What I Wish I Had Known
Top 12 CDs that I've downloaded and should probably buy since they're too damn good:
1)In The Aeroplane Over The Sea - Neutral Milk Hotel
2)Slanted and Enchanted - Pavement
3)Doolittle - The Pixies
4)Bows and Arrows - The Walkmen
5)The Soft Bulletin - The Flaming Lips
6)Crooked Rain Crooked Rain - Pavement
7)Anniemal - Annie
8)Bee Thousand - Guided By Voices
9)Bossanova - The Pixies
10)Original Pirate Material - The Streets
11)The White Album - The Beatles
12)69 Love Songs - The Magnetic Fields
The list was just a reason to talk about the album at the top of it. I'd never heard of Neutral Milk Hotel until I saw it on Pitchfork's Top 100 album of the 90s. They'd ranked it 4th behind:
1) OK Computer - Radiohead
2) Loveless - My Bloody Valentine
3) The Soft Bulletin - The Flaming Lips
and while I was very familiar with the top album and at a point in my life where I was only vaguely familiar with albums two and three, the fourth album was a mystery. Wow, Spin never mentioned this band, I wonder what their deal is. (I have since learned the depths of Spin magazine do not begin to scratch the essential music of the world.)
Anyways, I managed to obtain a torrented copy of the album and on first listen thought, "Track one wasn't so bad, he's got an interesting voice and I'm really liking the solo acoustic guitar, oh wait, there's an accordian too, that's cool and something that sounds like weird clarinet thing. This is pretty mellow stuff, it's not bad. And then, "I LOVE YOU JEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESUS CHRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIST!!!" WTF? I wasn't quite sure what was going on, guitar, drums and the lead singer seems to have to turned into a Newfie for a couple of lines. And then things pick up and now I'm very confused which is followed by a horn instrumental. We've got songs that seem to be referencing World War II, Anne Frank, the tragedies which consume our lives, spirituality.
The only girl I've ever loved
Was born with roses in her eyes
But then they buried her alive
One evening 1945
With just her sister at her side
And only weeks before the guns
All came and rained on everyone
Now she's a little boy in Spain
Playing pianos filled with flames
On empty rings around the sun
All sing to say my dream has come
Holland, 1945
I didn't get it the first time and I definitely didn't get it the second time but I stuck with it, probably because of the considerable heft it holds in the indie world. And in time this album has probably reached top five status for me and the thing is that I'm not sure why. It's good, it's really good but I can't quantify it. It might be my musical ignorance speaking or something else that I lack but I'd like to think that I know good when I hear it and this is good. I guess that I'd have to say that I find it vulnerable and this vulnerability for me allows it to connect on a level that few pieces of music or art can.
The rather un-pitchfork like review of the album. i.e. Toning back on the pretentiousness.
1)In The Aeroplane Over The Sea - Neutral Milk Hotel
2)Slanted and Enchanted - Pavement
3)Doolittle - The Pixies
4)Bows and Arrows - The Walkmen
5)The Soft Bulletin - The Flaming Lips
6)Crooked Rain Crooked Rain - Pavement
7)Anniemal - Annie
8)Bee Thousand - Guided By Voices
9)Bossanova - The Pixies
10)Original Pirate Material - The Streets
11)The White Album - The Beatles
12)69 Love Songs - The Magnetic Fields
The list was just a reason to talk about the album at the top of it. I'd never heard of Neutral Milk Hotel until I saw it on Pitchfork's Top 100 album of the 90s. They'd ranked it 4th behind:
1) OK Computer - Radiohead
2) Loveless - My Bloody Valentine
3) The Soft Bulletin - The Flaming Lips
and while I was very familiar with the top album and at a point in my life where I was only vaguely familiar with albums two and three, the fourth album was a mystery. Wow, Spin never mentioned this band, I wonder what their deal is. (I have since learned the depths of Spin magazine do not begin to scratch the essential music of the world.)
Anyways, I managed to obtain a torrented copy of the album and on first listen thought, "Track one wasn't so bad, he's got an interesting voice and I'm really liking the solo acoustic guitar, oh wait, there's an accordian too, that's cool and something that sounds like weird clarinet thing. This is pretty mellow stuff, it's not bad. And then, "I LOVE YOU JEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESUS CHRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIST!!!" WTF? I wasn't quite sure what was going on, guitar, drums and the lead singer seems to have to turned into a Newfie for a couple of lines. And then things pick up and now I'm very confused which is followed by a horn instrumental. We've got songs that seem to be referencing World War II, Anne Frank, the tragedies which consume our lives, spirituality.
The only girl I've ever loved
Was born with roses in her eyes
But then they buried her alive
One evening 1945
With just her sister at her side
And only weeks before the guns
All came and rained on everyone
Now she's a little boy in Spain
Playing pianos filled with flames
On empty rings around the sun
All sing to say my dream has come
Holland, 1945
I didn't get it the first time and I definitely didn't get it the second time but I stuck with it, probably because of the considerable heft it holds in the indie world. And in time this album has probably reached top five status for me and the thing is that I'm not sure why. It's good, it's really good but I can't quantify it. It might be my musical ignorance speaking or something else that I lack but I'd like to think that I know good when I hear it and this is good. I guess that I'd have to say that I find it vulnerable and this vulnerability for me allows it to connect on a level that few pieces of music or art can.
The rather un-pitchfork like review of the album. i.e. Toning back on the pretentiousness.
