during rainy drives. It’s these beautifully dangerous, misleading songs that can really make you think about the way you’ve been living your life, the stupid things you’ve done, and the things you miss.
This is why I love The Pin-Up Girls. (Aside from their New Wave sound and the really lovely two-part male and female harmonies and the jangly guitars.) I popped their new album, "All Seats Are Taken", into my player at home and spaced out to their really cheerful music. I think I even danced around a bit. When it ended, I played it again, sat down, and really listened.
The first track, All Seats Are Taken, is pretty indicative of how the album generally sounds. It’s so deceptively happy that you almost don’t notice how sad the lyrics actually are. "Somebody help me please/I’m tired of waiting, please/I’m hurting/All seats are taken/Movie’s starting and I’m left standing here."
Every track on the album is ridiculously catchy and refreshing. Jeng Tan’s voice is so subdued but engaging on Be The One; a welcome change from the louder stuff I listen to on a more regular basis.
"All Seats Are Taken" is really the kind of album anyone can enjoy, if they just give it a shot. Track after track after track of wistful, somewhat depressing, joy. If you want breakup music that isn’t as angry as all the emo whining that has been dominating the airwaves, listen to Round She Goes. "I asked her once, ‘Is this how it feels? Is this how the blue sky falls?’/She simply shrugged, ‘It’s how it ends.’/It feels so cold, stone cold dead."
If you want to listen to something a little more mellow, Never Rusting Down (Like Gold You Are) is absolutely golden.
"All Seats Are Taken" is pure driving music, 100 percent beautiful. Really, how can you go wrong when something makes you feel so happy, but so sad, all at once? If you need to zone out, The Pin-Up Girls! If you want to feel a little melancholy, The Pin-Up Girls! If you want something a little upbeat to lift your spirits, The Pin-Up Girls! Truly something for the moments in between, and everything in between those.
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