I love new music. Sometimes I feel like a shark -- I've got to keep constantly looking for what's just come out, what's coming out, what's hot, etc. But then there are those Old Favorites.
I'm not talking about the albums you revisit thinking, "Yeah, I want to hear that again..." or "I think I liked that whole album... lemme try it on again." No, I'm talking about those albums you put on and you don't actually have to listen you -- you feel them in your soul.
This morning I put on Soul Coughing's "Ruby Vroom" and the grooving bass felt like my pulse. Mike Doughty spits out lyrics and my mouth reflexively, silently, mouths all the words. It's instinct.
There aren't a lot of albums that fall into this category for me -- it's a more rarified elite even than what I call "desert island albums". No, these aren't the ones I would grab to take if I could only have a handful of music, these are the ones that are intrinsically part of me.
The aforementioned "Ruby Vroom" as well as "Irrisistible Bliss." Counting Crows "August and Ever After" and "Recovering the Satellites". Cracker's "Kerosene Hat". Neko Case's "Fox Confessor Brings the Flood". Finally, and most recently, "Bitte Orca" by Dirty Projectors. These aren't albums, they're friends.
Does this ring true for anyone out there? Do you have albums that are a part of you or am I just pathetically bizarre in this regard?
Comments (2)
It is absolutely not just you.
We've talked about this on the show extensively, how when I get into a band, I _GET_INTO_ the band, and I listen to their album(s) obsessively over and over again. At some point, the music, and my response to it, becomes spinal: I can't stop myself from singing along, or tapping my foot (much to the displeasure of my coworkers.)
Because I've cut a much narrower, but deeper, musical net than you have, I probably have a higher ration of Desert Island Albums to Everything Else than you do, which makes it hard for me to select just a few because most of what I've listened to has fit into this category at one time or another. Having said that, probably the most intense examples of this for me are the first five Led Zeppelin albums (who would have guessed?!) and the first 3 albums by Nine Inch Nails (Pretty Hate Machine, Broken, and The Downward Spiral) and to a lesser degree their respective singles and remixes.
Though, I do have to agree about Ruby Vroom; that is such a fantastic album start to finish, despite the fact that it doesn't have my favorite groove (Note: not necessarily my favorite song) by Soul Coughing: Super Bon Bon. What a wonderful bass line.
I totally understand your comment about how you don't "listen" to them anymore, you "experience" them.
Oh, jeeze. I haven't even mentioned the first 4 Metallica albums. Those would absolutely qualify for me as well, especially Master of Puppets, which is IMHO when they reached musical maturity without going too far out there.
So yeah. You're speaking my language here, Jordy. Definitely not just you. :-D
-Mark
Posted by Mark | February 22, 2010 9:37 AM
Posted on February 22, 2010 09:37
For me there is usually some crossover between the albums "you feel" (as Jordy described in his post) and really good albums that I happen to discover or rediscover at critical parts of my life. For example Toad the Wet Sprocket's "Fear" landed in my collection many years ago at a time where a couple of the songs happened to correlate with things going on around me, and has therefore earned its place as one of those albums that is something of an experience to listen to. (And it's not just those particular songs, it's really the entire album, as one whole unit.)
Other albums don't have that kind of emotional connection, but are musically excellent all the way through, with each track not only being good by itself but also fitting in with the rest to make the entire collection one long listening pleasure. One example of that for me is "Dark Side of the Moon."
I haven't found many albums like that in the last few years, but I don't think that's because they're not out there. I think for me it's an issue that I rarely listen to entire albums all the way through like I used to. MP3 players and changing technology means my music is usually served up to me pretty mixed up by artist/album/genre instead of presented as an coherent album. (that's a totally different topic, though....)
Posted by speed | March 20, 2010 9:58 AM
Posted on March 20, 2010 09:58