Tuesday, February 12, 2008

All-Time Favorite Albums, part 2

Well, I said I'd be back the next day, and alas, I wasn't. So now, more than a week later, I continue my list of all-time fave albums. In English (too tired for French).

[Disclaimer: These albums are in not in order of preference; they are randomly ordered.]
3. Destroyer - Your Blues



The first time I heard this album was this past summer. Ah, summer. The season when one has an infinite reservoir of time with which to do whatever one so desires. How did I choose to spend it? I dedicated, eh, I'd say about 70% of time to listening to music. Downloading albums, reading reviews, discovering new artists, etc. I worked 30 hours a week at the WTY library, and the majority of my time at work was spent listening to music. I listened to more music at work than I did at home.

Anyway, the first time I heard this album was at the library. I was retrieving books from the stacks for Book Express. Kind of a strange setting for a music-gasm, but alas, that's how it happened. I had a music-gasm in the library. (Don't worry - music-gasms are not as conspicuous as they seem.) I simply could not believe what I heard. Dan Bejar held nothing back in creating this album. The vast scope of instrumentation is ridiculous, but it works. He's got a full-blown symphony goin' on. It's gorgeous. But at the same time, even though there's a lot going on, there's a refreshing simplicity to this album. I feel like when I listen to it, I've entered into an alternate universe. The sounds are cold, icy, metallic, unfamiliar. As unfamiliar as it was to hear it for the first time, as blown away I was by how truly unique it is, the defamiliarization was also magnetic. For me, it was different, but I understood it. Sometimes you listen to an album/artist and think, "I just don't get it. It's too out there. I don't understand it, and I don't like it."

This is not one of those albums for me. On the contrary - it made me fall in love with Dan Bejar. And for me, Your Blues is his best to date.

Key tracks:

"Notorious Lightning"

"It's Gonna Take An Airplane"

"New Ways Of Living"

"Certain Things You Oughta Know"


4. Andrew Bird - Andrew Bird & The Mysterious Production Of Eggs



Andrew Bird is, second to Radiohead, responsible for my "musical awakening," as I like to say. I heard this album for the first time a year ago. I remember exactly - I was in the car with Jenny, and we were driving back from a visit to...crap, where were we. OK, so I don't remember exactly. But I do remember that I was in the car with Jenny. And actually, the first song that I heard was "Masterfade." And I remember thinking that it was like a musical painting. Like a dream. The way that the his voice, the lyrics, and the music interact, especially in "Masterfade," it truly creates vivid images in your mind. And as I listened to that song, it was very surreal, because I felt like I had entered into a daydream, into a life-size painting, a la Mary Poppins (you know that scene? The carousel horses, penguins, etc.?).

Music had never before done that for me, not until Andrew Bird. And I couldn't tear myself away. I had to hear "Masterfade" three or four more times that day in the car. And then I listened to the rest of the album, and all the other songs did the same. They all have a magical quality that can't be articulated. Not to mention the fact that the Bird absolutely kills on the violin. I mean, he's just unparalleled. He's that good. Which of course I can't deny, because I have a soft spot for the string family (violin, viola, cello, bass violin...all of 'em).

Also: he kicks ass live. Saw him last April. Met him. Have paper and photographic evidence. Immediately after, I peed/cried with excitement. No big.

Key tracks:

"A Nervous Tic Motion Of The Head To The Left"

"Fake Palindromes"

"Masterfade"

I would write more right now, but my computer is acting up (shock) so it'll have to wait at least until tomorrow.

Donc, a tout a l'heure, tout le monde!

2 comments:

serenade4him said...

Amy-Love 'Masterfade'. I think that and 'Fake Palindromes' are my fav Andrew Bird songs. Also, Ok Computer is the best Radiohead album by far!

serenade4him said...

Ames-Love "Masterfade". I think that and "Fake Palindromes" are my fav Andrew Bird songs.