An album I can really recommend is LA quartet OK Go‘s 2005 disc Oh No. It’s catchy, glammy rock with swagger and brains and decadence, recorded in Sweden and beautifully produced by Tore Johansson and the mighty Lindgård/Mopeds brothers. In addition to them kicking ass musically, the band’s lyrics (by Damian Kulash) are unusually poetic and literate. Dear Reader, I bring you the lyrics to the delicious “Oh Lately It’s So Quiet”, which are sung in a bedroom falsetto by the hugely talented Mr Kulash.

Oh Lately It’s So Quiet
By Damian Kulash of OK Go

Oh, lately it’s so quiet in this place
You’re not ’round every corner
Oh, lately it’s so quiet in this place
So darling if you’re not here haunting me
I’m wondering

Whose house are you haunting tonight?
Whose sheets you twist,
Whose face you kiss?
Whose house are you haunting tonight?

I don’t think much about you anymore
You’re not on every whisper
I don’t think much about you
But if you’re not lurking behind every curtain
I’m wondering

Whose house are you haunting tonight?
Whose name you hiss,
Who’s clenching fists?
Whose house are you haunting tonight?

Now whose house are you haunting tonight?
Who can’t resist,
Who’s crying,
“Whose house are you haunting tonight?”
Whose name you hiss,
Whose sheets you twist?
Whose house are you haunting tonight?

Update 12 December: I suddenly realised that this OK Go song is an obvious response, musically and lyrically, to the Cars’ 1984 hit “Drive”. “Who’s gonna drive you home tonight?” OK Go cite the Cars as a major influence alongside the Pixies.

[More blog entries about music, pop, rock, okgo; musik, pop, rock, okgo.]