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Music for free and the death of the album

I recently got two new albums for (next t0) nothing - In Rainbows by Radiohead and Ray Davies' new album Working Man's Cafe. They're both very good in different ways. But the way I've acquired the albums makes them seem inessential, and I haven't revisited them much.

This time ten years ago it took me a few weeks to save up the money to buy the album Urban Hymns by The Verve. Back in those days(!) you bought the single(s) first and then waited for the album to follow. It was all very exciting. I can still remember heading round to Music World in Newtownards straight after school (parting with £13.99!!) to buy it - getting the last copy he had in stock.

Due to more disposable income I've bought a heck of a lot of albums since then, nearly half of them online, and any new stuffI can download in advance of the release date to hear what they're like before I buy. Only now its just not as exciting. The expectation of waiting for a new piece of music has been watered down by convenience. Radiohead's album was news for a few days now it's dropped off the radar.

New albums have been released this year by some of my favourite bands - Wilco, Crowded House, Bruce Springsteen, to name a few. But I'm bombarded by so much music all the time that I don't get to appreciate new music properly. At times I'm a victim of my own greed for possessing the latest album. I've started selling off some albums I bought simply because I could - what a waste.

I can remember queuing for tickets to concerts as well - the nervous excitement, the bleary-eyed album track discussions with fellow early-morning queuers as the time crawled by out in the cold. Now the die-hards are overtaken by casual fans with high speed internet bandwidths. Queuing is a waste of time. Buying tickets is like booking a flight, or ordering your shopping. Maybe I'm being over-sentimental - but everytime I queued for a ticket I always got one.

I re-lived the Monday release day experience in July when the new Crowded House album came out. I deliberately didn't order it online - and I have actually listened to it more than a lot of other albums I've bought since. This could be coincidence.

Great poem

This is an excellent poem I read on another blog:

The God Who Loves You
It must be troubling for the god who loves you
To ponder how much happier you'd be today
Had you been able to glimpse your many futures.
It must be painful for him to watch you on Friday evenings
Driving home from the office, content with your week—
Three fine houses sold to deserving families—
Knowing as he does exactly what would have happened
Had you gone to your second choice for college,
Knowing the roommate you'd have been allotted
Whose ardent opinions on painting and music
Would have kindled in you a lifelong passion.
A life thirty points above the life you're living
On any scale of satisfaction.
And every point A thorn in the side of the god who loves you.
You don't want that, a large-souled man like you
Who tries to withhold from your wife the day's disappointments
So she can save her empathy for the children.
And would you want this god to compare your wife
With the woman you were destined to meet on the other campus?
It hurts you to think of him ranking the conversation
You'd have enjoyed over there higher in insight
Than the conversation you're used to.
And think how this loving god would feel
Knowing that the man next in line for your wife
Would have pleased her more than you ever will
Even on your best days, when you really try.
Can you sleep at night believing a god like that
Is pacing his cloudy bedroom, harassed by alternatives
You're spared by ignorance?
The difference between what is
And what could have been will remain alive for him
Even after you cease existing, after you catch a chill
Running out in the snow for the morning paper,
Losing eleven years that the god who loves you
Will feel compelled to imagine scene by scene
Unless you come to the rescue by imagining him
No wiser than you are, no god at all, only a friend
No closer than the actual friend you made at college,
The one you haven't written in months.
Sit down tonightAnd write him about the life you can talk about
With a claim to authority, the life you've witnessed,
Which for all you know is the life you've chosen.


Carl Dennis

Thirst for Romance

Thirst for Romance by Cherry Ghost is a brilliant wee album that I picked up recently. North of England alt-country that pulls no punches lyrically. The title track is a poignant story of an elderly (possibly dying) man's plea to be shown some dignity by those around him as he recounts snap-shots of his life. It's one of the most moving songs I've heard in a long time.


Here's the first verse:

Remember me with a smile on my face.
replace the tears in your memory with
two heroic arms that twisted lids from jars
and dragged you home after drinking in the park.

England rugby win again - oh crap!

Can't believe these cloggers have penaltied their way into another final. 14-9 against France.
Please South Africa give these guys a last minute DEFEAT for a change.

Worship Services

I don't want to harp on too much more about modern Church worship, but this is a great quote.

“People at worship services close their eyes and, as ecstasy spreads across their faces, begin to rock rhythmically, arms out, mouthing the lyrics. It’s more than a little sexual and a tad uncomfortable if you’re sitting next to an attractive person who’s been overcome by the Spirit. Worship tunes tend to evince an adolescent theology, one that just can’t get over how darn cool it is that Jesus sacrificed himself for the world… Moreover it’s self centred in a way that reflects evangelicalism’s near-obsession with having a personal relationship with Christ. It’s me Jesus died for. I just gotta praise the Lord.”

This review was written by Andrew Beaujon after he had attended a worship service at the Gospel Music Awards in Nashville in 2005. Beaujon was researching his book Body Piercing Saved My Soul, which he wrote after spending a year researching the Christian Music industry.

Lesser known Dylan pt. 1 - Nashville Skyline

As another Bob Dylan compilation hits the shelves I started to dig out some of his old albums that I started collecting a few years ago. Sure everyone should own Highway 61, Blood on the tracks blah blah blah according to rock critics. But I think some of his lesser known and less critically acclaimed work has its merits. Nashville Skyline is one of them.

How long should an album be?I used to think it should be on average forty four minutes. Or is it based on number of tracks? Love Over Gold by Dire Straits only has five songs but one of those is fifteen minutes and the other four 7 minutes each.

This is a short album clocking in at just over twenty-seven minutes. I think it got a bit of a mauling at the time of release in 1969 for being a bit too insubstantial time-wise and lyrically, plus he veered straight into unfashionable country and western territory. Bob's delivery is pretty odd as well, adopting a strange nasal drawl. I think it works. it's a fun album that doesn't overstay it's welcome in a way unlike an album like Blonde on Blonde that drags on a bit to be honest.

Me, Rick and Gaston listened to it in the car three times in a row one Saturday in June 2006 while stuck behind a herd of cows in Kilkenny. We were on our way to see Bob Dylan play in Kilkenny town with the Flaming Lips and Ray Lamontagne also on the bill. The whole album made sense sitting there in a way I can't explain! The drunken duet with Johnny Cash on Girl from the north country, Nashville Skyline Rag's instrumental shuffle contrasted nicely with our lack of movement, and Tell me that It isn't true mirrored our frustration at arriving late for Ray Lamontagne's set.

There were rumours that Michael Jackson was in town with his kids, having flown in specially to see Bob. It was an odd day - Flaming Lips were a blast - everything that's good about music. As for Mr Zimmerman, it was a curious performance. Strange listening to the crowd singing songs word by word perfectly, only for Bob to sing over them however the heck he liked. Great to say I'd seen him play. At least I think it was him. His on-stage movemenst were a bit "Weekend at Bernie's" at times.