Effington

Quote from: momoffour on October 07, 2008, 05:23:49 PM

Quote from: jessieleigh on October 07, 2008, 11:17:04 AM

Quote from: momoffour on October 07, 2008, 04:18:45 AM

Effington is the "flip side" of "Adelaide" emotionally I think......

what do you mean exactly?

The way I look at "Adelaide" is that Ben can't WAIT to get home to Adelaide, whereas he can't WAIT to get AWAY from Effington (a distirtion of Adelaide?)
   Believe me, I am by no means a philosophy/english major-- rather, I am science based.  

I get the impression that he is driving THROUGH Effington (he doesn't live there) and considers throwing in the towel, "dropping off the map" as it were; settling down, retiring and living in this small, unknown town (with a silly name). Hence the lyrics "I want to live in Effington/I want to die there too/please bury me in Effington/in Effington" (those aren't really the best lyrics to support the idea, maybe, but earlier in the song he talks about ditching this little white rental on the innerstate, growing a beard, starting a family in Effington, etc.). I'm pretty sure he'd like to stick around.

yeah, i like your explanation, i was having trouble articulating what i thought the song was about but you said it much better than i ever could! but i agree, i felt that effington was appealing for the fact that it was just this random, in the middle of nowhere place where you could be who you are without any bother.

i do have one annoyance of this song,
it builds this riff throught the song, playing little bits here and there until about 2:55 where it builds and finally goes into half time rock (3:07) but only for three bars (finished by 3:11)! - it should have been MUCH longer at half time in my opinion (i think ben might have done this live, but not on record).
apart from that its great

that part gets me everytime!! ive been trying to master it on my piano, i think it might become my favourite ben solo. but i really really wish it was longer... a minute longer. he did expand on it a bit in concert but not by a noticable amount.

I'm with you on this one, Andy. It's the most realized, complex and layered song on the album. Musically, that is. I would have personally switched this with Kylie on it's placement on the album and had Effington be the closer. Kylie's a beautiful track, but is no where near as powerful as Effington.

Why?

His piano playing is the strongest here. The vocals are oh so deliciously tight, especially the little harmonies dispersed through out. The dynamics are well, dynamic! Haha. It's a good balance of loudness and softness throughout Effington.

The only thing I would have changed about it is the ending. I would have added an extra "Oh!" and just for it to be a little more cathartic at the end. It sort of just stops.

Love the tamborine. Just really nice. Adds depth.

But this, at the moment, ties with Frown song for me.

This album has grown on me FAST after the 3rd listen I am already hooked on all the songs.

ben spoke a little about effington here:

Tell me about the name of the album, "Way to Normal."

ben: It was just really three words taken out of context from one of the songs. There's a place called Normal, IL. We played a show there and, on the way to Normal, the van passed through Effingham and I thought it was Effington. And I made a song up called "Effington"--so I f---ed the name up. The song sort of ended up being about the randomness of where you end up living. You could just go, "Oh yeah. I could pick that town and just live there," as you're driving down the highway, "or I could just keep going to Normal." That's really kind of what the title's about. No one really knows what "normal" is anyway. I like the title "Way to Blue," which was a Nick Drake compilation record. I thought that was nice.



heres the full article: http://www.livedaily.com/news/15022.html