Today I was back in 2011 listening to ‘Helplessness Blues’ by Fleet Foxes.
I’ve never heard of Fleet Foxes.
Which is a shame because this was an excellent album. I found it neither helpless nor blues.
Wikipedia uses a number of genre categories for this album including one of my favourite – psychedelic folk.
I still don’t know what psychedelic folk is but I always seem to enjoy music described as it.
‘Time (The Revelator)’ by Gillian Welch remains as effortlessly awesome as it was last year.
It is truly a beautiful album.
Terrible for driving! but beautiful and just so well put together.
It’s complex and meaningful.
I don’t even know what I can say about such an excellent album that I’m going to stop talking about it.
Interestingly, she was accused of faking authenticity on this and her previous album. There was criticism that she was singing about experiences she had experienced.
I think there are situations where if you don’t have the experience then acting in a certain way causes problems. I think that was the problem with Hugh Laurie and his blaccent on his album.
Other times, speaking out against something you have no experience of is very powerful…think Patrick Stewart and his campaign against violence towards women.
I think the difference is that you shouldn’t pretend to have the experience but you can still speak to that experience.
However, in order to speak to that experience you shouldn’t contradict someone who has actually had the experience, you shouldn’t overspeak them, you shouldn’t silence them.
I think Gillian Welch is bringing an audience to situations previously silenced and I think that’s powerful and helpful.
Today was a bad day because I had to listen to Justin Beiber’s first EP ‘My World’ which was on the top 100 albums of 2011.
Thankfully, because it’s an EP, it was less than 30 minutes…but it felt longer.
Justin Beiber was like 4 years old (15 in reality) when this album was released so the lyrics to the song ‘Bigger’ are some of my favourites
‘I was a player, when I was little
But I’m bigger, I’m bigger
A heartbreaker, when I was little
But I’m bigger, I’m bigger’
Even more non-sensical than Alicia Keys heartbreak when she was 15.
Anyway, I hated this.
Today I was listening to Tatu’s album ‘200 Po Vstrehnoy’.
I still love ‘All The Things She Said’. Still an excellent song with a brilliant video.
I think I was over-excited about this album last year.
When I listen to Rammstein, it doesn’t matter that I don’t understand what they’re saying. It’s awesome.
This Tatu album is fun but I want to know what they’re saying. I don’t trust the emotion in the album itself. Or, the emotion doesn’t overwhelm me like Rammstein does.
It’s good but it’s not the greatest!
Last year when I listened to Scorpion by Eve from 2001, I claimed that the skits on this album were more acceptable because they didn’t involve calling women sluts. I also worried that I would eventually find these skits distracting.
I did remove this from the playlist before the end of the year.
This year, I agree that the skits, like all skits on albums, distract from the music so much that I don’t enjoy the album.
I was worried by song three, because I didn’t like the first song and then really sang along with ‘Who’s that girl?’ and ‘Let me blow ya mind’. I worried that I had been distracted by the awesomeness of those two songs and had overrated this album.
It also appears that I listened to a version of this album last year that played me a clean version of ‘Let Me Blow Ya Mind’; this year I listened to the not-clean version. This meant that in places where I was used to silences I now had the N word. And it was upsetting because it’s a two-syllable word being forced into a one-beat space as if Eve was so desperate to use it that she just forced it into any space she could find.
So, I was very right to remove from the playlist. There are two awesome songs. A couple of ok songs – although, at least one of those just had an excellent sample and it would be hard to take excellent songs and sample them into a terrible song.
I didn’t dislike ‘Asleep in the Back’ by Elbow from 2001 when I listened to it today, however, I honestly didn’t think it was as great as I thought last year.
The song I recognised was good and the rest of the album was fine. It did make me feel very sleepy though, to be honest.
So, as you know I was watching the end of Lucifer before beginning series three of The Umbrella Academy. Guys! The end of Lucifer plays Welcome to the Black Parade by My Chemical Romance. The lead singer of My Chemical Romance wrote The Umbrella Academy. Good times.
Anyway, so far, 1.5 episodes into The Umbrella Academy, I’m not as addicted to it as the first two series but potentially, when things start forming into a storyline a bit more I’ll be into it.
I re-listened to Dolly Parton’s album ‘Little Sparrows’.
This remains an excellent album. The more I listened to it the more I like this album.
This is the reason why it’s so important that I reduce the number of good albums on the playlist and only allow great albums.
This album hasn’t been played enough on the playlist because of all the goodish songs taking up space.
Today I listened to ‘Exciter’ by Depeche Mode from 2001.
Last year, I wrote that the Deluxe edition that Alexa plays is too long and the second part is terrible. I said that only the songs from the original album should make it onto the playlist.
Today, I just let the Duluxe album play, which it kept doing forever. It’s far too long.
While I liked this album last year and put it on the playlist at some point, I took it off again.
It’s very Depeche Mode but there is a reason why Depeche Mode songs don’t normally get onto my playlists. I think they’re good when you need Depeche Mode but they’re not everyday listening.
It’s very cool that today I would listen to Dashboard Confessional’s album ‘The Places You Have Come to Fear’.
When I listened to it last year, I mentioned My Chemical Romance and The Umbrella Academy.
And today is the release day of the 3rd series of The Umbrella Academy!
I’m excited to watch it but I’m not watching it because I have three more episodes of the sixth series of Lucifier to watch. OMG! without lockdowns, how am I meant to keep up to date with all of my TV shows and cricket and Good Mythical Morning?
It’s a good job that ‘The Places You Have Come to Fear’ is only 30 minutes long.
It’s a good 30 minutes though!
I was right to keep this on the playlist and I’m glad to hear it again.
Today begins another stretch of re-listens to 2001 albums. Last year when I listened to ‘The Big Surprise’ by The Elms I put it on the playlist and then at some point last year I removed it.
No idea why. This is an excellent and surprisingly good album. In many ways, I was surprised.
A review of the album says that the album ‘gently hints towards God’ which is a super nice way of saying it takes some time to work out that they’re singing about God.
However, really enjoyed it. I don’t understand why I took it off the playlist to be honest.
Rubik Cube of Mim 