Autres temps, autres CDs
So I'm listening to Genesis - and not, I have to admit, because I like it. I did try to, once upon a time, but now I'm just trying to find out if my tastes have changed. The Way We Walk (Vol 2: The Longs), as you may have guessed, was a gift, and not a particularly well thought out gift. My tastes at the time were concentrated on the sort of band who could pose semi-naked on the cover and have people make fun of their hair. That's what makes good music. Oh yes.
I didn't like The Way We Walk on first glance, and this may have showed on my face. If so, I regret that, because it was a brave attempt to share a passion (albeit a bit late).
But.
I didn't like Vol 2 on first listen, either, or on second, and, unlike Origins of Symmetry I haven't suddenly started to care for it after having ignored it for a few years. I think it sounds like the sound track to The Lion King, and there’s a reason I don’t buy Disney sound tracks. OK, and another one. The relevant one is the ‘they make me go “eh”’ one rather than the ‘sweatshops’ one.
Which brings me to my main point: why is it, when someone buys/copies/lends you an album by a band they're impassioned by, do they rarely give you the most easily accessible one? The popular, almost-chart-hitting one, the one featuring that post-ironic single which everyone took seriously and was even on MTV for a week? The one with that riff they stole from the Beatles? Why do they give you the one that you need a PhD in the Total Awesomeness of Band X and a Masters in Obscure Music Appreciation to even contemplate the cover of?
It could be to get you started on ‘the good stuff’ straight away, as if this album were crack and they were simply saving you the musical equivalent of short-term memory loss and That Smell by not letting you try pot first. If so, this is like giving someone crack and then asking them to write a dissertation on it. Even if they remember the experience, the reviews are unlikely to rock out as hard as one might like.
Or maybe they do it because they value your opinion. I mean, if you listen to that song, the one with the music video with the chicks in swimsuits, off the album with that really moving song that changed their life, and none of it touches you - or worse, you think it’s generic - then maybe they’ll wind up agreeing with you. I wouldn’t want that, and anyone who even thinks of doing that number on Everclear had better get some velvet ropes, because I will be so beside myself I will be forming an orderly queue to kick you where it hurts.
I think - and I'm basing this mainly on the person who said "This isn't their most accessible album" as he handed it over - that they just want to seem that little bit cooler. And to see if you're cool. I mean, there's no cred in listening to the Spice Girls Spiceworld (although I did that yesterday, and that may soon be sharing EBay space with Vol 2) but there is some cred in listening to an obscure Canadian band take the piss out of it, particularly if it involves a kazoo.
I didn't like The Way We Walk on first glance, and this may have showed on my face. If so, I regret that, because it was a brave attempt to share a passion (albeit a bit late).
But.
I didn't like Vol 2 on first listen, either, or on second, and, unlike Origins of Symmetry I haven't suddenly started to care for it after having ignored it for a few years. I think it sounds like the sound track to The Lion King, and there’s a reason I don’t buy Disney sound tracks. OK, and another one. The relevant one is the ‘they make me go “eh”’ one rather than the ‘sweatshops’ one.
Which brings me to my main point: why is it, when someone buys/copies/lends you an album by a band they're impassioned by, do they rarely give you the most easily accessible one? The popular, almost-chart-hitting one, the one featuring that post-ironic single which everyone took seriously and was even on MTV for a week? The one with that riff they stole from the Beatles? Why do they give you the one that you need a PhD in the Total Awesomeness of Band X and a Masters in Obscure Music Appreciation to even contemplate the cover of?
It could be to get you started on ‘the good stuff’ straight away, as if this album were crack and they were simply saving you the musical equivalent of short-term memory loss and That Smell by not letting you try pot first. If so, this is like giving someone crack and then asking them to write a dissertation on it. Even if they remember the experience, the reviews are unlikely to rock out as hard as one might like.
Or maybe they do it because they value your opinion. I mean, if you listen to that song, the one with the music video with the chicks in swimsuits, off the album with that really moving song that changed their life, and none of it touches you - or worse, you think it’s generic - then maybe they’ll wind up agreeing with you. I wouldn’t want that, and anyone who even thinks of doing that number on Everclear had better get some velvet ropes, because I will be so beside myself I will be forming an orderly queue to kick you where it hurts.
I think - and I'm basing this mainly on the person who said "This isn't their most accessible album" as he handed it over - that they just want to seem that little bit cooler. And to see if you're cool. I mean, there's no cred in listening to the Spice Girls Spiceworld (although I did that yesterday, and that may soon be sharing EBay space with Vol 2) but there is some cred in listening to an obscure Canadian band take the piss out of it, particularly if it involves a kazoo.