I'm one of the many pieces fallen on the ground

As a counter punch to my previous post, if the Counting Crows never release another album, I will be happy in the knowledge that this is the final song in their catalogue.

Step out the front door like a ghost...

Start, a photo by jakeandlindsay on Flickr.

Openings are a special thing. A great opening will stick with you forever, especially when the end product is not quite the masterpiece that its beginnings suggest.

Though it lasted just a season, the opening scene from Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip re-affirmed my love for Aaron Sorkin's writing, even if he didn't hit it out of the park every episode. It was as if Sorkin set the bar so high for himself it was impossible to better. Though the Christmas Episode was something special.

The dry wit of Garrison Keillor is not for everyone but he nails the opening line of Pontoon his novel about the fictional town of Lake Wobegon:

"Evelyn was an insomniac so when they say she died in her sleep, you have to question that."

The rest of the book is fine without being brilliant. If anything, the above line proves that Keillor's tales of Lake Wobegon are better heard than read via his radio show A Prairie Home Companion. If you are after something funny and light for 15 minutes a week then I suggest you subscribe to the 'News From Lake Wobegon' podcast.

As far as opening salvos go, my favourite belongs on the first album I ever fell in love with. To the casual observer, August & Everything After will forever be remembered for bringing radio staple 'Mr Jones' to the world. To those of us who stuck with Counting Crows, the opening track 'Round Here' is year zero.

Adam Duritz has often been labelled a mopey, petulant rock star and whilst someone like Morrissey wears it like a badge of honour, Duritz wears it like a millstone. But everyone gets a free pass on their debut and this song about growing up allows Duritz to let it all out emotionally.

Here I present to you a cathartic live version from only a few years ago.

No correspondence will be entered into #2

An instruction in swordplay
Originally uploaded by Myrrien

An ongoing series of lists where my word is final. The first list can be found here.

We mere men have a competitive streak that is both our strength and our undoing. Far too many times we let the mutual attraction of the opposite sex get in the way of long lasting friendships. Other times we are simply competing with random strangers in a bar for your attention.

To illustrate some examples of our foolishness, I present to you my top 5 songs that deal with this very problem (in chronological order).

5. The Girl Is Mine - Michael Jackson & Paul McCartney

Fromage of the highest order and you wonder how this managed to be the first single from Thriller. Still, it is the most obvious song on the topic. Sung here in a slightly different context by Stephen Colbert & John Legend:




4. Mr Jones - Counting Crows

Whilst the breakout hit by the Counting Crows is about wanting to be a big star, its backdrop is a bar where two friends disagree on who exactly the beautiful women there have eyes for. Which leads us into...

3. Key West Intermezzo (I Saw You First) - John Mellencamp

"I saw you first
I'm the first one tonight
Yes, I saw you first
Don't that give me the right
To move around in your heart
Everyone was looking
But I saw you first"

2. Everybody Here Wants You - Jeff Buckley

White hot funk that was light years away from his debut album, 'Everybody Here Wants You' only hints at what Buckley would have been capable of had he survived his swim in the Wolf River.

1. She Says - Howie Day

Debate still exists whether this song is about an ex-boyfriend talking to her new boyfriend, a male friend (who wants to be her boyfriend) talking to her latest beau or a variant of. Regardless, it contains the sobering line: "And when she says she wants somebody else, I hope you know she doesn't mean you."

I haven't really absorbed that one yet: Why 2008 was the musical year of meh

DVDs and CDs
Originally uploaded by Canton Public Library (MI)

Someone or something was to blame for my lack of enthusiasm for music in 2008 but I am reluctant to point the finger.

The easy thing would be to blame the iPod because it is a defenseless object that can't fire back at me. Unless Steve Jobs knows something I don't.

Last year I bought 24 new release albums. Adding in singles, EPs, albums I didn't pay for and the now popular 'Exclusive Track Not On The Album' (for artists that no longer have singles to facilitate B-Sides) and I had somewhere in the vicinity of 400 new songs on my iPod for the year.

Considering I no longer work in music, that isn't too shabby an effort (a new album every fortnight on average). Keep in mind this doesn't count some excellent back catalogue pickups that I either bought (You don't own Van Morrison's double live set 'It's Too Late To Stop Now'? What are you doing here?) or were kindly loaned to me (Gracias to Senor Gillespie for Springsteen's Tracks).

My problem, as shallow as it is, was that I never gave myself the time to listen to it all and I fear that some great music was missed or at least not appreciated enough.

Due to the ease of switching to different tracks on the iPod, I often fell into periods of listening to old favourites that I had owned for years. As such, the new albums that I should have been thrashing were being neglected as I loaded up Whiskeytown's Pneumonia for like the millionth time.

I'll admit some purchases were duds (a solo Jakob Dylan album is as dull as you would imagine it to be) but on a whole I picked up albums that I knew I would like...eventually.

Here then are a few albums I really need to give a second chance:


Counting Crows - Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings:

I'm a Crows fan for life so my opinion will be subjective. I enjoyed the album but not to the scale of Hard Candy or Recovering The Satellites. Was it that the songs weren't as immediate? I remember my fading interest on side 2 of 1999s This Desert Life but that was pre-iPod so I would listen to the album from start to finish no matter what. Something I may need to do again with this album.


Bloc Party - Intimacy:

I have already spoken about this album elsewhere but now, post-purchase, I am at a loss to know what to make of it. It feels disjointed at times and brilliant at others ('Talons' is a great song). To me it feels like a reactionary move to criticism leveled at them after A Weekend In The City, an album I quite enjoyed. I think the band has immense talent but they need to go to ground for a while and think about what type of band they want to be. Not what everyone else wants them to be.


Michael Franti & Spearhead - All Rebel Rockers:

I am not a fan of reggae. This is something my friends are very much aware of and it is a subject I will explore much further at a later date. Franti's albums all have some level of reggae/dancehall in them but this one has by far the most. Yet that isn't what has stopped me from enjoying it. I think Franti is best enjoyed in warmer climates and this was his first album released since I moved to chilly Melbourne. Now it is summer I think it is time to give All Rebel Rockers its due.


Martha Wainwright - I Know You're Married But I've Got Feelings Too:

This album suffered from the old chestnut 'great first single that artificially increases expectations' syndrome. 'Comin' Tonight' set the scene for a brilliant set of songs that delicately straddled critical and commercial success. Sadly that was not the case. Maybe in a renewed light I can appreciate the album without comparing it to its shining opening salvo. Does win the award for best album title though.