Dear Readers,
By the title I think I’ve made it pretty clear what the subject of this post is to be about. However, if you’ve never experienced the frustration of buying an album on a whim, realizing that the music on it is too poppy, slow, or so teen angst-y, that every verse was practically a dear-diary-why-is-everyone-against-me moment, that you send it into hibernation in your i-tunes library; then I think you should seriously question your inability to be impulsive… and waste money.
If the glee of uncovering this said album months or years later and absolutely savoring every track until the last song dies out and the repeat button has long since malfunctioned, is a feeling you have known, then read on! Here are my top albums that have spent a little too long in the cluttered corners of my CD- collection.
1. Imagine Dragons- Night Visions
When I first got this album, the almost nonsensical lyrics didn’t mesh with me; they didn’t delve deep enough to provoke any emotion, especially in tracks like ‘Amsterdam’ or ‘I Don’t Mind’. I got back into them with a ferocious nature when my sister expressed her interest in the band. Now the album is one of my favorites, some tracks may have rather sad lyrics, but they are accompanied by these wonderful ‘optimistic’ beats – I feel really joyful when I listen to this album, it’s quite happy-go-lucky. The song writer depicts taking things into your stride and being, well… optimistic! (Which gives way to the lyrics that tend to dance around the subject instead of describe them fully) My favorite songs right now are ‘Selene’, ‘Tiptoe’ and ‘Demons’.
2. Pop Party 5
A look of disdain is probably spreading across your face as you read the title, but I don’t care! They remind me of simpler times, when CDs like these were played at 5th birthday parties and cake was consumed in overwhelming amounts. With (terrifying) future prospects and obligations that fill me with dread being on the horizon; I can tune in, and zone out, wrapped up in the bubblegum pink paper of childish fancy. These songs don’t explain heartbreak in excruciating detail or lament the terrible decisions we have made; they burst in, and order me to laugh, and smile, for anything that made me dance as a child could never be taken seriously now. Besides… they have the greats: Lily Allen, Take That, McFly (this whole McBusted thing is another collaboration that I will love to loath in the future), Mika! Sometimes I just need to listen to these songs, watch a Disney film, and pull my Teddy Bear (his name is R) out from under my bed… it’s the only way I’ll stay sane!
3. Billy Bragg- Life’s A Riot With Spy Vs Spy
Unfortunately, I can’t get the album cover up on the blog (ah the irritations of technology), but I felt I had to pull out the big guns in order to redeem myself after the 5 year old in me took over to wreak havoc on my (non-existent) musical reputation.
Last but not least, the album that I almost never listened to for a while. Billy Bragg is like the older, more politicized version of another singer I love, called Cosmo Jarvis. When I first acquired this CD, the sum of the tracks I enjoyed were too little to justify my listening of the tracks I couldn’t stand. Those songs didn’t reach me, they commented on society and experiences I am yet to have; it was difficult to identify with the lyrics. Some examples are ‘Fear Is A Man’s Best Friend’, ‘The Cloth’ or ‘The Busy Girl Buys Beauty’. The first song I heard of Bragg’s was ‘A New England’ and I think I wrongly mistook him for a happy-go-lucky singer who would write mostly about early romance and other easily deconstructed topics, and found it difficult to adapt to his way of writing. As I grew older, analyzing his poetry became easier and I realize that his work is passionate and fiery, I couldn’t understand it because I didn’t have a passion of my own. My favorites include ‘The Milkman Of Human Kindness’ and ‘The Man In The Iron Mask’.
So that’s it; the songs that really do need a bit of time and space to flourish into wonderful works of art that will capivate you, so you find yourself listening again and again.
Roseby.
P.S. Not sure of my feelings on the Alice Cooper documentary ‘Super Dooper Alice Cooper’ which has found it’s way to my local cinema. Hopefully I’ll be able to get myself over there and let y’all know what I think!
juvenile hearing 