discostu Wrote:
Is this a trend of 2005 or a manifestation of our disposable lifestyle? Has there been an album this year that has meant anything to you? If not, what was the last album that encited true feeling out of you, the way music is "supposed" to affect you? Wondering if it's just me that is taking on a role as passive music consumer?
Like some others have said, I must agree that 2005 has not yet proven itself to be a great year for music. When I think back to recent years, by September I almost always had one or two albums that blew my mind, that I gave heavy spins to for extended periods of time, and that I developed lasting associations and memories with. While there have been many 'good' albums this year, and many more catchy songs, I have yet to have an 05 album hit me like a ton of bricks. Wolf Parade's album might have done it for me, had I not been listening to most of the songs on the album since last summer, so for me it's an 04. Anyway, some of the good albums that have received many spins but managed to not touch my clit:
Bloc Party - Silent Alarm
Of Montreal - Sunlandic Twins
Stephen Malkamus - Face the Truth
Fiona Apple (Jon Brion version) - Extraordinary Machine
Edan - Beauty and the Beat
Some of the records from last year that connected on big emotional and aesthetic levels in ways no records have yet done this year:
The Bees - Free the Bees (strange i know)
Stereolab - Margerine Eclipse
Arcade Fire - Funeral
Of Montreal - Satanic Panic in the Attic
Dungen - Ta Det Lungt
Perhaps some of these will grow on me further, only time will tell. I also have not yet lost hope, as this is the time of the year when many many great records get released.
As for your question about music becoming more disposable as we have more and easier access to it, I don't think that this is necessarily true. I deluge myself with new music as much as possible, as I've been doing for many years. What I've found is that great records rise to the top regardless, even if you're spinning a new album or two a day. If anything, the increased amount of music shows me that there are a lot of bland bands, records and songs. At the same time it shows me that there's a ton of good bands, catchy songs and great records that I have to keep on digging for; it's just a matter of adjusting to the new scale, kind of like fishing in the ocean as opposed to a lake. And for the record, i totally get into records from YSI and file sharing, ect; i need not physically posses a record to become enamored with it.