Albums2010 Revisited: August and Everything After
A long time ago, in a blog that's far, far away now, I decided I was going to listen to 100 Albums. It occurred to me at the time that with music becoming so digital then (and even more so now) we were drifting further and further away from the concept of the album. People weren't listening to music that way anymore and I wanted to explore and in some weird way, fight the power that was sweeping us all into digital subscription-based services and away from physical media.
That was fifteen years ago and here is the post that started it all. (And here is the complete list of the original run-- which took me far longer than my original plan of one year.)
What's changed since then?
In fifteen more years, this might seem like a delightfully quaint notion, but I am starting to wonder if physical media might be making a comeback? Vinyl never quite went away but now seems to be making a comeback. There are people who steadfastly refuse to read anything on a Kindle (I can go either way, but the pro-physical book people aren't wrong: there is something about the weight and heft of a book in your hand, not to mention the smell that you just can't get on Kindle.) Maybe I was wrong fifteen years ago and maybe people never stopped loving the concept of the album-- for sure, if younger generations keep the vinyl wave going, I would imagine more and more people are going to own more and more albums.
We can't look back on these past fifteen years without thinking about Taylor Swift either. Her decision to re-record her albums and issue 'Taylor's Version' of nearly all of them so far has proven to be a savvy business decision on her part, but it forced individual albums into the cultural zeitgeist in a way that I don't think has happened for awhile.
I'm probably wrong about all of this. Let's just say that I'm restarting this to celebrate the 15th Anniversary of one of my more consistent blog features and it's basically just an excuse to buy more vinyl and listen to it.
So, let's start where it all began for me, long ago:
August and Everything After. (#14 in the original run, posted June 23rd, 2010.)
I purchased this on cassette from a Sam Goody in the Sycamore Mall. It's not there anymore and I believe a Hallmark occupies the space it used to be in. Cassettes seem like such an insane thing to think about these days, but they used to be on the wall in racks that ran vertically up and down the wall. I think I purchased this, Fleetwood Mac's The Dance and Hootie and The Blowfish's Cracked Rear View. And those were the first three albums I ever purchased.
At the time, I wanted this album for one song. 'Mr. Jones' was everywhere on the radio that year and Q103 seemed to have it on heavy rotation. The opening chords were instantly recognizable. (Wikipedia says "it describes the desire of working musicians to make it big and the fantasies they entertain about what fame might bring.") But the interesting thing about this album is that at the time, it probably felt like a breath of fresh air-- it cut against the grain of grunge that was dominating the charts at the time and in that context, I'm sure this felt amazing to listen to. (By the way, even now: the intro to 'Mr. Jones' still absolutely slaps.)
But listening to it now, there's a touch of melancholy about this album that is inescapable. The thing is though, I don't think you can call it melancholy in sort of 'everything is dark and depressing' type of a way. If anything, it's like a rainy day. Yes, rainy days can be grey, dreary and depressing, but you can also find joy in the rain. (Did I pick this particular metaphor because of their song 'Rain King'? Perhaps.)
The album opens with 'Round Here' which is poignant and beautiful-- the lyrics stand out immediately.
(Tangent Time: I felt compelled to listen to some Robbie Williams recently after the whole 'no one in America knows who Robbie Williams is' thing swept across TikTok and let's just say he departed my Spotify playlist because- and in all fairness to the man, I don't know if he writes his own songs-- his lyrics are shit. I could ignore it when I was younger, but it bothered the shit out of me now.)
But, the lyrics are amazing-- consider: "She parks her car outside of my house/And takes her clothes off/Says she's close to understanding Jesus/And she knows she's more than just a little misunderstood/She has trouble acting normal when she's nervous." Maybe it's the elder Millenial in me, but that last line... damn, I feel that. Girl, I get you-- not the taking your clothes off part, but who amongst us has not had trouble acting normal when we're nervous? Who feels they're more than a little misunderstood?
Then we get 'Omaha'-- if 'Mr. Jones' has an immediately recognizable intro, this track does too and here, it's the refrain that stands out: "Omaha, somewhere in middle America/Get right to the heart of matters/It's the heart that matters more./I think you'd better turn your ticket in./And get your money back at the door." Having been to Omaha multiple times now, I can think of no better summation of the place and it's actually a pretty fair assessment, to be honest. Someone could go to Omaha and think, 'Damn, I'd like a refund for this place.' But you can also think, 'You are at the heart of matters and the heart does matter more.' It works on multiple levels again: the lyrics.
The lyrics are good throughout, but Duritz has range too-- and nowhere is that better demonstrated on this album than with 'Perfect Blue Buildings' and 'Sullivan Street.' The latter- along with the final track on the album, 'A Murder of One' are probably the two songs I'm the least familiar with on this album.
Do I have a favorite track on this album? I don't know- that's the beauty of a really amazing album. If you can listen all the way through and every song is a banger, then how do you pick? If I had to choose, I might say 'Anna Begins'-- that was a song that always stuck in my head from this album. But also, I was surprised at how much of this album has been in my head this whole time. How many of the songs I remembered and how many lyrics I could remember perfectly.
No grades or anything for these posts. This isn't a review... I just want to listen and write about these albums and this one is a really good one. (I might change my mind if I didn't review it the first time around, but we'll see.)
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