Music is such a strange, personal journey. In my twenties I really didn’t think I could get enough fast, noisy techno. Today I’m seeking out shoegaze and dream pop at about half of the tempo. But still loud. Still has to be loud enough to feel.
Posts in: Music
#permanentwaves
I Get the News I Need from the Weather Report
The news can keep happening. That’s just fine. I love the counterpoint between the refrain saying “Half of the time we’re gone, but we don’t know where…” and the backup singers singing “Here I am.” The album Bridge Over Troubled Water, featuring the title track, came out in 1970, before I was two. I started listening to it in earnest when I was a teenager about ten years later. It’s still one of my favorite albums.
Sense of Loss
Did we ever deserve them? Did we love them enough? I listened to the Purple Rain soundtrack, watched the video of Prince’s Superbowl halftime performance, then spent at least an hour listening to the song Purple Rain on repeat. Joy. Awe. Sadness. Tears. Awash.
Music Is a Time Machine
I listened to parts of two different albums tonight. When I first listened to each album, my life couldn’t have been more different, emotionally. The albums were released only a few years apart, but one came during a happier time and another came during a dark descent. Listening to each one, tonight, brought back places, names and faces. Funny, the places one can travel, just by picking an album out of a list.
Pink Moon
There is no end to discovery in music. I have been listening to Pink Moon by Nick Drake on repeat for about the last two hours. Just the one song, which is something I rarely do. I watched The Lake House on TV last night, and it was featured in the soundtrack. And I remembered that it was in Volkswagen convertible commercials a long time ago. Maybe ten years ago?
Kim and Jessie
Kim and Jessie is a song that I can easily put on repeat. M83’s last two albums have been trending toward a sound that is very nostalgic for me, and this particular song is a stand out example. Though the song was released in 2008, it is heavily evocative of mid-1980s groups like ’Til Tuesday, Flock of Seagulls, and Tears for Fears. If you played a string of Top 40 hits from 1985 or 1986, and slipped in Kim and Jessie, I think a lot of people would think it sounds similar and familiar.
There Is No Bad Music, An Introduction
I don’t claim any special privilege, knowledge, education or access. Like many friends, and friends I haven’t met, I simply love music. I got my first portable FM radio somewhere around the Christmas of 1978, and I have been trying to carry music everywhere with me ever since. It means that much to me. In 1990 I went to work at a record store. You see, I thought I knew about music.