February 3rd 2009 03:21 pm
I just looked through a bunch of year end top ten lists (thanks to popdose) and jealousy rose that some people can listen to and retain a large enough number of albums that they feel like they have a legitimate opinion of what the top ten albums might actually be.
By a quick count, I obtained about 45 albums released in 2008 and I know that about one-sixth of them I got after the year was over. I haven’t absorbed any of those and I hardly remember much of anything about at least half the rest. At least. I know what the new records from Hayes Carll, The Old 97’s, Amanda Palmer, Murray Hammond, The Submarines, and The Smoking Popes sound like because I saw them all in concert and I listened to their new stuff obsessively. I’d know the Handcuffs, too, because of a concert, but I can’t claim to have obsessed over their album, I only listened to it a handful of times. I barely remembered that the Long Blondes put out a new disc this year, mostly because I only liked Guilt from it. I own two Mountain Goats releases from 2008 and I didn’t remember that John Darnielle had put out anything this year until I looked.
Maybe I should start keeping a log of the new for the year albums. Goodness knows I have enough issues with relative time (I still figure out what year things happened by relating them to their position my mental timeline relative to the Cubs collapse against the Marlins in 2003. Seriously.) that I could use some grounding. That and my ability to relate music to other music has long been suspect (read: nonexistent), and I have the hardest time with recommending music to other people, probably because I don’t listen to it critically often enough; ear-pleasingness has been plenty good enough for me for a long time (longer than 2003, not as long as 1981, when Reagan was shot [also, same day I was born, for those wanting to play that home game]).
On second thought, that might be too forward thinking and progressive, and might institute some change in my life.
Hold up, someone’s handed me a slip of paper, let me read it.
Oh.
Okay, I guess I could stand to have some forward thinking, progressive change. See, we have this new President…
(no, that’s still not old to me yet. deal.)
As a very side note, can someone make it so we get a new National Lights album this year? Also, um, Placebo, Pony Up!, and Postal Service? None of those slackers put out any new albums in 2008. Yes, I’m willfully ignoring that Ben Gibbard did put out something new this year (also, why is “ben gibbard girlfriend” the fifth most popular search when I typed “ben gib” in my Google bar? Seriously people.)
No Comments yet »
