Hearing Aid
A Milestone Celebration!
As promised, I got a tmbg tattoo to commemorate my first 100 subs. It’s inspired by Tony Millionaire’s Drinky Crow Nest artwork from the liner notes for ‘Then: The Early Years.’ Thank you for enjoying what I’m writing. I appreciate you.
I’m happy with how it turned out and it hurt quite a lot. Thanks to gotocamp.tattoos at Brass Monkey in Tacoma! And now, enjoy this week’s post.
Deep Dive Into the Sound
There is an exact moment in this song that gives me goosebumps. Just that perfect sort of something that scratches an otherwise unreachable itch. That moment comes in precisely at a minute forty. Almost the halfway mark.
It’s a gated synth sort of sound. This rapid pulse tone that makes my body feel like it’s stretching or in the middle of a good yawn. Not that I’ve ever consumed Molly but it’s exactly the indescribable feeling of rolling on molly for two seconds.
The first time I heard Hearing Aid, I was immediately in love with how endlessly interesting it sounded. The song is absolutely loaded with midi samples and did I mention the car engine sound being used as percussion? Hearing Aid is phenomenal. I never skip it. You should 100% go listen to this entire song.
I should also mention that the first six seconds is a micro horror story.
Ycrem ruoy, your mercy
Preparing to write these posts involves me listening to the song many times over. Hearing Aid opens with a line I never quite understood. I could make out the last two words as ‘your mercy’ but before that? 🤷🏻♂️ Who knows.
After isolating it and replaying it over and over, I have to say that this first bit of Hearing Aid is intensely creepy and unsettling. You know those scenes in the horror movie where the paranormal investigator plays a reel-to-reel recording of a voice?
Shocked, they hear a haunting message in the background and you, the viewer, feel your stomach drop to the floor? That’s what I kept expecting to happen. It was as if the voice of this first line were lurking behind me as I listened.
The Internet was of no help really and lyrics sites often show the line as “Lord is your, your mercy.” The syllables are close but it’s just not working for me.
Look at Me, Being a Audio Detective
The best I can figure is that the lyric (a sample from a NY AM radio broadcast) is saying “your mercy” twice. Once backward, pronounced: yuh-SREM roo-yuh. And then forward: yore MUR-see.
It’s truly scary sounding. Honestly, I’m still not convinced that’s it. What are you hearing there?
Click to listen to Hearing Aid below.
I didn’t have a job or a boss when I first listened to this song but I did get the idea. It was clearly a song about a person with a boss that he doesn’t care for at all. The boss has passive aggressive comments to make like claiming the electric chair is too good for him, King Lazybones. But our employee has turned off his earing aid and is no longer listening.
Final Thoughts
Hearing Aid is a song that perfectly encapsulates the art of tuning out the noise. I have grown a tremendous amount since I was a teenager and while most songs have evolved with me as I journey through life, this song was consistent. It’s a reminder that sometimes, it’s okay to disconnect and protect your peace.
Growing up may have changed my perspective on many things, but the power of this song to resonate with that part of me has stayed remarkably consistent. It’s a fascinating, unsettling, and oddly comforting reminder that some messages are worth tuning out, and some songs are worth cranking up.
Bonus Stuff!
There is an alt version of this song that is not officially available on the usual streamers but here is an upload to YouTube that I found. It’s a really different take and I enjoy it very much.