1001 Albums Summary

although technically I listened, it was as if I didn't because I remember nothing.

The art for this album is everywhere in my life. Not sure why but it is. If there were an Album Art-le game, I’d nail this one off the bat. I love Elliott Smith but this isn’t my favorite of his albums. Some of the songs downright irritate me. It’s very stream of consciousness and when a band/artist goes in that direction, that’s usually when they lose me. (Case in point: Radiohead) One major exception is the Lost and Found—that little piano ditty gets stuck in my head and I LOVE it. So playful. I love the motif of pairing the guitar and piano melody in so many of his songs. And Color Bars is a good one too. Simple. Not trying too hard. I found science in the album. Everything Reminds Me of Her. Everything Means Nothing to Me. Therefore, she means nothing to me. The lyric in LA, “Last night I was about to throw it all away,” just makes me so sad. Cuz one night he did throw it all away. And I don’t judge him for it—depression and drug addiction are a lethal combination. But what a fucking tragic loss.

Baby’s got the bends. You don’t have any real friends. This is TOTALLY how I feel as we try to re-enter somehow into the world. Our kids have to deal with very metaphorical decompression of going from lockdown or podding or significant isolation to freaking public school, crammed hallways, cramped school buses. But I like what the album conjures for me more. Another album that transports me to college. This one is glued to the membranes of my curious and trepidatious cells. It coaxed the leery adult from the grips of my apprehensive adolescence. It doesn’t hurt that I could figure out how to play most of these on the guitar—back when Radiohead’s simplicity matched my skill. I love the explosiveness of the Bends and Thom Yorke’s unbridled bellows. To playing on the upbeat in the chorus in Bones. “I used to fly like Peter Pan! All the children flew when I touched their hands.” (Nice Dream) sounds just like one to me. The melodic descent of the partial barre chords at the beginning contrasts with the whining riffs toward the end. Just has a cool rock-out start. I often quote this song (and not just nowadays): “You do it to yourself, you do, and that’s why it really hurts.” Ain’t it the truth. #maskupassholes #getthefuckingshot I love the cliffhanger chord that Black Star ends on. But I think my most favorite song is Sulk. I’m a sucker for slow builds. Simple single note motif on the guitar that leads to a more complex and interesting variation in the bass line that descends down the scale as he declares a holiday, falls asleep, drifts away. Radiohead and I kinda parted ways sometime around Kid A. We grew apart. Maybe my grown ass self should revisit the newer stuff and find something new about myself. We’ll see. Solid 5 from me.

If there ever was an album prescient of and apropos for Quarantimes, it is The Queen is Dead. Just as Schitt’s Creek was, surprisingly, exactly what many of us needed in the dark winter of 2020-2021 (YOU fold it in!), this album is just what I need as this Bullshit Period of Time takes a spiraling turn. There IS a light and it NEVER goes out. If David Rose were to write an album, this would be his album. In fact, David Rose reminds me of Morrissey. I know, I know—Morrissey is a little like crappy whiskey: syrupy, trying to be something bigger/more important than he actually is, hard to swallow, too much of him gives you a headache. And yes, he is 100% Brit-dick of the ages. (see: https://www.spin.com/2017/11/morrissey-defends-kevin-spacey-and-harvey-weinstein-saying-victims-shouldve-known-what-could-happen/) But early/mid 1980s Morrissey was a kinder, gentler version. Kind of like how David Rose—and Schitt’s Creek overall—evolved into a kinder, gentler version of himself. And this album, for me, reminds me of when I, too, was a kinder, gentler version of myself. Just a few notes from me: -The opening drums! My beloved They Might Be Giants once made fun of the Smiths for their “boom-chick” drums—The Queen is Dead stands in opposition to that critique. -Cemetry Gates is one of the songs that inspired me to learn the guitar and still one of my favorite little riffs. “A dreaded sunny day” portended my eventual feelings about living in Los Angeles. -Johnny Marr's technique and melodic lines and expressiveness shines here. And I think shows the signal that he's ready to move onto bigger and better things like The Pretenders. -His alliterative references get me every time. Loud, loutish lover. Monkish monsignor. Ten ton truck. -Randy Jackson would most certainly comment on his “pitchy-ness” throughout. But rather than try to be all fancy with my rare reviews, I’ll just let the lyrics speak for themselves as certainly relevant for this turbulent time. Since you’ve asked you are a flatulent pain in the ass. Some girls are bigger than others, some girls’ mothers are bigger than other girls’ mothers. (True? Yes. Relevance? None.) A vicar in a tutu, he’s not strange; he just wants to live his life this way. It’s so easy laugh, it’s so easy to hate, it takes strength to be gentle and kind. Life is very long when you’re lonely. #covid #quarantimes Take me out tonight Because I want to see people And I want to see life There IS a light and it NEVER goes out.

It’s like listening to the toddler version of rap, walking slowly, a little awkwardly, but holding their own. I kinda like that the rapping is slow enough that I can actually understand what they’re saying. I also like the raging against the racist machine rather than against warring factions in the same genre and among the same oppressed group—fighting the right enemy. Rap has not really been my thing but 80s/early 90s rap is as close as I get to liking it.