SwoonSilversun PickupsOrder of songs I fell in love with over years of listening:
Catch & Release >
Panic Switch >
It's Nice to Know You Work Alone >
Sort Of >
The Royal We
There's No Secrets This Year is a phenomenally strong opening for an album.
I have very distinct memories of listening to this album on my Truthear Pure IEMs while walking around parks and beaches alone at night.
Sometimes oscillating between laughing and crying about my whole life as it went by.
BaysideBaysideAnthony Raneri really kills the vocals here.
There are few albums that make me wanna run 5km while singing at the same time.
One time rocking out to and singing Tortures Of The Damned by myself I was brought nearly to tears by the realization that I wanted to create a space where I could share this song with the people I love.
That I wanted to listen to this album and sing and drink while cooking dinner for them.
I then thought that image was a good reason to work harder.
WithdrawFreshAn album warm like a summer alone.
I think the lyrics of New Girl speak for themselves,
[Verse 1]
Woke up last night
With tears in my eyes
Because I am fundamentally
Unlovable
Packing an overnight bag
Wish I could never come back
Was it really that bad?
Oh, I don't know
[Verse 2]
Got up before the sunrise
It was so early, there were no cars on the road
Cram my bare feet into trainers
I'm getting cabin fever
I'll take the backroads
Where I go, no one knows
Always the new girl
Endless sorrow
Woke up last night
With tears in my eyes
Because I am fundamentally
Unlovable
Packing an overnight bag
Wish I could never come back
Was it really that bad?
Oh, I don't know
[Verse 2]
Got up before the sunrise
It was so early, there were no cars on the road
Cram my bare feet into trainers
I'm getting cabin fever
I'll take the backroads
Where I go, no one knows
Always the new girl
Endless sorrow
DummyPortisheadWhen you listen to this album it is immediately apparent that it is as painstaking a construction of sounds as one can make.
However whenever I find myself listening to it,
it feels on some essential level devoid of emotion,
almost like auditory wall-paper.
This echoes John Berger's remarks on Pollock,
where he called his work (in my words,
not his) like wall-paper.
I don't think this passage necessarily applies to Dummy,
however it is worth reading regardless.
Imagine a man brought up from birth in a white cell so that he has never seen
anything except the growth of his own body. And then imagine that suddenly he is
given some sticks and bright paints. If he were a man with an innate sense of
balance and colour harmony, he would then, I think, cover the white walls of his
cell as Pollock has painted his canvases. He would want to express his ideas and
feelings about growth, time, energy, death, but he would lack any vocabulary of
seen or remembered visual images with which to do so. … These gestures might be
passionate and frenzied but to us they could mean no more than the tragic
spectacle of a deaf mute trying to talk.
— John Berger, Permanent Red (1960)
Dummy is pure aesthetic,
it is an architecture one feels by existing within.
Even if there are nominally words which do mean things,
this is not the primary avenue through which one feels things about this album.
This is in contrast with songs off Music Has The Right To Children,
which while entirely electronic communicate deeply intricate emotional transitions.
And isn't that what a feeling- or living,
is?
Phenomena in time!
Perhaps this is what makes Dummy just so sad!
It is as still an experience as one can have while still experiencing,
as close as one can be to listening to a sad static tone without literally being repetitive.
It is another flavor of way to free-trial death.
Imagine a man brought up from birth in a white cell so that he has never seen anything except the growth of his own body. And then imagine that suddenly he is given some sticks and bright paints. If he were a man with an innate sense of balance and colour harmony, he would then, I think, cover the white walls of his cell as Pollock has painted his canvases. He would want to express his ideas and feelings about growth, time, energy, death, but he would lack any vocabulary of seen or remembered visual images with which to do so. … These gestures might be passionate and frenzied but to us they could mean no more than the tragic spectacle of a deaf mute trying to talk.
— John Berger, Permanent Red (1960)
VacancyBaysideI started on this album from an audio message (which was just The Ghost) sent to me by my friend (and ex-girlfriend) on signal.
I listened through it on that train to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.
My whole airport experience,
flight,
and my time in Montreal after,
were largely cast on a backdrop of listening to this album repeatedly on my IEMs.
At least until I lost one of them when I was hit by a car,
fucking Montreal drivers,
absolutely the worst drivers of anywhere I have been.
Also the lyrics are greatly contextualized by this bit from Anthony Raneri's Wikipedia page.
Off The LeashThe Real McKenziesAt a sad moment putting this album on reminded me what's important.
The first track and most popular song off the album was initally played for me by a friend I first met in Montreal,
sitting outside as it got cold in that spring.
The primary music I remember sharing back on that occasion was The Ghost off Vacancy by Bayside.
Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm NotArctic MonkeysThe View From The Afternoon and I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor are probably the two best songs Arctic Monkeys have written. Although I have more hours listening to AM.
