when you're behind, it's good to...

...catchup

In anticpation of Pitchfork putting out an expansive remembering of the last decade that was in music (including a 4-day roll out of the Top 500 Songs of the 2000's) I've undertaken both a personal and music-related project to try and immerse myself in music I would've missed because I was either:

a.) too young to appreciate [I was in grade 6 when Radiohead's Kid A came out]

b.) too stupid to appreciate [my aforementioned affinity for rap music for most of my teens]

c.) too lazy to appreciate [hearing bits and pieces of great albums, but never bothering to delve deeper]

d.) too weirded out by names to appreciate [The New Pornographers...I can be forgiven I think]

e.) all of the above for the balance of 7.5 years

Among my choice listening over the next few days and weeks will be Radiohead's Kid A - widely regarded as one of the best albums in recent memory, if not ever - and OK Computer, which may not have been quite as highly regarded, but that I wanted to get a feel for anyways. Given that aside from a few quick cuts, all my musical Radiohead knowledge stems from In Rainbows, I figured I'd do myself a favor and get a bit of a back-education on what some think is the greatest group since The Beatles. I just finished my first go-through of Kid A, and it's certainly something I'll have to give a lot of more listens to before I can give a real good opinion on it.

Another category of listening is Arcade Fire's Funeral, which falls into category c. I've heard "Rebellion (Lies)" and enjoyed it greatly on mainstream radio, and there's two other tracks I'd heard after that, but I never really bothered to get into the rest of the album. When I started doing a bit of reseach recently and seeing Funeral pop up on "Top of the 00's" lists everywhere, as well as being in the Top 5 or 10 of most lists for the year it came out, I figured it was time I went through Arcade Fire's acclaimed disc. After about two full listens of it today, my one-man jury (a judge?) is still out on it.

Fitting into both category d and a more personal reason, I made it a point this week to listen to the entire discography of The New Pornographers. In a way, this whole undertaking can actually be traced back prior to Pitchfork, and to PrettyMuchAmazing's listing of TNP's Mass Romantic as one of the top albums of the 00's over a week ago. Because 1.) I have a friend who is a huge fan, and I couldn't even tell her the name of which album it was that PMA named as the best, and 2.) it's practically my duty as a Canadian to check out The New Pornographers in some way, it was a two-fold thing for me. Let me tell you though, I've been far from disappointed. Mass Romantic itself may be one of my favorite albums ever already, and the entirety of TNP's catalogue has already made an inespacibly indelible impression on me in such a short time.

To expand on The New Pornographers a little bit while I'm here, there's some music that I find transcendant - that which I can't really attach a genre or a "this is why I like it" to. Most of Joel Plaskett's work I find to be like that, and The New Pornographers have joined his likes in my books. I just hear their music, I like it, I can't tell you why, and I look forward to hearing it over and over again. It's that easy, and that's how music you really love should be. It's also how real love should be...but that's neither here nor there.

Anyways, once Pitchfork's lists come out, I may have some feedback about them. I'll personally be better equipped to respond to the individual songs lists than the albums, as I've always been more of that kind of music listener, but hopefully I'll be able to offer at least a bit of perspective or criticism as to some of the choices. Or I may just simply appreciate the opinions of people who've vested much more time and interest in something I'm hoping to do the same with. Until then though...