Cloud Nothings, "Attack on (my ears) Memory"

On any given night hundreds of bands play live in Chicago at venues big and small. With so much live music available, I make an effort to go out and see performances as often as I can. This past week I seized a last minute opportunity to attend a show at Lincoln Hall (one of my favorite spots.) I didn't know a lick about the headliner Cloud Nothings but was excited to hear them play if for no other reason than they hail from a city that is near and dear to my heart. Likewise, I didn't have any expectations great or small for the Cleveland based band. Yet, one thing is for certain, it was an experience. A very, very loud one.

The show was an aggressive post punk experience. Had the music been louder and more forceful it would nearly have been unbearable. I guess i'm not hardcore enough? It just seems to me that when the music is that loud it becomes hard to discern what you're hearing. Melody is distorted, lyrics unintelligible and guitar solos pointless. Somehow the mosh-pit of frenzied youth (vigorously nodding to the beat like possessed bobble heads and pushing each other in circles like dervishes of teen angst) didn't seem to mind at all. Nor did one clearly middle-aged man who was on the upper deck bobbing, jumping and fist pumping as though he were in the mosh-pit below. He probably would have been, but I don't think his date would've liked it very much. In any case, before you get the impression that I totally hated the show let me say that really I didn't. Seriously.

I was in a pretty bad mood before I saw the show. Blame it on my own residual teen-like angst. So when I recovered from how loud it was and stopped giggling in awe at the absurdity of the mosh-pit, I started to get in to the music. The result was an oddly cathartic punch in the face that left my ears ringing and me feeling curiously emptied of all that negative energy i'd been dragging around all day. It was as if it was all being acted out on stage. If my anxiety made noise, it might sound something like a furiously thrashing guitar.

I know what you're thinking: "Duh, that's the point!"

And maybe, you're right. But wait, No. There is more to this experience.

After the show I listened to Cloud Nothings latest album, and must admit I enjoyed it more than the live show.

Why?

1. I could hear the singers voice and the lyrics with clarity.

2. I could hear the guitar solos, not just the drums.

3. The Songs had dynamic variety, building from soft to loud, a facet missing from the live renderings.

4. The songs had great energy, and were still balanced in their delivery.

5. I wasn't distracted by the spasms of rabid fans.
6. When it was over, I didn't have a headache.

I'm left wondering, why can't this balance be harnessed in live performance. I know, in any genre, that  is a challenge to achieve the right levels in live performance but seriously...someone needed to turn that shit down.

To be fair, this music really isn't my schtick. It has an assaulting quality that can excite you, but seems driven by its energy rather than it's content. I can appreciate it, and listen to it in moderation but other than stacking it up to my own taste, i'm not the best person to scrutinize it.  The lyrics, when you can hear them are pretty standard indie fare. With compelling one liners, thoughtful verses, occasional metaphors and just enough ambiguity we can be convinced that they are on to something deep. 

I can't be critical of the lyrics.

The only lyrics I could make out clearly all night was "No Future, No Past" from the song of the same title, which incidentally is also my favorite track from their newest Record "Attack on Memory." They used the song as an encore, and clearly recognize it's value to their set. It was one of the few instances in which they scaled back on the volume and started in more hushed tones. Not surprisingly, the muted approach with a simple but accentuated guitar solo was met with an uproar of applause. I had to smirk to myself thinking "of course everyone loves it when you can actually hear what the guitarist is playing."

I guess they were saving it for the end?

It is fitting that Cloud Nothings is committed to living in the moment, because I fear for this bands staying power. They've got something to offer the music community but in a few short years they are likely to be replaced by another College start-up with a fresher breed of disquietude.

Until then, if you attend one of their live concerts, bring ear-plugs.

"The Waking Sleep" by Katie Herzig

I want to write an album, like this album.

Those that know me well, are likely aware that my latest hobby has been cultivating my guitar playing and songwriting skills. I am an absolute wannabe, and I want to be a strong, insightful songwriter like the ones I love and appreciate so much. Let's add Katie Herzig to that list.

I cut my teeth on Katie's latest album The Waking Sleep which infuses her heartfelt songwriting techniques with experimentation in digital music. 

Favorite Tracks

"Free my Mind" The song comes alive with a steady opening beat that pulses immovably as Katie weaves lyrics around electronic additions: typewriter sounds, simulated marimba, keyboard effects, egg shakers, high hats and various ticks and clicks. By the midpoint of the song it has fully developed and climaxes in a jubilant bridge that resounds the words "Never had my mind made up, until the bomb dropped." The strings and percussion bounce under the lyrics urging you to sing along. As the song plays out the percussion pares down little by little and synth strings stretch out underneath allowing a buoyant ostinato to take center stage.

"Way to the Future"  The way to the future is "Orchestral Pop." Katie proves this easily by her application of the genre in this song. It is delightful to hear a string quartet employed in both a percussive and harmonic way in this driven, uplifting track. Here again we see electronic music utilized in conjunction with more traditional instrumentation. The effect is a soundscape in which the individual instruments blend together so seamlessly that the create one "wall of sound." The voice is heavily filtered and doubled making it become a part of the broader musical texture.

More from this Artist
After enjoying The Waking Sleep I couldn't help but explore Katie's other music. Listens to earlier albums like Apple Tree and Weightless reveal that her artistry is rooted in a folksy, guitar centric sound that is in compliment her intuitive lyrical ability. By this comparison The Waking Sleep reveal a fairly dramatic shift in her sound. Digging deeper I discovered that the change can be attributed to a shift in her career, as she wrote the album after a significant stint writing music for TV and film (including Gray's Anatomy, Drop Dead Diva and Sex and the City 2. The assignments forced her to add structure and breadth her writing. The album has stronger more lyrical melodies as well as more developed accompaniments and musical textures. It is a natural progression given that most new artists lack the resources to produce albums with full accompaniments or a full host of experienced collaborators. The Waking Sleep is a culmination of Katie's growth artistically as well as her career successes which have allowed her to produce an album with more bits and pieces.

Though I touted the benefits of vinyl in my last blog, there is an immeasurable benefit to the technological leaps that have been made recently through Internet engines like Pandora and Spotify. Spotify played a key role in my discovery of Katie Herzig. The feature of note is the sites ability to suggest a list of artists that you "might like" based on their similarity to artists you have played. This has been a superlative way for me to discover artists that are new to me (like Katie) and are exactly my taste. I've loved taking suggestions from friends and picking albums at random, and I will certainly continue to do so, but this week I needed to find something that was going to satisfy what I've been craving. Katie Herzig satisfied my hunger for intuitive identifiable lyrics, and bright melodies with which I can sing along.

"Kill the Moonlight" by Spoon

Prologue

It has been a few weeks now since I began my "New Album Hunt" and with a few album  posts under my belt i've been feeling the need to shake things up a bit. It occurred to me last week that never before in my life have I seen as many record stores in a relatively small vicinity as I have in Chicago. I then thought of the movie High Fidelity which exaults vinyl as a "fetish property." The shop in the film was fashioned after a record store in Chicago, not unlike several that are only short walk from my apartment.

John wants you to buy Vinyl.

However, this post is not about that movie. I only mention it because it helped to inspire my method of album selection this past week. (The reference has absolutely nothing to do with my John Cusack obsession. Not at all.)

Instead of taking a suggestion from a friend I opted to toss the dice and go to one of these many record stores to buy a record I'd never heard of before. I chose Logan Hardware on Fullerton Ave. not only because it is nearby my apartment, but because its back room contains a vintage arcade museum which is pretty much the coolest thing ever.

But Why Vinyl?

Why swap instantaneous access to digital media for something as tedious and bulky as a piece of vinyl? The simplest answer: It sounds better. While digital media has revolutionized access to music, and the ability of independent artists to record and distribute their own music, it has done so with a real sound cost. Debate it all you like, the sound quality of music recorded on vinyl is better and more complete. It's science. The simplest way to explain my own limited understanding of it all, is as follows: Music is at its most basic a series of vibrations. Our ears perceive music in Herz, the unit of measurement that describes the frequency of the sound waves created by music. When we listen to recorded music we are listening to a recreation of those sounds waves. Analog recordings, like vinyl records, recreate those sounds waves in a different manner than digital media. With me so far? The sound waves that come from analog recordings create the same smooth waves you would hear naturally from an instrument. The smoother the waves the more information comes through; information like overtones and tone quality in the music. Digital music compresses and converts the sounds waves to bits. The waves become less smooth, pixelated even as the bits recreate the waves. Think of how high operatic notes sound on a youtube video. The shrillness, is in large part because the media cannot smooth out the waves to effectively capture the overtones.

In this manner, digital media is inferior. However, not all digital media is created equal. The higher the bit rate of the digital media, the smoother the curve.

Science aside, there is something romantic about holding a record in your hands. The large album artwork glistening under the careful plastic casing. The satisfying tactile experience of carefully unwrapping it and sliding the sheath out to reveal a shiny, flawlessly grooved virgin record.

It's a moment that can't be recreated by logging in to Spotify and clicking a button. And so, I entered the world of vinyl and christened my own collection with the purchase of Kill the Moonlight by Spoon.

Take one.
I can't express the excitement wrapped up in hearing this record for the first time. It was like buying a dress before trying it on. Would it fit? Would I like it? I found pleasure in the risk. I'd never heard of Spoon before but I was drawn in by the melancholy outstretched hands on the cover and aggressively emotional title. I examined the track list as if it were a window into the soul of this record. "Something to look forward to," "Don't let it get you down" and "All the pretty girls go to the city" drew my attention and I was ready to commit to this album.


My intuition made me confident this album would resonate with me. Oddly enough, my first listen through was an unfocused blur. I recall the strong drum beat of the first song, followed by a strong line-up of lyrically driven tracks. Tamborine clashes. Strong piano chords. Hand-claps. Synthesizer. Classic Indie Rock. It all left me a bit glazed over. I was vaguely disappointed, but I put the album away and went about my week.  Had my experiment failed me? Was this the unfortunate risk? Did I like this album or not?

I was supposed to be having this amazing vinyl experience. Romantic. Moving. What was wrong? It was like a first kiss that lacks the fire you anticipated and leaves you feeling nervous and unsure of yourself. But I wasn't about to give up on this record. I was not about to give up because experience has taught me, that some music takes time. Music isn't always about instant gratification. My state of mind and ability to receive the music was just as important as what the music had to offer. I wasn't ready for this album. I needed to shake off my uneasiness and start it over. Back to the A side.

Take Two.

The album feels incredibly seamless. One track moves easily to the next stimulating the senses with songs that bring forth new ideas while remaining stylistically unified. There is a sprightly optimism about the record. I didn't feel challenged by the songs, they were honest and straight forward in their confident and consistent cheerfulness. The lyrics are thoughtful and poetic, but maintain an appropriate distance from any raw emotions. This distance allows you to listen, and recall emotions without reliving them. I enjoyed the songs most when I was able to play them underneath me as I worked on other activities. Cleaning my room. Doing the dishes. Spending time with friends. When I would sit down with the tracks and follow along with the lyrics, I was not as fulfilled as I hoped to be.

Favorite tracks

"The Way we Get By"

"Stay Don't Go"

"Paper Tiger"

"All the Pretty girls go to the City"

Concluding thoughts

It took me a really long time to understand why I'd had a false start with this album. Long enough, in fact, that I delayed this post because I wasn't satisfied with any of my conclusions. In the end my best answer is that I was too melancholy and depressed for the cheerful, masked emotions it contained. When i'm in that state, only raw, unguarded emotions will reach me. Leave me alone with my tell it like it is acoustic singer songwriters. When i'm in this state, as I often am, masked feelings concealed in energetic indie rock leave me frustrated. I'm left feeling like I didn't get it. I spent most of my listening knowing that I liked this music, but frustrated because I couldn't feel it. It doesn't matter how good an album is, if you aren't in an emotional state conducive to its style and message, it won't give you what you are craving. As the album cover suggested, I was left seeking something that was just out of reach.

Coming up next week, an album by Katie Herzig.

"Rock Dust, Light Star" by Jamiroquai

Are you ready to get funky?

I got funky this week with Jamiroquai's Rock Dust, Light Star. Nothing could seem less likely for me to love than acid jazz that sounds like it belongs on the soundtrack for Austin Powers, Goldmember. But did I ever love it. The music is undeniably groovy and put a smile on my face with every listen. It certainly provided me with much needed break from the heavy emotional through lines I typically seek in my music choices.

Jamiroquai is UK based jam band featuring elements of funk, disco, jazz, soul and electronic pop. Their success as a band has spanned an incredible 20 years and they are still actively performing. Their first single was released in 1992 and their most recent album, Rock Dust, Light Star, in 2010. Musicians from the group have come and gone over the years but lead singer Jay Kay's falsetto vocals have remained a constant fixture and unifying part of Jamiroquai's musical identitiy. For music that lays in such a specific niche, it's incredible that they've never gone out of style and maintained a fashion-proof sound.

Jamiroquai is a portmanteau of the word's "Jam" and "Iroquois"

Listening in Stages

First, I listened to the album casually, once through. From the downbeat of the first track I delighted in the upbeat rythyms and funky bass lines. The music made me smile and feel good on a very basic level. Despite its newness, it has a retro sound that made me feel nostalgic for a time in music history that easily predates me by 30 years. It's like digging into your parents records and finding something amazing that leaves you wonderstruck at the notion that things this cool existed long before you were a twinkle in their eye. Of course, the music is new and only a reflection of a time gone by, so it's nostalgia is fabricated. Still, its ability to make me feel this way is a mark of it's musical integrity and stylistic authenticity.

Then, I listened again, with more intention, and began to hear the music. I would isolate certain tracks and listen to them a few times through, picking out individual nuances, guitar riffs, and lyrical one-liners . This brought forth the band's obvious talents and magnified my respect for them. As I worked my way through the album in this manner, my favorite tracks emerged.


Finally, I allowed my familiarity with the music to guide my intellectual and emotional exploration. As I listened to the songs I allowed my mind to wander and form questions about the music. Then I sought out the answers to the questions my mind had formed. What does "Rock Dust, Light Star"mean? Is it a drug reference? Would I like this album even more if I were high? Can I relate to the lyrics in "Hurtin'"? Do all of Jamiroquai's albums sound similar to this album? Why does this song make me want to wear my sparkly tank top and dance around in my underwear with the windows open? All important things to consider.

Once you build a familiarity with a body of music or a particular song, you start to experience the lyrics and understand the intention behind the tracks without having to try so hard. The music becomes easier to listen to, less labored and you start to feel like you know it. When you begin to know music in this way, you can take ownership of it. It is now your music.

Completing my ownership of the music involves reading lyrics, researching the band, exploring their other albums, reading what others have written about them and finally incorporating the music into my life and various daily playlists (if it is so deserving.)

To be sure, this process of exploration cannot be completed in just one week. It is ongoing. Each time the music is revisited something new will emerge.


Favorite Tracks

"Rock Dust, Light Star"

"Hurtin'" This is a jazz track through and through. The music is kissed with melancholy but still kinetic and full of energy. All the hurt is worked out in the music and poured into the lyrics triumphantly.

"Smoke and Mirrors"  Once the bass line dropped on the track I was instantly reminded of Stevie Wonder's "You Haven't Done Nothin.'" The interplay between the rhthym, brass and electric guitar are in similar taste. The use of wordplay and storytelling in the song is also reminiscent. Jay Kay's vocal tone is less bright than Stevie's but every bit as agile. Clearly the legend was an inspiration for the modern incarnation.

"Lifeline" 

Concluding thoughts...

As I listened this week I kept thinking "I don't think i'm supposed to like this music." It's exactly the sort of gimmicky funk that should send me snickering in the other direction. Right? But it had a much more positive impact than I anticipated. It just goes to show that you should never judge music by it's labels or allow yourself to form preconceptions. Gimmicky or not, Jamiroquai is a lot of fun and i'm enormously glad that I looked past my skepticism to give this jam band an honest listen.


(Big Thanks to Jon Metcalf for this weeks album suggestion.)

Coming up next week: "Kill the Moonlight" by Spoon on VINYL!!!

"Young & Old" by Tennis

"We could be good but we don't live the way that we should, constantly told we're imperfect and cannot be good."

It is a strong and compelling statement that cuts to the quick. How could I not relate?  This lyrical candor appeals to every cathartic bone in my body as I am an avid lover of songs that grab on to my emotional fibers. Yet, all week I struggled through this album. With frustration I tried and tried to connect with the music. It is catchy, the lyrics are well versed and there is an inherent likability to all of the songs but I couldn't get beyond the discrepancy between the songs' lyrical messages and the way they sounded. Unfortunately most of the songs sound too happy for the depth of their lyrics. I crave the cathartic release of Sad songs. Intense songs. Angry songs. Romantic songs. It's over-all pleasantness doesn't hit home for me right now. Yet neither can I cast it off. It made an impression on me, scattered, unfocused and distracted as my listening may have been. The album stands on poetry and rhythm even when the two fail to meet.

Denver based husband and wife duo Alaina Moore and Patrick Riley became Tennis with the release of their first album Cape Dory in 2011. Young & Old, their second album, debuted earlier this year. Preliminary listens to Cape Dory reveal it to be a travelogue featuring lo-fi beach pop sounds, comprised of songs the couple wrote together whilst honeymooning on a boat trip. Tennis has an unusual, nearly retro sound that fuses soulful jazz, do-wop and classic pop with relative ease.

My biggest grievance with the album, is its lack of musical variety. The songs are tune-ful, upbeat and easy to listen to, but as an album their relative sameness is a point of weakness. However, despite their lack of multiplicity the songs are well executed. Had they lacked charm and quality this album would likely have been cast off as a gimicky "sophomore effort." They do not apologize for their winsome charm but harness it to create music in its own niche.

The soft, vulnerable honesty in Moore's voice is soothing. As I listened this week, I found myself wishing for her, what I, as a singer, wish for myself. Namely, that she find more "ugly" in her sound. "If she intoned her sound with a little raw grit it would amp up the dramatic intensity!" The pairing of her ultra feminine sound seems an odd choice for these songs. Yet, who am I to fault her for owning her own, pretty vibrations? She is a light soprano, like myself, and is utilizing her voice in a way that is most natural for her. Perhaps if we want a gritty vocals we best look elsewhere.

Favorite Tracks...

"It all feels the same," the album's first track, is a subtle opener. The repeated guitar progression underscores the first half of the song accented by a single tamborine. It grows in breadth at its midpoint with the rousing addition of a pop drumbeat. The repetition of both musical and lyrical themes emphasizes the existential crisis of finding that "everywhere I go it's all the same" and reconciling that "we could be good but we don't live the way that we should."  At first there seems to be little grit in the song, but when it picks up in tempo and voracity it successfully delves deeper into the lyrics' meaning. It reminds me of how trapped we are by our vices and flaws. You may seek solace and intervention from relationships, but it will always feel like the same old shit unless you enact change in yourself. As for me, I will always be insecure in relationships if I do not solidify my ego. I will live with the perception that I fall short. I will continue to seek validation in others and come up empty handed. I will allow myself to be misused and blame myself for feeling hurt. I will live with the frustration that no one understands me. That's a lot for a song that is ironically exuberant.

I spent a major part of my week wracking my brain to figure our what song "It all feels the same" reminded me of. At first I thought it was an Adele song, but after sifting through a few playlists I knew that wasn't right. I finally realized that it uses the same key, chord progression and rhythmic patter as "Dog days are over" by Florence and the Machine. It is extremely satisfying to accurately spot that sort of thing in songs. It reminds me that all music is related and that I can trust my ears. This realization is exactly the sort of thing that makes for good mash-ups.

"My Better Self" stands alone as beautiful poetry. The words dance through the music and is the strongest lyrical and musical pairing on the album. It has such wonderful and complex images. I'm still deciphering some of the references. To me it speaks of a desire to understand all that surrounds us. We all have wisdom, but we often fail to comprehend meaning. We use symbols and words to express ourselves, actions too, but how often do we find clarity? Moore's supple voice repeats "My better self still knows that meaning comes and goes, what is it made? I do not know, but meaning comes and goes" Perhaps the ultimate wisdom is accepting that we will not always find meaning. Just as meaning comes and goes, so too do feelings and values. Life is fluid, constantly evolving. We more often than not, fail to express ourselves accurately with words. "Despite the effort I have planned, you seem to have lost what i've meant." My "better self" would be wise to accept the symptomatic meaninglessness that comes and goes throughout our lives as well as our capacity for misunderstanding each other.


Concluding thoughts.
I wanted very badly to love this album as a whole, but the truth is, for the reasons I mentioned, much of its meaning and intended impact was lost on me. Individual tracks spoke to me and their merit is evident. I will likely include these tracks on a summer playlist. As for the rest, it is pleasant filler. Well executed but without weight.

(Week 2 album suggestion come from friend Jason Saini, via the absolute wonder machine that is Spotify.)

"Set Yourself on Fire" By Stars

Week 1 of the "New to Me" Album hunt kicks off with a suggestion from Mr. Owen Lowery.

Set Yourself on Fire by Stars

Set Yourself on Fire debuted in 2004, and is the third album by Canadian Indie band Stars. The thirteen track album features the familiar sounds of indie rock creatively interspersed with rich orchestral textures and electronic layers. While the use of so many different sounds makes it difficult to pigeon-hole the album, it often bears the classification of "Orchestral Pop." Indeed most of multi-genre infusions are extremely well incorporated but at times the transitions between indie pop sounds and electronic riffs lack continuity and seem overworked. Since I am not familiar with the bands earlier albums it is hard to say whether or not this is their first attempt at such experimental combinations or if it is part of their usual aesthetic. Criticisms aside, Set Yourself on Fire excels through songs that stick to more conventional approaches and propel the lyrics to their full dramatic potential.

The album opens with the epigram...

"When there is nothing left to burn you have to set yourself on fire"

As I'm sure it was intended, these words stayed in the forefront of my mind throughout my listening. They possess a haunting quality that forewarns of the emotional depths that emerge as you dig into the album's core.

The album is a road-map of past relationships whose songs carry us to cathartic destinations; stirring joyous and painful memories alike. It is a proper soundtrack for the hopeless romantic expecting to find solace in sentimental lyrics and tales of relationships that were as beautiful as they were flawed.

As the first track on the album, "Your Ex-Lover is Dead" captures its spirit by telling of two lovers who meet after a long separation only to discover in unapologetic fashion that their love has died. It is a musical celebration of that moment when you realize that you have grown beyond your ex-lover and can accept with calm resolve that something, once beautiful, has come to a deserved end. Strings and brass evoke a jazz-like feel that blossoms into an electronically infused pop ballad continuously grounded by the cello's arpeggiated theme. The vocal chemistry between lead singers Torquil Campbell and Amy Millan is not only a highlight of the album but also a dramatic compliment to its first song. They take turns telling the story from their individual perspectives and join together in harmony to proclaim "live through this and you won't look back." The songs that follow seem to take us back in time to moments that preceded this last encounter. "Sleep Tonight" hypnotizes with synthesized sounds and "The Big Fight" and "He Lied about Death" fire us up reminding that in music, frustration and angst are best expressed with dissonance and wicked guitar riffs.


Other Standout/Favorite tracks... 
"Ageless Beauty" is an optimistic valentine to the invincibility of romance which can only be sullied by our foreknowledge that its not going to end well. The track is all pop and not much else with a final reiteration of "we will always be a light" that seems to fall emotionally flat because of its misguided confidence. We know better.


"One more time" ...if we needed reminding that this album is about love lost, this track brings us back to center. Amy Millan delivers the lyrics with superb emphasis and enunciation. It is so nice to hear her voice exposed with minimal competition from the musical accompaniment. The bass line of the song acts like a heartbeat, propelling the song forward as layers are added and taken away with various degrees of dramatic emphasis. Together they sing "One more night, we'll never be friends. One more night, that's all we can spend." How does one make love knowing it will be the last time? The long outro gives us time to ponder the answer and time to remember how the memories of happy moments make the last moments even more somber.


"The First Five Times" is a refreshingly upbeat and satisfying recollection of making love (for the first five times.) It makes you want to smile and poke fun at the unusual circumstances of your own sexual encounters that may or may not have blossomed into relationships. The addition of electronic percussive effects is well executed and lends to the general excitement of the subject matter. As the song builds in intensity we are gently reminded that however magical these moments may have been they are no more. The singers candidly harmonize "And everyday, it's changed since then. In every way, I've changed since then."


I promised to fess-up if a song brought me to tears. In all fairness I was pretty tearful all week. It's hard to say if the tears I shed while listening to this album and reading it's poetry were solely induced by the music or if i'm just a hot mess. Methinks it's both. It's hard not to relate emotionally these songs. The combination of specific imagery with universal one liners is skillfully achieved. As I struggled through the highs and lows of my week I was surprised to find that my least favorite songs "The Big Fight" and "He Lied about Death" prompted the strongest feelings of sadness and discomfort. I was equally surprise that songs I passed over time and time again as I listened and re-listened snuck up on me and choked me up at the last possible moment. It took nearly 10 listens for me to realize that I am the "Calendar Girl" from the last track. This shows that sometimes songs discover you, and when that happens, the imprint is indelible.

Tidbits...
Below is the Album art for the European Vinyl edition. Would you not agree that there is an androgenous quality to the art? The pink ski mask and blow torch are a nice touch but the overall image seems awkward and unsettling. It is, however, vastly more inventive than the album cover which is often criticized for it's predictability.

According to wikipedia the album was written jointly by the band members while they lived together in a rented house for a month or so. I'd love to have been a fly on the wall in that house, which was no doubt a boozy, shoot the shit, bitch about old relationships, jam session which resulted in this introspective album.

The songs from this album have been remixed and released as  Do you Trust you Friends? (pictured below.) Having given it a preliminary listen, It is exactly what it sounds like. The members of Stars gave their musical friends license to tweak their work and the result is pretty awesome...perhaps even better than the original.

Both albums, original and remix, are available on vinyl. I had the wonderful opportunity to listen to the album on vinyl at least once through and it really is incredible how much more you get out of that format.

All in all, i'm enormously satisfied with this album experience. I love how the music revealed itself to me and I was impressed with how the complexities of the instrumentation challenged me to listen in new ways. Undoubtedly the subject matter was right up my alley, and very appropriate for my current state of mind. Throughout the course of the week I had moments of optimism and joy and crippling moments of sadness, fear and insecurity...the album withstood it all and offered me poignant commentary at each juncture. As always with music, hearing is easy but listening is hard. Listening requires focus and a willingness to let the music speak to you, even when it makes you uncomfortable.

"Live through this and you won't look back"

Coming up next week...
Young & Old by Tennis.

The "New to Me" Album Hunt.

"Omigawd hey! Have you heard of <insert amazing band name here> ?"

"No."

"Oh...well...<amazing band name> is going to be playing at <awesome hipster venue> next Friday. Wanna come? Wait...nevermind you haven't heard of them so you probably aren't intersted."

"Really?"

For someone as musically inclined as I have always been my knowledge of great bands and music albums is sadly lacking.

Theoretical hipster who is critical of me.
Probably hanging out at the Wormhole. Right now.

In my defense, my parents didn't buy me cassette tapes or CDs very often so by the age of sixteen, I probably had a totally of 25 CDs including such visionaries as...

 

(I didn't know he was gay when I rocked out to "The Animal Song" on the bus in middle school. awkward teenage crush.)

The rest were movie soundtracks and musicals...and that. was. it. Needless to say, knowing all of the lyrics to "I knew I loved you before I met you" and "Say my name" nor the ability to recite 95% of Disney's Mulan, has really helped me become a better musician. As a music major in College I learned heaps about music (more than I'll ever remember) classical in my classes and more pop an indie favorites through the technilogical sensation that was ipod library sharing with fellow musicians. However, with a few exceptions, I never got the hang of listening to and appreciating the complete album.

Well, those days are no longer. My goal for the next 20 weeks (and beyond) is to listen to one new album each week. The only stipulations are that...

1) It must be an album that is "new to me"
2) Once chosen, I must listen to the album completely
3) I must blog about the discoveries and experiences I have in the process

Let's be honest friends. Blogging is hard. So i'm going to need some help. What you can do is suggest albums for me to feature each week. As long as its "new to me" it qualifies, and remember once I choose it, I have to listen to it... Although you do get bonus points if you can suggest an album that brings me to tears.

I fucking love crying. With music. (and sweaters)