Friday, July 26, 2013

This Is Animal Music

This guy on Amazon was saying that 80% of the music buying public might need to listen to Look Mexico's THIS IS ANIMAL MUSIC half a dozen times before they "get" it.  I was thinking he was directing that to all who read his post, but then I realized even though I'm not exactly an "indie" music lover, I'm still not the aforementioned "casual" listener; I always actually LISTEN to music when I have it around me.  Look Mexico's off-kilter rythms don't shock me as I've been listening to Oingo Boingo since my dad bought SKELETONS IN THE CLOSET a year or so before he left his family behind in late 1990, although it wasn't until around 1994 when he mailed me his 'Boingo CD for me to have that I started listening to it constantly and on my own time (I loved the cover-art and couldn't afford to pay what it was going for at music stores at that time).  I also grew up listening to INVISIBLE TOUCH by Genesis, which 70's prog-rock enthusiasts often consider generic or whatever, but compared to most other pop music, then & now, it's actually quite off-kilter and unorthodox in structure, although pop music prior to 1987 when NKOTB, Bobbie Brown, Debbie Gibson and Tiffany started dominating the charts was quite often playful and quirky ("Take On Me" by A-Ha and "Down Under" by Men At Work come to mind).  The only time I ever needed to listen to something half a dozen+ times to appreciate/get it is if the music is unpleasant, i.e.: the intro to "Bendy" from Hidden In Plain View's RESOLUTION and the first 20 or so seconds of "Darkness" from UP by Peter Gabriel.  I still don't like Sunny Day Real Estate's DIARY despite having it on as background music while I type out my budget and browse for items I think I might buy etc....There were a few times I thoroughly enjoyed The Get Up Kids' SOMETHING TO WRITE HOME ABOUT, but the last time that happened was like three years ago...and I've always taken issue with the singer's voice.  I think the only times I ever warmed up to an album was when I was discovering pop-punk and emo, most notably TELL ALL YOUR FRIENDS by Taking Back Sunday; I'd heard "Great Romances Of The 20th Century", and loved it and was kind of put off by the rest of the album, but there were bits and pieces that I remembered even after my initial sour impression of the album.

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