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what's the deal with albums?

after buying a car that has a cd player in it for the first time in 5ish years, i have had a passionate rediscovery in the power of this artistic category entitled "the album." who knew that a set number of sequenced songs by the same artist engaged the listener on so many more levels than hitting "shuffle" on your mp3 player of choice? especially after working in radio where i just listen for the best "songs," i feel like i have not listened to an "album" in "forever." i hate quote marks!

just tonight, i reminisced with jerksica about the jimmy eat world record "bleed american"/"self-titled" track-by-track, discussing in order:

1) "bleed american" - the orgasm song, they let it all build up and squish out in one i-wish-we-were-a-rock-band-not-a-pop-band kind of way. and it's delicious.

2) "a praise chorus" - the promise ring song, where davey coming in at the chorus makes the album sound like it has actual artistic merit.

3) "the middle" - the hit with the underwear video. snoozefest.

4) "your house" - the one-chord song with the annoying boppy bassline. skip.

5) "sweetness" - the demo-was-better song. still genius though in my opinion.

6) "hear you me" - the someone died song. a guilty pleasure slow song. i tear up.

7) "if you don't, don't" - the should-have-been-the-single song. sugary and catchy, only slightly boring, unlike the middle.

8) "get it faster" - the long instrumental intro song. whoa, these dumbasses can play guitar?

9) "cautioners" - the petra haden song. forgettable yet pleasant.

10) "the authority song" - the worst song on the album song. ugh a song about a jukebox.

11) "my sundown" - the innocuous until the finger snaps come in song. skip back to the title track!

i seriously don't think i could do this rundown with any of the albums that were on our top 10 list from last year. this will be goal for this year. to actually listen to the albums i like a lot as albums rather than an amalgamation of individual songs. if i can do it with albums like this one, which i really don't even like that much (or do i if it's so ingrained into my personal music history?), then i should be able to do it with the albums that i really claim to love by the end of the year. right?

  1. Blogger Unknown | 11:54 PM |  

    Borat says, "Snaps do not for make destroy song! Niiiice!" Napoleon Dynamite says, "Gosh, this is so stupid!" Qualler says, "I love/hate/love myself."

  2. Blogger P. Arty | 4:13 PM |  

    Excellent review. I like the format of this post. I'd be interested to see more like it. Do Clarity.

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