Growers
March 6, 2009
It has dawned on me that the albums which mean the most to me – the ones that under no circumstances could I part with or live without or leave in a burning building or sinking ship – are the ones which offered little or no instant gratification.
There are albums that I have been so excited about buying I have literally run back to the car for fear the excitement would get the better of me and I would make a mess of my corduroys. The feeling of putting on new music, the thrill, the expectation but ultimately the disappointment several weeks down the line when the novelty has worn off and it becomes apparent that Razorlight aren’t that good anyway ( incidentally I read earlier that their drummer has quit and I think it is worth mentioning that he wasn’t an original member yet wrote ‘America’ – their biggest (s)hit. It is also worth mentioning that Johnny Borell is a cocksmith and I dislike him on a parr with Bono).
There is nothing wrong with the instant gratification of say The Gossip, or a Kanye West release but for me, it’s not enough. The albums I love have often been a labour to love. Take for example ‘I am Bird Now’ – the Mercury winning offering from Antony and The Johnsons. I couldn’t listen to it – it worried me and made me feel supremely uncomfortable…I think that some records are just too personal and make for painful listening and this certainly fell into that catgory. Fast forward nearly 4years and scarcely a week goes by when I don’t listen to some of that album.
It took me years to love Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds but I’m glad that I invested the time and the effort because The Lyre of Orpheus/Abbatoir Blues holds a very special place in my heart. I don’t know how I nearly made it to 30 without Nick Cave. The same could be said of Bjork – I have bought her albums for years and often found them impossible, but then that is surely part of the charm – the album as unfathomable puzzle? I don’t want things spelling out for me, I want them dirty and duplicitous. I want to return to an album time and time without feeling I know it inside out. I want the mystery and mayhem to hold my interest. I want to revisit their private pain to see if it gets any easier with time.
So thank you to The Enemy for the 3weeks that your album held my attention but thank you to those that I expect to return to and still love in 3 decades.
