Listening To The Lost, Part 1

For years I've had countless records burned onto a hard drive that I've never listened to. Most of them come from the 13 years spent at a Borders Books and Music, burning in store promos and then returning them to the store for someone else to take (or burn).

I kept 10-15% of all promos I took home because they were among my favorite bands, no one else wanted them, or from claiming managerial rights. [I'm the manager, therefore, I'm right.]

I want to see what I haven't listened to ever, or at least since February 2016 when the 'last played' counter in my iTunes reset due to a computer crash. Currently the oldest 'last played' song is "If I Had A $1000000" by the Barenaked Ladies from Gordon. 2/19/2016 10:35PM.

Most played is "The Enemy Within" by Rush from Grace Under Pressure with 15 plays, all by itself, followed by more Rush and Inon Zur's soundtrack to Fallout 4. I wish I had my old counts, as I know both Lifes Rich Pageant by REM and Pauls Boutique by the Beastie Boys were both in the 40s.

To do this fairly, and not to get bogged down in artist catalogs I haven't listened to, I'll do it alphabetically by album, but 1 letter at a time.

I also want to try writing about music again.

Absolution - Muse (2003)

The third record from Muse and not too familiar with them now or then. I probably burned it because it might have shown up on a year end 'best of' list, or it was the 'it' record of the time. I know they are a rock trio from the UK, that's about it.

First listen, it was okay. Album cover really cool and designed by arguably one of the greatest cover art creators of all time, Storm Thorgerson. Mr Thorgerson famously founded Hipgnosis, which designed such classics as The Dark Side of the Moon and  Houses of the Holy.

I liked 'Time Is Running Out", "Hysteria" and "Endlessly". Great sounding hard rock from the early 2000s, probably won't get another listen, but won't skip when listening to the library completely on random.

Bachelor No. 2 or, the Last Remains of the Dodo - Aimee Mann (2000)

Another third record, this one from the only guest star on a Rush song. And another in a long line of critically acclaimed albums that the label hated and forced the artist to obtain the masters to the album and release independently. (She used the royalties from the Magnolia soundtrack, which shares three songs with her release, to buy the masters and tell Geffen to cram it.)

I know she's an American singer songwriter, and with her band 'Til Tuesday dropped the classic 80s "Voices Carry", which is impossible not to sing along with, especially at the end.

She was right, they were wrong and it not only appears on 'end of year' lists, but 'end of decade' lists and even warranted a 20th anniversary Record Store Day release. The least sonically heavy or powerful of the three records

Lots more to like on this record, "Red Vines", "Susan" and "Calling It Quits" among them. A collab with Elvis Costello "The Fall of the World's Own Optimist." This one will get another listen and I'm sad it took this long to give it a first spin.

"Red Vines" is the only song on these three records to get the instant '6stars' classification in iTunes. I have too many songs 5 starred, so long ago I found a way to create a 'best of the best' in iTunes. Under song info -> grouping, I have made headings for 6, 7, 8 and 9 stars, to whittle down my favorite songs to the point of absolute-never-skip-know-all-the-words-too-sing-a-long-repeat-often 100+ songs playlist at the 9stars plateau.

Cloud Nothings - Cloud Nothings (2011)

I had absolutely no idea what to expect, or how I even ended up with the debut record from a Cleveland Ohio teen on my hard drive. Released in 2011, which was after I was let go from the bookstore, so I couldn't have burned it from them. 

My first guess would be it was something I acquired from piratebay when I was adding to my Mogwai and Explosions In The Sky collection; but it sounds nothing like those bands. The next guess was I saw them at Hopscotch when I volunteered there for years, but I started in 2012 and they didn't appear until 2018, after I stopped working the festival.

Allmusic calls them 'lo-fi punk-pop' and I guess that's about right. 11 songs in just over 28 minutes, it will definitely get a repeat listen, not only because of the compactness of the music, but the strength of the songs. A janglepop take on Sorry Ma Replacements-era power pop, sung by a guy trying to sound like one of the John's from They Might Be Giants.

The album ends with a bang, "Been Through", "On The Radio" and "All The Time" is among the best closing three songs ever.

After the first listen, I checked to see if there were any other Cloud Nothings records on the hard drive and I found their next record, Attack On Memory. Produced by Steve Albini and released in 2012.. That record ended up on both Pitchfork and Rolling Stones top 50 for the year, that and Albini's name, leads me to believe that I was compelled enough to give it a try and 'acquired' it off piratebay. I tucked it away among the 60000+ songs on the drive, only to ignore it for almost 15 years. 

My bad, going to listen to this again, and its follow up soon. And often.