Houston

Houston's a strange song in that, if it were not on Accelerate it could have turned out to be a gentle, acoustic song – not unlike something you might hear on Out Of Time or Automatic For The People, with it's acoustic picking guitar style and a touch of mandolin in the chorus. But instead it's made in to something quite brash and rugged with its creepy organ sound, bellowing fog horn and distorted drums. I've not always been particularly taken by Jacknife Lee's production on Accelerate but on Houston I really like the sound he's achieved.

It took me quite a while to figure out it's in drop D tuning which I guess makes sense as so is the other acoustic song on Accelerate, Until The Day Is Done. 

I remember hearing the song at the Dublin rehearsals thinking that it could turn in to something quite nice when it's finished and then it appeared on Accelerate in much the same format running at just 2:05. On any other album it would have sounded unfinished but on Accelerate it works just fine.