Say 'ahhh'.
Tortoise ; "Monica" [6:30] (Standards; 2001)
Tortoise's song "Monica" is a six-and-a-half minute long instrumental, chugging along at around 82 beats-per-minute. A dense piece, "Monica" features great use of vocoder, lush synths and lazy guitars. It's really laid back--the band rides the same groove for the first half, repeating the melody every 4 bars, before mutating into an abstract of itself on the second half. The percussive nuances are tasteful and interesting; with different snare-tunings and sampled drums staggered and stacked against one another. Not pop-y at all, Tortoise's recording is a great piece of post-rock.
The Kinks ; "Monica" [2:15] (The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society; 1968)
The Kinks' song "Monica" is totally different from the Tortoise song of the same name. No synthesizers or modern instruments obviously--it is organic and has a nice mix of acoustic guitars, electric guitar, hand-percussion and simple melodies. I was listening to Village Green Preservation Society quite a bit lately, and noticed Davies' pining lyrics sometimes juxtaposed against the outwardly sarcastic. "Monica" stood out as one of the more pop-sounding songs. It is simple in composition, and sounds very loose--like they laid it down in only a few takes. It's too bad that this record was not well-received upon initial release.
I can't decide which "Monica" I like better, since I like both apples and oranges (chortle!). All music nerdery aside, Monica is a terrible name for a girl. I don't think I even know a Monica, or have ever known one. And if you name your child Monica, she will undoubtedly grow up to be a whore.
