Loudness

Apologies for yesterday - relatives in town, but that is not an excuse.

We have a CD player at work, which also gets radio, and can have an iPod or Zune hooked up to it.  What music plays is a constant battle - if you don't put something on, my boss will put on a Randy Bachman solo album or something, but if you put on something he doesn't like (i.e., anything more edgy than Matchbox Twenty) he will do the same.

So we get stuck in this 'least objectionable' rut.  Objectionable somehow means loud, and loudness, as we all know, has nothing to do with volume.  I can crank up Paul Simon with impunity, but if the Yeah Yeah Yeahs come on, at all it's getting changed.  We end up with a few of us trying to put on the most adventurous acoustic music we can find - this is almost inevitable Iron and Wine.

I love Iron and Wine - ever since I discovered this Southern Gothic version of Nick Drake, he's had a special place in my collection.  He's earned the right to have me buy any album he puts out, no questions asked.  So today, we put on the Shepard's Dog.  I'll admit, I didn't like this album all that much at first.  It's a very different album than his previous stuff, and the melodies take some time to sink into you.  This is why I think it would be terrible to be a record reviewer, and why so many reviews are terrible.  You don't have time to get to know an album - you get it, listen, review, and move on.

The first time I listened to Shepard's Dog, I picked out "Carousel" as my favorite, and left it at that.  I didn't listen to it for almost a week, when the riff for "Boy with a Coin" was going through my head - I also picked up "Flightless Bird, American Mouth" that time.  Then, a couple days later, "Wolves" started going through my head.  This is how I experience albums, and I don't think I'm alone.  I never love an album the first time (ok, occasionally I do, but I always like those less as time goes on) but a riff or line or bridge will stick and draw me back until I can't stop listening to it.  I can't be alone in this.  I hope I never have to review music any other way.