i am dissatisfied with all of my music
Music once played an inordinately large role in my life. Then, for long and complicated reasons, it didn't. In the last five or so years I've been back in the musical swing of things—music is
important to my writing process and so forth—but I've been in a rut. I had the same six CDs in my car for well over a year, and was quite satisfied with them until I realized that I had the same six CDs in my car for well over a year and I should probably get off my duff and swap them out. But with what? No six-CD combo from my collection
worked anymore, so it was sports talk radio and NPR for me. I'd occasionally try again, cycle through six CDs, then six more, and so on, but to no avail.
Then I got the brilliant idea to actually go to the music store! I got some stuff, wasn't too thrilled, sold stuff back and so on. It's not that I have specific tastes (one look at the tracks stored on my laptop would tell you that!), it's just that I haven't found anything spectacular to replace the things I
really like.
Here's what I've bought recently, and my reactions:
- The Killers "Hot Fuss"
- Franz Ferdinand
- Travis "The Invisible Band"
[for all three above: eh. Didn't dislike, but not car-rotation-worthy.]
- Morrissey "You Are the Quarry"
[eh. I guess my Morrissey/Smiths phase really was over long ago.]
- REM "Around the Sun"
[I've always liked REM. I wasn't terribly thrilled with this CD. Probably not car-rotation-worthy]
- Gerard McHugh "Tales of Madness and Horror"
[Anyone who knows me knows that I think Gerard is one of the greatest American songwriters ever. Ever, I tell ya. Not "greatest singer"...he's got one of those voices you have to get past, bless his heart. But seriously, if you ever have a chance to get his CD
More Than I, it's a keeper. Or at least read the lyrics. The man can turn a phrase. Anyway, I got this CD just because it's a few years old and I didn't want to have an incomplete discography. But I wasn't terribly thrilled with it, and I am sad about that.]
- Patrick Park "Under the Unminding Skies"
[A year ago, I heard an interview on NPR with this Patrick Park fella, who had just released his CD
Loneliness Knows My Name. That CD was one of the omnipresent six CDs in my car, and it's a really, really good CD. I got the "Unminding" EP just for discography completeness and not really for musical quality—it's the indie EP that helped him get his "real" deal so it's a lot of earlier versions of songs, etc.]
- Twilight Singers "Blackberry Belle"
[Since Jan 2001, "Twilight as Played by the Twilight Singers" has been one of my favorite CDs. It is a featured CD in my "music to write by" playlist, and to think it was a random find, not by me! Twilight Singers is basically Greg Dulli of Afghan Whigs fame. Voldemort*, with whom I was spending a lot of time in 2001, ran across this CD at a listening station and brought it home, whereupon it fell into everyday work and play rotation. I stole this particular CD from her before all things went to shit (it's only fair, since four of my CDs ended up not returned to me!) and despite the connection, I still love the CD. Anyway, "Blackberry Belle" is a 2003 release that I never got around to buying, and I like it as more music for the writing times, but not a car CD.]
So, I still have no new music for the car. I may just go back to those same six CDs.
* In the Harry Potter series, "Voldemort" is name of He-who-must-not-be-named, and in my blog it's the name I'll be using for She-who-must-not-be-named, although if I could, it'd be a great story. Damn personal ethics.
