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| From | "Josh Chasin" <jchasin@nyc.rr.com> |
| Subject | A little personal mental re-calibration, if you'll indulge me |
| Date | Sun, 16 Jan 2005 02:32:16 -0500 |
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You can stop reading when I've bored you...
I've been looking at everyone's lists of 2004 faves-- its interesting how there seems to be a consensus that it was a good year for music, even among people who liked totally different sets of releases. I guess there's some kind of phenomenon where the whole tide rises (unfortunate tsunami reference unintended.)
One thing I think I've learned with age is that after you listen to enough music, you know what you like, and what you don't. Another is that when you get right down to it, in rock'n'roll there's really nothing new under the sun (Liked Gang of Four? You'll love Franz Ferdinand!) So you kind of know what you'll probably like, and what you probably won't. Assessments of best albums can therefore really only be subjective (which is why I dig the Audities poll; it is a collection of subjectivity, and so a systematic methodology for presenting one version, not of objectivity, but of consensus. The results are generally solid as a result.)
I listened to Franz Ferdinand at a Tower listening station last week. It did nothing at all for me. Just aint my cup of Joe. I wasn't surprised (and I have had no exposure to the hype; I'd read one interview with them, in some fanzine, and otherwise only know them from this listserv.) Similar experience with Green Day; I hear people raving about it, see it scoring high here (I'm guessing SMiLE and Green Day end up 1 and 2 on the Audities poll, and Franz Ferdinand is a good bet to take #3.). I bought American Idiot because it seemed like I should check out such a magnum opus, a Who album for our times as it were. But whatever appeal it has (and I've no doubt it has great appeal), it is inevitably going to be lost on me. I even tried to read the libretto, since it is a rock opera and all. I fell asleep.
See, it loops back to my first point about knowing what you like, and what you don't. Personally, I have never, ever liked punk rock. Not from 1976, when I first heard of it, and not since. Now, its cool if you do; I have no intention of dismissing it from being a cathartic art form just because it doesn't happen to speak to me. Similarly I don't care for opera and rap, and I respect each of these genres as well. I know that a case can be made that it is impossible to tell where power pop ends and punk begins. To me though its like pornography-- I know it when I see it. And I know what I like.
I know I'm the geek and you're the hipster. I'll even (heresy, I know) admit that I also don't get the Sex Pistols or Ramones, could never understand wanting to listen to them. I do like Elvis Costello, Talking Heads, and Television; but then Elvis's discography probably has as much in common with Gershwin as with Johnny Rotten; my quintessential Heads album is Remain in Light, which is as punk as Motor Booty Affair, and "Marquee Moon" reminds me of Crazy Horse.
My point here isn't to be curmudgeonly about punk; quite the opposite. My point is that we all have different tastes, different sensibilities. One guy loves SMiLE and can't abide Green Day; the other thinks American Idiot is the first great album of the century, and SMiLE is goofy retread hippie music. Turns out we're both right. In fact, I bet there is no one band anyone could name, that someone else here wouldn't raise her or his hand and chime in, "I never cared for 'em." Kinks, Big Star, Cheap Trick, Beatles, Badfinger, Who, Beach Boys, Shazaam, anyone.
I already picked up the Nellie McKay from recent postings, although I haven't broken the seal yet. I suspect I'll pick up the Elliot Smith, and probably one or two more when the final tally is posted. I listen to a lot of music that falls way outside the power pop idiom-- I'm betting my bootleg collection of Allman Brothers and Grateful Dead concerts is the most extensive among us-- but as a person who never listens to the radio, I rely on this list to tip me to great music. I've bought a personal clunker or two along the way, but the gold in them thar hills has far outweighed the chaff.
Final plug: I notice less mentions for Tan Sleeve's Bad From Both Sides than I would have thought. Tan Sleeve, of course, is the current vehicle for Lane Steinberg and Steve Katz, musical partners in the late lamented 80s power pop quasi-legends the Wind. Its out on Bus Stop, I think, and maybe it didn't get the push it deserved, but I think this is a hell of a likable record; nothing trendy or hip, just solid songcraft and great singing and playing. Beatles, Beach Boys, Big Star, Bacharach being the touchstones. But then, many of you probably dislike at least one of those acts...
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