I was swimming in the haze
The Pretty Hate Machine re-release started me thinking about albums qua albums. In the days of non-sequential playback and individual track distribution, the death of the album as a cohesive artwork has been frequently bemoaned. I'm not going to do that; my usual style of listening based on individual tracks has been influenced by a dislike of filler tracks on albums. That said, there are a number of albums that I will always think of as cohesive albums rather than as part of a file reference system for individual tracks.
The other inspiration for this post is a Facebook meme about listing authors that influenced you (including the bizarre note the poets are included - as if poets weren't authors anyway). So this is my take on that meme, but using albums.
Before I had access to a CD player with shuffle, there were a couple of CDs that, mostly out of necessity, I experienced as entire albums. The Offspring's Smash and Supergroove's Traction were the soundtrack to many a teenage weekend afternoon when my parents were out. While I largely enjoyed Tractionon an aesthetic level, albums like Smash started me on the political path of societal criticism.
Before those early CDs, and for a few years after as well, the sequential limitations of tapes required a certain degree of album-centric listening. A tape of Body Blow by the Headless Chickens was the soundtrack to my first overseas experience, my teenage trip to France. Two other tapes, dubs from friends' CDs, I believe, were [particularly influential: Pearl Jam's Ten, the album, that, I have been dismissively told, everyone likes, is still one of my favourites; and Faith No More's Angel Dust. Somewhat surprisingly, I've had to tell people who Faith No More are on a couple of occasions recently. Nevertheless, Angel Dust is an album that I still often listen to as an album.
VNV Nation's Matter + Form is an album, like Body Blow, that has strong associations of place. In this case, not of the Paris train system, but of driving through varying intensities of rain from Hataitai to Khandallah. The restrictions of the CD player in that car shaped the experience of this album into an experience as an album. I'm looking forward to getting into Reformation 01.
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The other inspiration for this post is a Facebook meme about listing authors that influenced you (including the bizarre note the poets are included - as if poets weren't authors anyway). So this is my take on that meme, but using albums.
Before I had access to a CD player with shuffle, there were a couple of CDs that, mostly out of necessity, I experienced as entire albums. The Offspring's Smash and Supergroove's Traction were the soundtrack to many a teenage weekend afternoon when my parents were out. While I largely enjoyed Tractionon an aesthetic level, albums like Smash started me on the political path of societal criticism.
Before those early CDs, and for a few years after as well, the sequential limitations of tapes required a certain degree of album-centric listening. A tape of Body Blow by the Headless Chickens was the soundtrack to my first overseas experience, my teenage trip to France. Two other tapes, dubs from friends' CDs, I believe, were [particularly influential: Pearl Jam's Ten, the album, that, I have been dismissively told, everyone likes, is still one of my favourites; and Faith No More's Angel Dust. Somewhat surprisingly, I've had to tell people who Faith No More are on a couple of occasions recently. Nevertheless, Angel Dust is an album that I still often listen to as an album.
VNV Nation's Matter + Form is an album, like Body Blow, that has strong associations of place. In this case, not of the Paris train system, but of driving through varying intensities of rain from Hataitai to Khandallah. The restrictions of the CD player in that car shaped the experience of this album into an experience as an album. I'm looking forward to getting into Reformation 01.
294