Quarantined

A track-by-track rundown of the China 5 album Quarantine, for those of you who have read the review, heard the album and thought "Why not?".

Contra:

After songs about suicide bombers and September 11 on the last CD I wanted something that would cheer me up, after the death of a friend earlier this year. And this is it. Lychee helped out with the backing vocals, even though he doesn't like this style of music.

State Of Flux:

It was the first song to be recorded, that's why it has that A.D.D. song structure where dark kick drums give way to 16 bars of this weird lounge stuff.

Too Many Sushi:

Classic acoustic folk-pop in a dancehall vein, that you can sing on your way to work in your stupid gas-guzzling car.

Anna Wilde:

I wrote 32 lines of lyrics for this when it only needed 16, so I cut it down by half into the snappy edit you see before you. You'll be a hit if you dance to this in French nightclubs (after taking drugs of course).

Shield Your Eyes From The Horrible Truth:

The vocals in this song are from a practice run-through, but they stayed in because we have this thing about not doing too many takes of something in case we get sick of it.

I Can't Sleep At Night:

I think I was trying to write a song that sounded like it should have been in some '80s anime movie.

Midnight Aquarium (Waltz #6):

Recording this was tough. There was more editing than the Christmas Day broadcast of Beverly Hills Cop.

Pharmacy:

I was inspired to write this after I saw Suede's lead singer in a Britpop doco saying he wanted to write a song with a catchy melody but really sinister lyrics, and get it into the Top 10. I sang it in different ways: sounding really tired, in a drunk-ish voice, even a bad Jamaican accent, before settling on the final style.

Song For Singapore:

This song actually has electric and acoustic guitar playing at the same time. The electric was recorded first, you can hear it fade in at the start. Classic Saxophone Pop that will never let you forget that time you started bawling at the casino.

Tetris:

I recorded it solo last year with tons of feedback on the guitar and distortion on just about everything; this is a cleaner version of the song with different keyboards.

Constantinople:

Nothing to do with my autobiographical comic of the same name. When my friend Yoji from Japan (and also from our band The Cataracts) visited me in May, I had him record some random guitar towards the end of the song. He found it an odd request, but did it anyway.

1994:

I wasn't sure about putting a personal song on the album, but it sounds nice and you can't hear me mess up any chords since the guitar is way down in the mix. Quite an organic sound, recorded as is, with no enhancement on the tracks. It's very hard to play at a constant tempo as well.

Don't Give Up:

The Richmond Tigers and Mei Wong walk the streets of Mount Waverley at night ripping leaves off overhanging trees. Thanks for listening. And now, the politburo of China 5 bids you farewell!

And, of course, there were a number of songs that didn't make it, coming to a USB near you...

Cryptogram:

A fairly unpolished electric guitar song that doesn't have a proper ending. It was totally improvised, as I recall.

I Need A Better Friend:

It sounds like something you'd listen to on a hobo train ride. Pretty simplistic stuff, a bit cornball really.

Lava:

This would have been one of the best songs on the album if we'd left it on. We just didn't record it right. It needed jangly electric guitar strumming. We recorded it two times before this; both those versions sound pretty decent, but they have obvious mistakes in them.

Sick Of Being Pushed Around:

Left off because there were already enough robo-vocals on the album.

Angel Dust:

A song I wrote in 1999! It's under two minutes long and only has three chords.

Pete's Song:

Just a silly little warm-up thing to help me practice chords, with some strange high-pitched vocals on it.

untitled analogue song:

A throwaway analogue bit that never got finished. Could be the most amazing unheard China 5 song ever. But most likely not.

Now, get lost!