Why Not Smile?
I miss vinyl records. Hell, I don't really have a proper working CD player, so I'm missing those too. Everything gets loaded onto iTunes, then to the iPod, and invariably I jumble everything up to make a mix, throw it on shuffle, and jam to some quality tracks for a time, which is all well and good, but it's very rare for me to really get into an album anymore. A recent, notable exception would be the ginormous 76 minute "Come on Feel the Illinoise" by Sufjan Stevens, which just snagged me from the outset. Oh, and the new Half Man Half Biscuit, obviously. Perhaps new music just hasn't done it for me lately, or perhaps I'm still not over I can't just drive around anymore and soak up the album. However, one of the great perks of the iTunes revolution, where people are increasingly listening to most of their music when it's being channeled from their computer to a speaker system, is something like this:
http://www.stylusmagazine.com/feature.php?ID=1865
This guy has cut out three tracks from R.E.M.'s criminally underappreciated "Up" (their last great album as he says, and I agree), and resequenced the remaining tunes for a more pleasant and melodically coherent experience. I think he's onto something, although I do like "Diminished", which didn't make the final cut. Probably was B-side material anyway.
This guy has cut out three tracks from R.E.M.'s criminally underappreciated "Up" (their last great album as he says, and I agree), and resequenced the remaining tunes for a more pleasant and melodically coherent experience. I think he's onto something, although I do like "Diminished", which didn't make the final cut. Probably was B-side material anyway.