It is the time of the year that everyone makes there best of lists for music. I used to be really into these kinds of lists. I would always be disappointed when the bands and records would be passed over. I was hoping that people would see the same things in this music that I saw.
I would make my own top list. Maybe if I made my old top 10 list of that year's records people would see what I saw in those records. I would send the list to my friends and e-mail it to other people. I would not get much response. The people that knew me would say that the list matched what they expected from me.
I still love music. I listen to about two hours of music a day, but I no longer care about new music. I have no interest in following around new music. I cannot keep up with that treadmill. I just look for things that I like and listen to them. Most of the new music I hear does not hold my interest very long. I do not connect with it.
I did not buy many CDs in the past year. I spend most of my time downloading songs from Napster, listening to all those songs once Napster closed down, and making CDs of those songs. I bought a couple of CDs, but it was mostly old stuff that had been popping around my head. I bought stuff like old R.E.M. and Smiths albums that I crave hearing every once in a while or stuff I missed the first time around like Belle and Sebastian or Neutral Milk Hotel.
There was one new CD that I bought this year. It is a CD that has been spinning around my CD player since I got it. I do not think I have gone a week without listening to it.
I would like to declare
Ben Folds Rockin' The Suburbs the album of the year. It is hard for me to express how good I think this album is. It is one of the best things that I have heard in years. It is an album that should be admired for both its sound and lyrics. It has all of Ben Folds trademark piano playing, but you do not feel like you have heard it all before. It is an album that moves slowly over a landscape of ideas, constructing a coherent world of thoughts and feelings.
What I like about Ben Folds is that I feel that he is a guy about my age write songs about things people my age should care about. I do not feel that I am listening to people who are ten years older or younger then me. His songs make sense to me. I can understand what he is getting at. I think there is both an intent and texture to the songs that fit into my life.
I think that this is a great album, but I have a hard time seeing my friends really embrace it. I do not think they have the kind of patience that this album need. It is full of songs that need to be discovered one my one. I think most of my friends do not like albums that unfold that way.
Labels: 2001, Belle and Sebastian, Ben Folds, Best of, bestof2001, music, Napster, Neutral Milk Hotel, R.E.M., tag overload
