falling in and out of love.
While I didn't respond to the meat of Justin's post, I too have been wondering over the past year if I'm falling out of love with music a bit. There was a time in my life where the first action I would take upon entering a room with a music-playing device is to turn it on. Recently, there's times where I'll realize I've been sitting around for two hours reading, cooking, whatever, and not listening to music.
There are any number of reasons for this. One is that, since moving to NZ, I have the annoying issue of having a lot of my favorite music on hard drive and other music on CD, so it's not just a matter of pulling out a CD; I don't have a media server in my home yet, even though I'm told they're obligatory these days. Another feature curious to my house is that sound travels quite poorly, so the stereo on one side of the house travels very poorly to the other and vice-versa. So often I'll put on a CD in my bedroom, then leave after two songs to go get something from the fridge, then get distracted, et cetera, and then a half hour later get back to my room and the CD is ending.
There are other reasons. I am taking in auditory information non-stop at work, editing tv shows, often with a pervasive musical bed. I think my ears are quite happy to have the rest when I give it to them. My flatmates go to bed early, so I'm not inclined to play loud music after they go to bed, and a lot of the music I love is loud music. And then of course there's the issue that, from years of abuse, I have a small amount of hearing loss. On top of this is the problem noted by many economists that having too many choices leads to paralysis on the consumer's choice. And I have all these things downloaded, borrowed, bought from bargain bins, podcasts, owned for decades, whatever. And then it's also not just a question of "what do I want to hear?", but "what should I listen to, so that I can check the box and say I've dealt with that?"
(I could get into the related point how I intended to go to shows on Saturday and Sunday night this weekend and wound up at neither because filmmaking and friends were higher priorities, respectively, but no need to belabor the obvious.)
All of this is getting at this point: the likelihood of me listening to an album six times in a week is basically nil, and I honestly can't remember the last time it happened. But I've listened to Bon Iver's FOR EMMA, FOREVER AGO at least that many times. It's one of many albums I stumble across hearing multiple positive reviews about it, and typically I give a cursory listen, followed by a cursory dismissal, or at best, a "hmmm, that's pretty okay, but I'm going to move on to something else now". Bon Iver is different.
But here is the problem: I'm not sure why Bon Iver is different. He's a guy with an acoustic guitar and some multi-track recording system (I'm pretty sure he's doing his own harmonies), mining a very lonesome vibe. (Purportedly, this record was written in a cabin in the middle of nowhere.) There are lots and lots of guys with acoustic guitars, and while many of my favorite artists are guys with acoustic guitars, I like a very small percentage of guys with acoustic guitars relative to the percentage I find tedious or bland, or just completely unmemorable. M. Ward, for instance, is a critical darling loved by virtually everybody, and many of the reviews I've read of M. Ward records could be used to described the Bon Iver record. But M. Ward has always been about as interesting to me as white rice. Am I missing something? Probably. There's lots of bands that I got the wrong end of the stick on for awhile that I've come around on (Guided By Voices comes to mind). But you can't love everything and love it deeply, and some things take a while to love, maybe.
I guess what I'm saying is: I have no way to convince you Bon Iver is good, other than to say that this record has been part of my life for the past week in a way no record has in any week in recent memory.
Below is a live studio performance of the opening track on the album. This is the first time I've seen a picture of Bon Iver. I am unsurprised that he has a beard.
And then there's this minimal but compelling video for one of my favorite tracks on the album, with a hell of a backstory:
There are any number of reasons for this. One is that, since moving to NZ, I have the annoying issue of having a lot of my favorite music on hard drive and other music on CD, so it's not just a matter of pulling out a CD; I don't have a media server in my home yet, even though I'm told they're obligatory these days. Another feature curious to my house is that sound travels quite poorly, so the stereo on one side of the house travels very poorly to the other and vice-versa. So often I'll put on a CD in my bedroom, then leave after two songs to go get something from the fridge, then get distracted, et cetera, and then a half hour later get back to my room and the CD is ending.
There are other reasons. I am taking in auditory information non-stop at work, editing tv shows, often with a pervasive musical bed. I think my ears are quite happy to have the rest when I give it to them. My flatmates go to bed early, so I'm not inclined to play loud music after they go to bed, and a lot of the music I love is loud music. And then of course there's the issue that, from years of abuse, I have a small amount of hearing loss. On top of this is the problem noted by many economists that having too many choices leads to paralysis on the consumer's choice. And I have all these things downloaded, borrowed, bought from bargain bins, podcasts, owned for decades, whatever. And then it's also not just a question of "what do I want to hear?", but "what should I listen to, so that I can check the box and say I've dealt with that?"
(I could get into the related point how I intended to go to shows on Saturday and Sunday night this weekend and wound up at neither because filmmaking and friends were higher priorities, respectively, but no need to belabor the obvious.)
All of this is getting at this point: the likelihood of me listening to an album six times in a week is basically nil, and I honestly can't remember the last time it happened. But I've listened to Bon Iver's FOR EMMA, FOREVER AGO at least that many times. It's one of many albums I stumble across hearing multiple positive reviews about it, and typically I give a cursory listen, followed by a cursory dismissal, or at best, a "hmmm, that's pretty okay, but I'm going to move on to something else now". Bon Iver is different.
But here is the problem: I'm not sure why Bon Iver is different. He's a guy with an acoustic guitar and some multi-track recording system (I'm pretty sure he's doing his own harmonies), mining a very lonesome vibe. (Purportedly, this record was written in a cabin in the middle of nowhere.) There are lots and lots of guys with acoustic guitars, and while many of my favorite artists are guys with acoustic guitars, I like a very small percentage of guys with acoustic guitars relative to the percentage I find tedious or bland, or just completely unmemorable. M. Ward, for instance, is a critical darling loved by virtually everybody, and many of the reviews I've read of M. Ward records could be used to described the Bon Iver record. But M. Ward has always been about as interesting to me as white rice. Am I missing something? Probably. There's lots of bands that I got the wrong end of the stick on for awhile that I've come around on (Guided By Voices comes to mind). But you can't love everything and love it deeply, and some things take a while to love, maybe.
I guess what I'm saying is: I have no way to convince you Bon Iver is good, other than to say that this record has been part of my life for the past week in a way no record has in any week in recent memory.
Below is a live studio performance of the opening track on the album. This is the first time I've seen a picture of Bon Iver. I am unsurprised that he has a beard.
And then there's this minimal but compelling video for one of my favorite tracks on the album, with a hell of a backstory:
5 Comments:
seems to apply:
Samuel Butler
"We grow weary of things (and perhaps soonest) which we most desire."
Been loving it since Feb. 19......release day. Incredible debut. Quite a gifted boy. I think the reason it resonates so much is it's just so heartfelt....and not JUST heartfelt, but smart and subtle.....really love all the ambient touches. Hope he has a long career. I guess he's already recording the followup. Don't feel bad....M Ward does nothing for me as well.
Diagnosis: Seems you and Justin exhibit symptoms of Love Passivity, as if love was something that you have no control over and sort of either happens or not. It's a common ailment of our modern society with its leftover romantic ideals and accessibility to a myriad of easy pleasures.
Prescription: Put some blood, sweat and tears into it. Listen to loud music quietly, throw away a whole section of your collection For example, all artists that start with the letter R, or all cassettes or maybe even CDs. If you really feel you've fallen out of love, try getting rid of all your music, see how that feels.
It's easy to love when you're in love, but love ain't always easy.
dd, i don't think degree of in-love-ness and amount of time spent listening are correlated. i'm more in love with music than ever, and i've never spent a lot of time listening. mostly because i don't spend a lot of time at home, but also because i don't listen passively, so it's something i "do." this means i don't know as many bands/artists/songs/producers as other friends who spend half their lives listening, but it doesn't mean i love it any less.
cherry blossom, I'm terrible about not taking the time to listen actively to music. For some reason, I don't feel like I'm "doing" anything, and I always have stuff I should be "doing". But on the rare occasions I take the time, I really enjoy it. More often, it's the soundtrack for cooking/cleaning/driving/exercising/et cetera.
In other words, I treat music like a thoughtless husband treats a housewife.
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