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.

With glowing hearts we see thee rise

Recent events have made me think about High School. Not in a nostalgic, Big Chill, kind of a way (God forbid) but more of a jeez I'm acting like I would if I was in High School kind of a way. Now being 27 years of age, that would be fine if I was starring in a teen drama. But seems I missed out on a role in the relaunched 90210, then that shit ain't cool.

Now I was an awkward kid growing up (sources close to me will argue that little has changed) but I can look back on my silly antics with some sense of humour because really it is what makes me the person I am today (for better or worse).

Only I could think that slow dancing to 'Please Forgive Me' by Bryan Adams with my girlfriend would be the height of romanticism, despite the fact that it was at a school run disco...in the middle of the day...in the multi-purpose shelter. Throw in the fact she soon ditched me because she had eyes for my good friend (or so I was told) and it really is a memory one would rather forget.

Keep in mind it was 1993 and I had just become a teen so you can cut me a little slack.

The same can't be said for the time that I thought the best way into a girl's heart was to buy her a thoughtful present for her 16th Birthday. Unfortunately that thoughtful gift was Alanis Morissette's Jagged Little Pill - the most man hating album of the 90s. Suffice to say the girl did not become mine.

Perhaps I'm not to blame. Perhaps it has to do with the fact that both Bryan and Alanis are Canadian. It is their Canadianess that has made these moments turn into a junior version of Curb Your Enthusiasm, not my lack of suaveness.

I knew there was a reason I fucking hated Tal Bachman.

From now on I am done with the Canadians. I am deleting my Martha Wainwright albums from my iPod and am never watching my DVD of The Last Waltz by The Band ever again. Except for the Van Morrison chapter when they perform 'Caravan'. That's the bomb.

My collection of records by The Tea Party? Gone. That one semi-popular album by The Watchmen? Farewell. Arcade Fire? As much as it pains me.

Time to get this bilingual speaking monkey off my back once and for all.

Now I'm acting my age.