What I want to talk about is something more tangential (and maybe less interesting, but if you’ve got this far, I beg further indulgence) — about how records can sit for a long time, then suddenly click. So: I didn’t buy this one when it came out, although not for any particular reason; I just wasn’t paying much attention to contemporary stuff. After seeing folks whose taste I trust bang on about it, five years ago I picked up a copy… and it sat on the shelf. I must’ve listened to it, but it didn’t make any real impression. (In fairness, we did have quite a bit going on around five years ago: our eldest had just been born.)
Then a year or so ago I was filing some stuff away, clocked the sleeve, and was like ‘well, haven’t listened to this in a while, should probably give it another try’. And upon needle hitting groove, I was absolutely floored. This rich, nuanced and amazing record had been sat there this whole time, and the issue hadn’t really been the record; it was my attention (or lack of it) to what was actually there. I’m struggling to articulate why, but there’s something about this process I find fascinating: I can think of a bunch of things I’ve bought which I’ve thought were okay, then got distracted by something else, and then later on realised that there’s an absolute gem right there.
It’s sort of the opposite problem I had when I was a kid: back then, because I had (relatively) few CDs, the ones I had were treasured and listened to endlessly (e.g., I’m pretty sure I could still do all the lyrics to The Strokes’ Is This It?, if I had the backing track) — but once you hit a critical mass of records, it becomes increasingly difficult to give each one the attention it deserves. Which I guess is a nice problem to have, but sometimes things get missed.
#solange #aseatathetable #soul #rnb #vinyl
15 days ago_hannahwainwright
I’ve always thought music, books, and films can just hit different at different points in your life. I’ve had the experience a number of times where I’ve listened to/read/watched something and it hasn’t resonated with me, and then years later I’ve come back to it and it’s really hit emotionally or just on a level of ‘wow, this is actually great!’ I do find your point interesting about the boundless choice these days – a blessing and a curse. I too will come back to an album from my adolescence and be flooded with nostalgia, the lyrics instantly accessible to me even if it’s been circa 20 years since I last listened to it!
15 days agodoortothecosmos
Also — and I ran out of characters to write this so it's going in the comments — but: what a sleeve. It's both incredible, and incredibly striking, and reminds me of the Dutch masters or something.
15 days agokevin.watkins.336
A fantastic write up as always and makes me want to put it on my shopping list.
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