A Second Spinning (Round 4)

I've been buying albums like crazy ever since I was in 3rd grade. There's been albums I've loved and albums I've hated. Some from local bands, some from big names and even more from my 8 year Christian Music age. I've decided to take a stack of 20 albums that I disliked in my collection each month and give them another listen to see if over the years my opinion has changed.

Here's my breakdowns and reasons why

My Opinion Didn't Change On

Fun Lovin' Criminals: 100% Colombian I loved the Fun Lovin' Criminals debut album Come Find Yourself and excitedly grabbed their follow-up album. When I heard it I was really disappointed. Almost all the things I enjoyed about their previous album were gone except a handful of tracks (Southside, Big Night Out). While I appreciated the chill-jazzy vibe they were going for it doesn't work for them quite like the hip-hop influenced rock worked on songs like Scooby Snacks.

Daniel Johnston: 1990 Daniel Johnston is an artist I really appreciate, but appreciation doesn't mean I have to enjoy listening to his music. Daniel is a truly unique songwriter which is why so many of the covers of his songs are great, but Daniel himself is someone who musically I can only stand for 5-7 minute increments. There are a handful of amazing songs on this record (Funeral Home, Devil Town, True Love) but more often than not it's songs that overstay their welcome.

Dave Matthews Band: Everyday I've spoken previously of my love/hate relationship with DMB. It feels like my enjoyment of his music 100% depends on my mood at the time I'm listening to it. Repeated listens of his stuff has lead me to comfortably conclude that I enjoy the albums Crash and Before these Crowded Streets but Everyday for me will always been an album that has two amazing song (The Space Between & Everyday) one or two decent songs and a lot of filler.

Sarah McLachlan: Surfacing McLachlan is capable of writing some of the most beautiful songs ever, but she's also capable of writing some of the most forgettable and boring. At the time of release I was in love with every single on this record and assumed with 4 great single out of 10 tracks the rest of the CD will be amazing. Instead I found one non-single that I liked a lot (Witness) and a bunch of stuff that put me to sleep. 

Albums I Appreciated More But Still Don't Love

The Cranberries: To the Faithful Departed I've never been a huge Cranberries fan. They've written some amazing songs and this album is probably my favorite of theirs, but I'm still not a fan of it. There are some great songs on it however. Salvation will always have a place in my heart, I loved that song and video. It was the first song by the Cranberries I actually liked (it wasn't until a few years later I discovered Linger and Dreams). While there's a lot of fun songs, there's a lot of drawn out tracks as well.

Creed: Human Clay This is basically where My Own Prison was last round. The songs I remembered (Are You Ready?, Beautiful) I still loved while the songs I'd forgotten about (such as the two tracks after Higher) were forgotten for a reason. I still think that Creed gets unfairly trashed because they could (and did) definitely know how to write a great song or two… they just weren't so great on making great albums.

Element 101: More Than Motion I wish this album was catchier. I kinda feel like the band was trying to get away from the Pop Punk label and enter into something more Indie Rock. I respect any band that's willing to take chances and make changes of sound but Indie Rock Element just isn't as fun and catchy as Pop Punk Element was.

MxPx: Pokinatcha MxPx's first album was one of the last ones I heard by them. This definitely was a disadvantage to it. There's nothing wrong with the album, it has a lot of great songs on it, but after hearing Life In General and Teenage Politics this album just didn't stand a chance. It's a good album but nothing more.

Albums I Really Enjoyed More Than I Thought Was Possible

Seven Mary Three: American Standard Seven Mary Three had two really great singles in the 90's. When I picked up their album I just wanted every song to be Cumbersome, they weren't. Now many years later, I'm quite glad their not. This a great album that could have only existed in the 90s.

Relient K: Apathetic EP At the time I picked this up I only enjoyed two songs, that's a bad thing for an EP. Now I appreciate every track on it but my favorite track still remains In Like a Lion (Always Winter).

Cat Stevens: Catch Bull At Four From the second I heard Cat Stevens' music I became a fan. Two of my favorite songs of his were Sitting and Can't Keep It In. When I picked up the album that contained those two songs they were the only ones I think I listened too. This may have been the actual "First Spinning" for me but damn it if I don't rank this up there with Tea for the Tillerman as one of Steven's best works now.

Ace Troubleshooter: It's Never Enough I always wanted to like Ace Troubleshooter more than I actually did. But now, I adore them, so I suppose I got what I wanted. This was the first record I bought by them and wasn't a fan. Not sure why because it's a quite delightful and catchy pop punk record.

KoRn: Life is Peachy I don't know why I fought this for so long but I'm a KoRn fan. For whatever reason I didn't want to admit this in the 90's/early 2000's. When I decided to listen to KoRn I remember saying that their only good album was Follow the Leader (even though I owned their first 6 albums) and would constantly say that the only good song on Life is Peachy was the 50 second long Twist. But fuck it, it's a great album.

Last Tuesday: Resolve In doing these re-listens I'm starting to think that Last Tuesday was secretly one of my favorite bands. I own every album they released and bought their newest albums the second they were available but for some reason I never really got super into their music (until now). There's nothing much to say, if you like good pop punk with two vocalists you should already be listening to their stuff. It's a shame their done.

The Cars One an earlier Round I praised Heartbeat City by the Cars. While their debut has more hits on it, I still prefer Heartbeat. That shouldn't take away from the fact however that The Cars put together a fantastic collection of tracks for this debut. If you're a fan of New Wave and don't have this album already, you're fucking up.

Dispatch: Who Are We Living For While I first heard Dispatch near the end of High School they're a band that represents college more than anything for me. This was the last album of theirs I purchased and I didn't like it at all. I wanted another album that sounded like Bang Bang, this was a little too heavy for what I expected out of Dispatch and it had too many random jam session tracks. Now those are probably my favorite pieces of the album.

Now I Love This Album

Brave Saint Saturn: So Far From Home Five Iron Frenzy is my favorite band and has been for well over a decade. When I purchased the Brave Saint Saturn album I was not used to disliking any songs by FIF. I think my only reason for not liking this album was because of two or three songs I didn't like, when relistening to this I still remembered the words to practically every song (and it had been a good 7 years since I listened to any of these songs), even the songs I didn't like in the past (Rocketown, Gloria) I found a little enjoyable this time around.

Bright Eyes: Letting Off the Happiness One of my favorite songs ever by Bright Eyes is the opening track to this album (If Winter Ends), the rest of this album was (to me at the time) too random and bizarre. Styles were constantly different and none of the songs felt like they belonged on an album together. Those are now many of the reasons I like this album. The only thing I really dislike about the album is the decision to put 10 minutes of feedback between the last track and the hidden track… but that's hardly a reason to hate the album as a whole.

Pearl Jam: Vs Last round I got a little flack for my continued lack of enjoyment towards Pearl Jam's Ten in relistening to their follow-up record Vs. I realized what my problem is with Pearl Jam in general (or at least for me… obviously they have legions of devoted fans so I'm in the minority here). Pearl Jam's stuff at it's best is short. Compared to the 4:30-5:00 song lengths on Ten most of the songs on Vs are a solid 3:30 minutes long. In fact my least favorite song on the album (W.M.A) is the only track over 5 minutes. Fast, Raw and Straight to the point is how I prefer my Pearl Jam apparently. The longer the song is, the more likely Eddie Vender is just gonna repeat the same lyric over and over and over again.

Refused: The Shape of Punk To Come When I first heard Refused I was in a friends car and he played me New Noise. That night I went home and bought the album on amazon and awaited it's delivery. Now I was late to the party on this band and this was maybe 5 years ago. I already knew the album was considered a masterpiece so maybe the heavy praise for the album sent me in with high expectations but I remember driving to classes listening to it for the first time and not feeling really… anything. This time however, three minutes into the opening track Worms of the Senses I found myself thinking "This might be my favorite album I listened to this round". It absolutely was.

Matt Kelly is the host of the popular podcast The Saint Mort Show, a frequent contributor to Geekscape.net, the founder of Chords for Cures and the co-writer/co-director of the upcoming comedy Describing the Moon. He also loves it when people surprise him with purchases from his Amazon Wishlist… just saying.

A Second Spinning (Round 2)

I've been buying albums like crazy ever since I was in 3rd grade. There's been albums I've loved and albums I've hated. Some from local bands, some from big names and even more from my 8 year Christian Music age. I've decided to take a stack of 20 albums that I disliked in my collection each month and give them another listen to see if over the years my opinion has changed.

Here's my breakdowns and reasons why

My Opinion Didn't Change On:

Green Day: American Idiot Green Day was the first band I ever loved and they have remained one of my top 10 favorite bands ever. Despite this I could never get into American Idiot (an album many call their masterpiece). What's weird about this is I'm not a hater of new Green Day. I loved Uno, Dos, Tre (I might be the only person who did) as well as 21st Century Breakdown. I thought that maybe American Idiot took me off guard and that going back I'd like it more, but that was not the case. My opinion remains the same it's too stylized and the concept too heavy handed. The song American Idiot is still my least favorite Green Day single, the rest of the singles are great as is Jesus Of Suburbia but I think the rest of the album is just forgettable.

R.E.M.: Automatic For the People I'm a big R.E.M. fan when it comes to their singles, however every album I've purchased by them I disliked (excluding Document). The band is capable of writing great singles but in general their music ends up boring me more than anything. This will not be the only time they pop up on one of these lists as I have about 4 other albums by them to revisit.

Primus: Pork Soda Much like Green Day Primus is one of my all time favorite bands. Pork Soda is one of their most popular albums yet it's always been my least favorite album by them. It's mostly an issue of being too long with not enough catchy material to carry the album. I love stuff like Welcome to This World and My Name Is Mud but the album hits a drawn out part midway through.

Albums I Appreciated More But Still Don't Love

Mae: Destination Beautiful This was the last Mae album I purchased and I think that had a helping hand in me not loving it the first time around. This is a perfectly fine album and all things considered a great debut. It's unfair of me to have compared it to their masterpiece The Everglow, if I heard this album before The Everglow I probably would have loved it. Regardless of my opinion the song Sun is a masterpiece.

Collective Soul: Dosage I always had a love hate relationship with Collective Soul. I adored their self-titled album and felt "meh" towards everything else they ever released. With Dosage I remember only liking two or three songs but I actually found myself enjoying this album when listening to it. Afterwards though I couldn't remember any songs I liked beyond the two or three I've always loved as a kid. However I will be giving this album another spin sooner rather than later.

Bright Eyes: Fevers & Mirrors I find myself frequently getting bored with Bright Eyes midway through his albums.  Regardless if it's an album I love or an album I hate there's always a song or two that just goes too long or gets too weird or is too stripped down. I remembered Fevers & Mirrors being all songs like that (with the exception of The Calendar Hung Itself which is why I bought the album) but actually the whole albums is filled with someone interesting stuff. The issue is mostly that the opening and closing songs are what I was remembering. As the end caps of the album it makes it feel like the whole album was like that.

Ace Troubleshooter: Madness of the Crowd The biggest issue with Ace Troubleshooter is that while every song is great, 90% of them are completely forgettable. I loved listening to this CD and by the time it was over all I remember was 2:00 Your Time

Audio Adrenaline: Some Kind of Zombie The last Round Audio Adrenaline's Bloom fell into this exact same category. That being said I enjoyed revisiting this a little more than Bloom. I remember loving the album as a kid, then as I got older hating the album and now I like it more than I used to… but I don't love it as much as I used to (if that makes sense at all). I will say that I forgot how weird the background noises were or how People Like Me is arguably the best song The Rentals never wrote.

Busta Rhymes: When Disaster Strikes Busta Rhymes is an awesome rapper (or was before Pussycat Dolls came into his life) but his CDs always felt too long. I remembered liking two songs (outside of the two singles) when I got this album but in retrospect there's a ton of great material here. The album suffers from the same thing many rap albums of the 90's suffer from, terrible skits that run too long. That being said So Hardcore is the best song Busta ever recorded.

Albums I Really Enjoyed More Than I Remember Being Possible

The Offspring: Conspiracy of One I always loved The Offspring but for some reason this album and it's follow up Splinter never sat well with me. Not sure why though, beyond the fact that it has Want You Bad (one of the best songs the band ever wrote) on it, the album is every Americana was. I will definitely be listening to this album again in the near future.

Jason LeVasseur: Driver is the DJ Since I was such a big fan of LeVasseur's Watching the Girls Go By last time I decided to revisit its follow-up. This album is more polished and packed with even more catchy songs. The only crime is that it didn't have Steps of Saint Patricks on it. Seriously if you haven't yet look that song up. It's a masterpiece.

Semisonic: Feeling Strangely Fine I'm sure you're familiar with SemiSonic for their lone hit Closing Time but that's not why I bought this album back in the day. Don't get me wrong, it's a great song but I was a bigger fan of their less popular follow-up single Singing In My Sleep.For a while the two singles were the only songs I liked off the album but looking back on it there's a ton of really great catchy songs. It's not a perfect album but it's definitely a good one.

Barenaked Ladies: Maroon It's weird to me that the reason I disliked this album was that it didn't sound enough like Barenaked Ladies. The fact of the matter is that BNL never had a specific sound, it evolved every couple albums. This album actually was part of my favorite sound so I'm not sure why I walked away from my first listening thinking it had two good singles and a bunch of forgetful tracks. This album is all great tracks minus one or two forgetful songs.

Cat Stevens: Mona Bone Jakon I wrote about this album a few days ago so I'll keep it short. Beyond the person connection it's a great album. I still dislike Lady D'Arbanville but the rest of the album is pretty great. The best part is that at least half the album was written for my all time favorite movie Harold & Maude. That alone is enough to baffle me on why I didn't like this album from the start.

Nerf Herder: My E.P. This one I understand. This was my first ever Nerf Herder album and they are a band that takes some time to grow on you. Plain and simple. I heard the song High School, I liked it, I bought the album. You also have to factor that I bought this when I was still pretty religious and why I don't remember being offended… I'm sure there's a chance I was by the vulgarity of the songs. Now I love them all.

Ben Folds: Songs for Silverman I loved this album from it's first track, then I hated the rest of the album. Not sure why that was because now I listen to it and of all of his solo albums this is the one that sounds the most like a Ben Folds Five album. While nothing on this album could be considered Ben's best, none of them are his worst either. That being said Bastard and Landed are the stand out tracks for sure.

David Gray: White Ladder This is another one of those CDs that my general childhood attention span made me miss out on. I picked up this album because I loved the song Please Forgive Me but was bored by the slower songs and never listened to it again. This is a beautiful album plain and simple, it's only crime is a song or two that overstays its welcome, but otherwise I need to track down more David Gray albums.

Now I Love This Album

Arrested Development: 3 Years, 5 months and 2 Days in the life of… For years I told people this album was boring and that Tennessee was the only good song. I have no clue what the fuck I was thinking of (maybe I confused this album with the PM Dawn album I bought around the same time). This CD is everything I love about 90's hip-hop. It's the perfect laid-back summer album for a long car ride. Maybe that was my issue? The first time I listened to this was in a basement while playing a video game. This is 100% a driving album.

Katie Todd: Changing Faces Just like Jason LeVasseur I heard Katie Todd through my college concert series. There's a song on this album called Unreachable that is beautiful. I bought the CD because I loved that particular song. Much like Steps of Saint Patricks by Jason LeVasseur that song was so good that it set a high standard for the rest of the album that was impossible to reach. Revisiting the album though I found the whole CD to be a  beautiful album. If you're a fan of Regina Spektor and early Fiona Apple you should definitely check out Katie Todd.

The Cars: Heartbeat City There isn't even a doubt in my mind that this was the best album of the 20 this time around. I bought this CD for one reason You Might Think and I think that was the only song I listened to. That's the only way to justify how this hasn't been one of my favorite albums of all time. The saddest thing is knowing that for years I've not been obsessing over how perfect the song Magic is. Seriously, that song should have been on every MixTape I ever made for a girl who had no interest in me.

Matt Kelly is the host of the popular podcast The Saint Mort Show, a frequent contributor to Geekscape.net, the founder of Chords for Cures and the co-writer/co-director of the upcoming comedy Describing the Moon.

Triggered Memory - "Cat Stevens: Mona Bone Jakon"

I'm preparing to do another round of "Second Spinning". I collected my 20 albums that I had mixed feelings on and I started listening to them this week. One of the albums was Cat Stevens Mona Bone Jakon. The opening song on the album is easily my least favorite Cat Stevens single Lady D'Arbanville.  The second the song came on I groaned. Then a weird thing happened…

I own well over 3,000 CDs. I remember the circumstances in which each CD came into my life. I remember what I got from yard sales, what I bought on my own, what was a birthday gift and who got me that gift. Mona Bone Jakon was a gift from my Aunt Lisa when I was in high school. I remember opening the gift and running upstairs and listening to the CD and being disappointed that I didn't like it as much as I had hoped I would.

When I was in high school I discovered my fathers record and cassette collection. One cassette I fell head over heels for was Cat Stevens' Greatest Hits. I listened to that tape constantly down in the basement while doing my homework. I could have been more excited to listen to Mona Bone Jakon (Even though I wasn't familiar with any songs).

When I heard this song on July 15th of 2014 however… it made me cry. On September 2nd, 2013 my Aunt passed away. It was as rough as any death and much like when you lose someone you love there's little things that will trigger you. This Cat Stevens CD did it for me. Why this album? I've owned (and listened to) literally dozens of albums my aunt bought me over the last 20+ years but this one was special.

I never told my aunt I wanted a Cat Stevens album. I never even told her I was a Cat Stevens fan. I never bothered to ask her how she knew but I have my own theory. My family is close, my aunt came over for dinner a bunch. I think she heard me listening to that cassette and decided to get me a Cat Stevens album… maybe it was even her favorite Cat Stevens album. These are the questions that I'll never know the answers to and that makes me sad. It was tonight I realized that this CD is a symbol of love, a very special symbol of love.

At her funeral all of her co-workers and friends would come up to me and my siblings and tell us how much she "loved us as her own children". I know I believed it but tonight, I know it.

Sorry this isn't from Mona Bone Jakon Aunt Lisa… but thanks for everything.