All Songs Considered/ASC Blog
I'm a little bit in love with this.
I'll put on All Songs Considered on a bad day, or on any day, really. If Bob Boilen's on vacation or something and Robin Hilton stands in, I'll get absolutely furious or melancholy, depending on what kind of a day it is. I often find myself yelling at my computer in rage.
But when Robin Hilton wrote I was living in Japan, teaching English to middle school students when Odelay first hit stores in 1996. I can very vividly remember browsing the stacks at a local CD shop in Nagoya when the opening notes of "Devil's Haircut" leapt from the overhead speakers. I froze and thought, "What the hell is that!?"
I knew Beck from his monster-hit "Loser" released a couple of years earlier, which definitely hinted at greater things to come. But Odelay took everyone by surprise. It was an orgy of sound, bursting with ideas. But it wasn't a mess to hear, it was melodic. The sudden instrumental and rhythmic shifts, coupled with Beck's curiously odd lyrics ("Driving my pig while the bear's taking pictures in the grass") made it impossible to ever be bored listening.
I decided to play it for my students in Japan. The teachers gathered the entire student body together in the gymnasium to hear it. About 15-hundred students sat on the floor in their uniforms while I blasted "The New Pollution" from the PA system. Afterward I asked them to write a few sentences in English explaining what they thought it all meant. The responses were utter nonsense, with most of them simply saying "Nice to meet you!"
I decided that's about as good an explanation as anyone could give., both he and Beck began to grow on me. Beck's one of those artists I keep trying to listen to and just can't get into. So I'm trying again, I really am.
Recently Robin raised the old stranded on a Desert Island with 5 albums question. What are they?
Mine are (in no particular order)
The Sunset Tree- The Mountain Goats
O- Damien Rice
The Crane Wife- The Decemberists
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band- The Beatles
Home in Halifax- Stan Rogers
with Josh Ritter's The Animal Years in a very close 6th but much too similar to O for them both to fit on the same island. And O might be my favourite album ever, so it isn't leaving. My list is a bit too singer/songwriter heavy, but perhaps that just gives me both music and poetry to chew on.
What are yours?
I'll put on All Songs Considered on a bad day, or on any day, really. If Bob Boilen's on vacation or something and Robin Hilton stands in, I'll get absolutely furious or melancholy, depending on what kind of a day it is. I often find myself yelling at my computer in rage.
But when Robin Hilton wrote I was living in Japan, teaching English to middle school students when Odelay first hit stores in 1996. I can very vividly remember browsing the stacks at a local CD shop in Nagoya when the opening notes of "Devil's Haircut" leapt from the overhead speakers. I froze and thought, "What the hell is that!?"
I knew Beck from his monster-hit "Loser" released a couple of years earlier, which definitely hinted at greater things to come. But Odelay took everyone by surprise. It was an orgy of sound, bursting with ideas. But it wasn't a mess to hear, it was melodic. The sudden instrumental and rhythmic shifts, coupled with Beck's curiously odd lyrics ("Driving my pig while the bear's taking pictures in the grass") made it impossible to ever be bored listening.
I decided to play it for my students in Japan. The teachers gathered the entire student body together in the gymnasium to hear it. About 15-hundred students sat on the floor in their uniforms while I blasted "The New Pollution" from the PA system. Afterward I asked them to write a few sentences in English explaining what they thought it all meant. The responses were utter nonsense, with most of them simply saying "Nice to meet you!"
I decided that's about as good an explanation as anyone could give., both he and Beck began to grow on me. Beck's one of those artists I keep trying to listen to and just can't get into. So I'm trying again, I really am.
Recently Robin raised the old stranded on a Desert Island with 5 albums question. What are they?
Mine are (in no particular order)
The Sunset Tree- The Mountain Goats
O- Damien Rice
The Crane Wife- The Decemberists
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band- The Beatles
Home in Halifax- Stan Rogers
with Josh Ritter's The Animal Years in a very close 6th but much too similar to O for them both to fit on the same island. And O might be my favourite album ever, so it isn't leaving. My list is a bit too singer/songwriter heavy, but perhaps that just gives me both music and poetry to chew on.
What are yours?