Over my head (Cable car) - The Fray

Over My Head (Cable Car) originally just Cable Car was a very successful hit single and album track for Denver band The Fray in 2005, 2006. Originally recorded as a demo early in the band's life, that version had a lot of local radio airplay. The Fray song sounds at first like a traditional break up song but is apparently about lead singer and pianist Slade's relationship with younger brother Caleb (nicknamed "Cable Car"). Isaac wrote the song because the two were allegedly not speaking. "It is about a fight I got in with my brother, Caleb" Slade said. "After he graduated high school, we drifted apart and really hadn't spoken in a long time. One day we both realised that we needed to fight it out. We'd been friends for 20 years. That's a long time when you're only 23 years old. We fought it out, and he's one of my best friends today." Behind this slightly bland explanation lies the fact that Caleb was bassist with the Fray but was sacked in 2002. Now the she (She's on your mind) is presumably the boys' mother, which transforms the song. Being in over my head is not entirely clear but it may be that we are seeing it through Caleb's eyes not Isaac's. Either way, the opening verse begins to make sense (I never knew that everything was falling through That everyone I knew was waiting on a cue, etc, etc). Presumably eight seconds left in overtime is a picture drawn from basketball describing the need to act. It's late in the game but Let's rearrange. If this was a stranger, disengagement would be easy but this is a brother. As you lose the argument in a cable car Hanging above as the canyon comes between is both evocative and a clever reference to the nickname. The alternative is to drift apart which cannot be good. The line I'm losing you and it's effortless is powerful. How easy relationships are lost and Without a sound we lose sight of the ground In the throw around. He Never thought that his brother wanted to bring it down but he is determined not to let it go down till we torch it ourselves. The Chainsmokers' Closer was adjudged in 2016 to be derivative so Isaac Slade and Joe King of The Fray's names received co-credits.

There she goes - The La's

I must have first heard this song in 1990 when the single charted and was often on the radio. I either bought the single myself or received it as a Christmas gift. There was apparently a prior version, produced by Bob Andrews, released in 1988 and 1989 but it is Steve Lillywhite's remix for the debut album that is best known. It was the biggest success Liverpool band The La's ever enjoyed. The song's structure is simple, having only a chorus repeated four times and a bridge. It has been placed in what some call the Jangle Pop genre, one often associated with the 12 string Rickenbacker guitar, and pioneered by The Beatles and The Byrds especially Mr Tambourine Man. This is a fine example of the genre. The song is often said to refer to heroin ("There she goes again ... racing through my brain ... pulsing through my vein ... no one else can heal my pain") which is unlikely. It is associated in my mind with Mrs Thatcher whose reign as prime minister came to an end just after the song charted. I probably got the idea in my head from hearing it used for the opening montage of the first episode of Channel 4's drama series This Is England '90 which also featured Mrs Thatcher's resignation speech. It is actually about the usual staple, love for (or should we say infatuation with?) a girl. The song has featured on the soundtrack of The Parent Trap; Fever Pitch; Girl, Interrupted; Cold Case, and So I Married an Axe Murderer. It has been covered by Sixpence none the richer, The Boo Radleys and Robbie Williams, among others.