Landing
Tracklisting
- Faster
- Take Off [Radio]
- Before Tomorrow
- Landing
- Ride
- Over The Limit
- Lightswimmer
- From My Perspective
- Displacement & Time
- Transmission Tower
Landing is unquestionably their most compelling album so far
- Wilson Neate, Blurt
Githead's new album is a Quietus favourite of 2009
- Luke Turner, The Quietus
Landing isn't just a good record, it's an exciting record.
- Mario Aguilar, Soma
Few bands are able to wrap up such a complex enigma in such a beautiful, infectious package.
- Creaig Dunton, Brainwashed
The chemistry between Spigel's buoyant bass and Rimbaud and Newman's guitars is potent.
- Mike Barnes, Mojo
The ability to move away from being merely the sum of their parts to being a cohesive, distinctive and good band is not only commendable, it has led to a bloody good album.
- Alex Baker, Subba Cultcha
Githead's 3rd album finds them building on 2007's Art Pop to deliver another accomplished set of seductive, Krautrock-imbued art rock.
- Phil Mongredien, Q
Landing may take a number of listens to begin to sink in, but when it does, it stays with you
- Mason Jones, Dusted
The 'stuff' that comprises Landing is generally of the top shelf variety
- Andrzej Lukowski, BBC Music
Landing is the true crystallization of the collected talents as a band and it really shows
- John Foster, Brightest Young Things
Landing is about the pure pleasure of marrying steady rhythms to layers of distorted guitar and synthesizer. And that pleasure conveys
- Noel Murray, A.V. Club
Landing
Landing marks Githead's fourth release (its third album) since its inception in 2004. In a short career that's boasted more 5-star reviews than most bands have had hot dinners, Landing is, without a doubt, Githead's most accomplished recording to date.
For the uninitiated, Githead are Colin Newman (of Wire), Malka Spigel and Max Franken (of Minimal Compact) and Robin Rimbaud (aka Scanner). However, who they are is far less important than what they are. And what they are is a band, rather than a collaboration between four individuals. Githead is a band that has developed incrementally and organically: from the Krautrock-infused roots of its 2004 debut EP, Headgit, through an expansion in style and mood on the first album, Profile (2005), to the self-descriptive Art Pop (2007) -- critically regarded as the band's zenith. Improbably, Landing goes one better.
On Landing, all the familiar components of Githead's distinctive idiom remain in place -- Newman and Rimbaud's minimalist guitar patterns, their supremely catchy melodic sense, Spigel's propulsive bass rumble, Franken's solid, steady drive -- but Landing broadens the band's vocabulary considerably. Adding depth, texture and shading, Landing's ten tracks are somehow simultaneously harder, edgier, more expansive, more organic, more hypnotic.
Crucially, though, while Githead might now be speaking a more sophisticated, nuanced language, they never once lose touch with their essential pop sensibility. It's this unique balance of convention and subtle experimentation that's always distinguished Githead from so many others attempting to plough the same adventurous avant-pop furrow.
Lyrics
Faster
(Instrumental)
Take Off
Things are not the way they're meant to be
But if you find the key the rest will follow
In the air or drifting in the sea
But if it's meant to be don't feel the sorrow
When I float in motion silently
The words they say to me are hard to swallow
All the choices that are there for me
There is no door or key the earth is hollow
Sometimes, I see the clues, I hear the words
Maybe sometimes, I see the signs, I know the lines
And if, I come across another twist
Maybe I know, I hear the signs, I see the words
Before Tomorrow
Rise, understanding
It used to be it used to see another time
Rise, undemanding
It used to play, it used to stay another way
Why is it always so?
You can't ignore, you lived before,
you wanted more
At the open door
The time is passed, can't make it last,
you lived too fast
Prize, understanding
It has to be, it has to show a better view
Lies, undemanding
It tries to be, it loves to be the only way
Why is it always so?
You can't ignore, you lived before,
you wanted more
At the open door
The time is passed, can't make it last,
you lived too fast
Landing
Feel at home & not at home
Does this city ever end?
Every type & every style
Every means & all those dreams
I am sliding
I'm reviving
Clearing clouds
Want to walk again
Why & how?
Want to understand
Clues & signs
Made me want to cry
Is it far?
Time to walk again
Coming down
Ground is getting close
City spread
Little cars go round and round and round
Feel alone & not alone
Does this city ever care?
Every fight & every smile
Every scheme & all those dreams
I am climbing
And surviving
Clearing clouds
Want to walk again
Why & how?
Want to understand
Clues & signs
Made me want to cry
Is it far?
Time to walk again
Coming down
Ground is getting close
City spread
Little cars go round and round and round
Ride
Everyone is after your money
Everyone is after your time
Pulling you down
Down to the ground
You don't know me
You don't own me
So back off
People pretending to be honest
They even lie to themselves
Pulling you down
Down to the ground
You don't know me
You don't own me
So back off, Let go
You don't know me
You don't own me
So back off, Let go
I don't need you to run my show
So go away, I don't play
Game over
Over The Limit
Talent free fame, over hyped fare,
Celebrity stiffs, dubious gifts
Never ever paying, keep freeloading,
“I'm cool”, give it here
Your Dad's records, not quite forgotten,
Patchy memory? more easy pickings
Choc full tube, red light stop,
Cold at dusk, early dark
Lack of discretion, lack of taste,
Lack of judgment, lack of space
Pecking orders, concrete borders,
Bust & boom, prophets of doom
Too much money, too many gods,
Too much pride, too many opinions
Too much hate, too much stupidity,
Too many mugs, too little hope
Spam fissures, surfeit of knowledge,
History victors, instant experts
Stolen music, arsehole managers,
Pompous gits, celebrity shits
British spin, the way they sell it,
Ticking boxes, guilt in giving,
White van vandals, black economy,
Token spokesmen, endless analysis
Lack of discretion, lack of taste,
Lack of judgment, lack of space
Pecking orders, concrete borders,
Bust & boom, prophets of doom
Too much money, too many gods,
Too much pride, too many opinions
Too much hate, too much stupidity,
Too many mugs, too little hope
Lightswimmer
Ride on energy, electricity
See me, see me
Live on empathy, pure simplicity
See me, be me
I'm just exploring,
don't need to understand
Running in circles
I never had a plan
What a thing to be, people telling me
See me, be me
Everything I see, always calling me
See me, see me
I'm just exploring,
don't need to understand
Running in circles
I never had a plan
From My Perspective
Waking mornings cold and grey
City's empty, city's still
Tea or coffee? Checking mail
Out of office, out of mind
Making plans and finding space
Time for working, time for play
Searching meaning, time will find us
Sometimes flying, sometimes still
From my perspective
It's another day
We should be making plans
What could be? What should be?
Early evenings warm inside
City's distant, city's cold
Passing summer not forgotten
Time to empty, time to fill
Choices versus circumstances
Find direction, find the line
Searching meaning, time will find us
Sometimes action, sometimes calm
From my perspective
It's another day
We should be making plans
What could be? What should be?
Displacement & Time
Movement, displacement
Fluidity, relativity
Uncommon passenger
Breach the line, out of time
Unknown locations
Frequency, causality
Future experiments
Hibernate, elevate
Orbit at altitude
No gravity, simplicity
Condensing atmosphere
Maximise, solarise
Transmission Tower
Open Eyes, the light is warm
Existence takes another form
Connections made, strange & wild
Letters sent, numbers dialled
Tears fill my eyes
I am happy now
Not coming down
I will show you how
Squeeze in my heart
I will take you there
Meet me halfway
All in love is fair