I was planning on posting a blog about Endo, but I love it so much, I don't want to write about it unprepared. I only have a short window to use the computer today, so I'm just going to post a journal entry I made before this year started:
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I was going to do my annual “Top 5 Album purchases of 2007” until I saw an inherent problem, which in turn made me a little concerned about my future lists because this problem would probably still exist years and years from now.
I’m talking, of course, about piracy.
From the second we got a DSL connection, my CD purchasing immediately experienced a major downturn. It would be easy to say that I’ve sold out to piracy; that buying original CDs out of purist spite just went out the window. But the thing is that, apart from My Bloody Valentine’s “Isn’t Anything” (which came with their entire discography, including their uber-rare EPs; what d’you want me to do? delete them and pretend they weren’t included?), The Radio Dept’s “Lesser Matters” (which isn’t available online nor in freaking Amsterdam, so I had an excuse), I didn’t really download anything that I could’ve bought if it were available.
I can’t say that this was because it wasn’t a very good year for music. The past years were not so great either, but at least I got a hold of some decent old titles. Which finally made me wonder: have I finally done it? Have I finally got all I ever wanted since high school? It seems implausible, until you browse my music folder which has every single fucking recording Stereolab has ever put forth (oops, a couple more violations – “Emperor Tomato Ketchup” and “Peng”). And it also doesn’t help that Music One stores have been closing down left and right, accelerating a CD-extinction process that began with the demise of Groove Nation and CD Warehouse (God, I miss 1994).
So like any living organism; I must adapt. And so should my annual list. This year, instead of guiltily coming up with a “Top-5-Albums” list made up of 60% pirated material; I’m going the “Top-10-Songs” route. The rules just aren’t as stringent when it comes to individual songs. For years they have been drifting through radio stations, mix tapes, compilation albums, and movie soundtracks. Sure, now they creep through some friend’s phone or I-Pod, but what’s the difference? (and even if there was one, it’s easier to ignore in this case)
10. “Sunday Morning” – Acid House Kings
Ahhh…the return of the lazy afternoon indie-pop anthem. Listening to this song makes me nostalgic for the first time I heard “Before I Came” by Club 8. God, I miss being jobless.
9. “Goodnight and Go” – Imogen Heap
I know it’s downright cheesy and perhaps even embarrassingly adolescent, but why did it take more than four decades of pop music history for someone to come up with the lyrics: “Why d’you have to be so cute? It’s impossible to ignore you. Must you make me laugh so much? It’s bad enough we get along so well”? And dammit, I’m not embarrassed to like this.
8. “Don’t Look Back” – Teenage Fanclub
A classic Fannies tune; listening to this song reminds you everything you like about this group and simultaneously makes you wonder why the whole insane “Post-Rock” thing has to happen when good tunes still and forever will work.
7. “I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor” – The Arctic Monkeys
It’s number 8 on this list, but it’s number 1 on my all-time workout soundtrack; it’s not even a contest. You’re huffing and puffing, you’re heart-rate is possibly flirting with a mild stroke, you’ve already pulled a hamstring, and before you know it, you’ve burned an additional 50 calories. But you don’t care, you continue to run as if being chased by a couple of mad dogs through the streets of London. And the Arctic Monkeys are actually from some place north. It’s that good.
6. “Charlotte” – Hope Sandoval and the Warm Inventions
This, on the other hand, would be this year’s number 1 off the “Stressed-out-fucked-up-just-want-to-go-to-sleep” list. If you thought Hope’s vocals were exquisitely playful in Mazzy Star’s “Bells Ring”, you’ll have a seizure listening to this one. Or probably an orgasm. Same thing.
5. “Bastards of Young” – The Replacements
I think it’s safe to say that my Paul Westerberg Rediscovery Project has finally reached its conclusion after downloading The Replacements’ full discography. It’s unbelievable how good music can be when it’s done by guys who innocently try to make good tunes and just rock out (and in this case, “innocent” could also mean “intoxicated”). It’s so fucking simple yet Radiohead still goes out of their way to create non-music while half of the current indie rock movement on both sides of the Atlantic follows suit. I’ve been playing this song loudly in the latter part of this year, trying to pretend that it’s a new single, and the most important release since “Smells Like Teen Spirit”. At least in my tiny back-catalogue-searching universe, it is.
4. “Always A Relief” – The Radio Dept.
Simply put, the best “British Indie” sounding song I’ve heard, probably since The Field Mice’s “Landmark”. I don’t even care that The Radio Dept. isn’t British. The fact that this is a 2006 song and not a rediscovered 1991 single makes me so happy, I want to cry. God bless these fey Scandinavians.
3. “Medicine Bottle” – Red House Painters
Wow, this can’t be happening. The first depressing song on the list, and we’re almost at the end. Jesus Christ. It must’ve been an awesome motherfucking year! Right?! Right???!!! I’ll stop right here in case 2006 Alex is reading this.
2. “Off Your Face” – My Bloody Valentine
Speaking of rediscovered 1991 songs…well, this makes me want to cry too, but mainly because it can’t be 1991 anymore, and I can’t be 13 anymore, when songs like this were sprouting up left and right. And I should’ve heard this then, or at least in ’93 or ’94 (when it was actually possible, since Groove Nation was still around), because I adore this song now, imagine if I heard this when I was 15. This would’ve been enough to wet my pants, I swear to God.
1. “Love Me Like the World is Ending” – Ben Lee
If 2006 Alex is indeed reading this, he must be thinking: “You’re new favorite My Bloody Valentine song (which is actually an insane concept I still can’t fathom) is a mere number two on this list??? Second to a song by some third-rate Evan Dando wannabe and it happens to be his most unabashedly mainstream song to date????? He even ripped-off Snow Patrol’s “Chasing Cars” in the guitar intro, which is such a sad thing to try to rip-off in the first place!” Well…fuck you, 2006 Alex. Get over whatshername, and get over yourself, you pathetic fuck. I don’t care what you think. Because here’s what I think: this is the best mainstream pop song I’ve heard since Lisa Loeb’s “Stay”. You know how you still like that song years after you stopped liking Lisa Loeb? Yeah, thought so. And in the chorus, Ben Lee sings: “Please me with your promises and hurt me with your lies.” Name me another song in this decade that sums up the last eight years of your life this succinctly. Yeah, fucking thought so. And you’d be happy to know that I fell in love with this song during late October, where all our pleasures, whether guilty or not, are usually born. You know what? Come to think of it, 2007 wasn’t that bad.
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