Wednesday

So I kind of had an epiphany today as I was listening to The Decemberists third full album The Crane Wife. As I was listening to it at the coffee shop it struck me just how good this album was and I posted this on my Facebook wall.

"The Crane Wife is one of the best albums in the last 10 years. If you haven't heard it, you need to do so. To not is a personal failing. One which you will regret."

Now, I do not know if you would regret never hearing it. Because if you never heard it how would you know what you are missing. I do not regret missing Schindler's List. I have heard from lots of people how good it is. But, since I haven't seen it I really have no idea one way or the other. So I do not regret anything. I REGRET NOTHING!!!

That is not the point. The point is that The Crane Wife is an amazing album and I just want people to hear it. I think I realized that one of the things that I really enjoy in life is listening to music and writing about music and letting others know about musical discoveries that I have made. Now, I am not claiming that I am the be all and end all of cool and my opinion is all that matters when it comes to music. But there are types and styles of music and artists that I like better then others. So I decided that along with what I do on Music Mondays I am going to do a little bit more about music on Wednesdays as well. I like music too much to not do it.

So that being said, I am not sure if I am going to do any kind of a theme or anything like that. I may highlight an artist or a band or perhaps a year. It may be new or old, it may be obscure or really popular. I do know that it all be stuff that I enjoy and stuff that resides in my collection in one form or the other. There are times where I may highlight an album or perhaps the entire discography of a band. I do not know.

What I do know is that I intend to have a lot of fun doing this and hopefully the few of you who stop in now and then are going to have some fun as well. In fact I think what I am going to do right now at least is just begin to work my way alphabetically through my collection. I will do this Artist by Artist and the ones that have a lot of albums then I will try to highlight a song from each album. The others I am going to play it by ear.

So with out further foolishness the first album in my collection alphabetically is a compilation of songs from ABBA. It is called ABBA - Gold: Greatest Hits. When possible I am going to link these titles to their Amazon page. I do not use iTunes so that is not going to be an option.

I like ABBA. There I said it. I just enjoy the harmonies and I like the pop music. I do not feel like they are trying to be anything more then they are. They were a pop music band and it worked for them. I think if you climb down of whatever particular musical pedestal that you prescribe to and give them a new lesson you just might be presently surprised. I know am now and then when I give old music a new listen. So lets see what I can find on YouTube.



What could I possibly say about "Take A Chance On Me"? Just sit back and let the music flow through you. It is a sweet song at the core. Just someone letting their friend that they will be there for them.



I would argue that in some small way if it wasn't for "Chiquitita" then there would not have been The Madonna song "La Isla Bonita" and if there had not been that. Then there may not have been the Lady Gaga song "Alejandro"



I implore you, ignore the clothes and the goofiness of the video and just listen to the music. "Waterloo" is a finely crafted pop song. The hook is excellent and the chorus carries so well. This is how pop music is supposed to be.

It occurs to me that if I follow this path some of you may learn far more about me based just on my taste in music. That is kind of scary but kind of fun as well. So please tell me your thoughts on my music. If you liked it or didn't that is fine but please tell me why you feel the way you do.

See you next week.