Albums (2)

A while back I mentioned that "I assume that the artist/producer has put together the record with the included tracks and in the order that the stuff is in, for a reason."

The interest that underlies this approach of focusing on the context that different songs give to the adjacent songs also led me to really enjoy concerts of so-called "jam bands" that shift their set list on a nightly basis. You often hear people say that so and so band never plays the same song the same way. Well, that may be true - but seeing slightly different versions of the same song over and over also gets old. But, when you add the context that other songs in the set create, there is another dimension to explore. Is this dark song plunging into something, or is it a step on a journey.

Part of the change in my perspective that I mentioned in that earlier post is that I realized that soundtrack albums, which I previously shunned for the same reason I shunned greatest hits records, actually have some of the same characteriztics as a live show. The movie maker gets to select these songs and put them in context with each other. The soundtrack that kicked that off for me is Garden State. (a movie which I initially dismissed as likely overrated, but when I saw it was plesantly suprised)

Other notable soundtracks - The Big Chill, which was the first CD I ever bought; Dazed & Confused; Until the End of the World, which has substantial, if not entriely, original material. You can also throw in Born on the Fourth of July, which has a great cover of "Hard Rain's Gonna Fall" by Eddie Brickell, and a lot of solid score from the movie, and Judgment Night - which I have previously written about.

on the iPod:
Rosanne Cash, Black Caddilac
Cowboy Junkies, Live 6/10/2005