A subject can be as important or as unimportant as you like. I don't believe in ranking things in terms of scope, like something is of less value or is less important because it is self-centered. Your world is your world after all, and there are many things happening in your world that are immensely important to you but totally unimportant to someone else. It's possible even that the things that are most self-centered, like romantic relationships or emotional suffering, are those most likely to be able to reach out to other people, to become common, precisely because they are so close to the heart of the one speaking them, unlike some more general observation which is more likely to remain distant. If an observation of the latter kind does become deeply relateable it is usually because there is something very personal in it, thus it too is on the self-centered side.

Whether something works or not is really all in the delivery. If there's anything to be annoyed about regarding this subject in pop music, it's that not much is there to really engage me. You talk about heartbreak and all that, but is it really? I don't feel it. Therefore it becomes more like wallpaper, it might as well be anything. Which I can't say about for example "Three Cigarettes" by Patsy Cline, or "I Would Rather Go Blind" by Etta James, or probably a hundred others.

kokorodoko wrote: Tue Nov 16, 2021 4:35 am Whether something works or not is really all in the delivery. If there's anything to be annoyed about regarding this subject in pop music, it's that not much is there to really engage me. You talk about heartbreak and all that, but is it really? I don't feel it. Therefore it becomes more like wallpaper, it might as well be anything.

That's more or less my stance, with the emphasis here being on contemporary mainstream pop music, which pales horribly (for the most part) against the great love songs of the past. Things feel less pleasurable when they're less imaginative. Listen to The Montclairs' "Hung Up on Your Love," or Split Enz' "Poor Boy," or ABBA's "S.O.S." and you'll love love songs; listen to thirty minutes of boy band twaddle and you'll never want to hear one again.

That said, despite the qualitative difference, there may (still) be other topics just as, if not more viable, that have little to do with love, lust, envy, betrayal, heartbreak, longing, loneliness, etc. Kraftwerk, despite a few songs along these lines, made a career out of it. Never mind going on about your relationships when there's..."Spacelab."

I’m glad my kids left their Taylor Swift phase behind a couple years back. I don’t feel strongly about it one way or another, honestly. It just kind of is and I overlook it for the most part.

Test Dept - Total State Machine

jsb wrote: Sat Nov 06, 2021 4:30 pm

Thanks for this! I've been listening over and over. My record of the year.

Who's old enough to remember this?

I'm on a Pitchblende phase right now.

So underrated.

Light in the Attic reissue of some of Leo Nocentelli's solo music. Listened to it this morning and dug it before reading the fine print and realizing he was a founding member of The Meters. Oh! Duh!! Anyway, these songs are on a somewhat different tack, more singer-songwriter-y, but still very good.

This track has such a great catchy outro:



You can hear the rest here.

Vibracobra wrote: Thu Oct 28, 2021 2:45 pm Red Bliss - Fishkill (1990)

I love me some killdozerisms.

I loved this record so much and the follow-up Gateway to Joy was really good too. Fun fact: I had a tooth knocked out of my head once when they played in Worcester and the bass player asked "is there a dentist in the house?" I think that on video somewhere.

Vibracobra wrote: Wed Nov 17, 2021 8:09 am I'm on a Pitchblende phase right now.

So underrated.

Agree. Scott is an old friend and I'd see them whenever they came to Boston. Turing Machine was cool too, but kind of a different animal.