I only realised what an attention deficit I had after watching my kids get into music. They're into Arctic Monkey's, Kasabian and The Maccabees at the moment. My eldest is getting into The xx aswell, but as we've only got a couple of their tracks, it's a fledgling love. They can listen to an album over and over. And I mean over and over. It started with the last Kasabian album, which was in the car one day when I was driving them to school. I put on 'Fire' and that was it, nothing else was allowed for at least a month, until Miss SS hid the disc. They learnt the words, or at least approximated what the words sounded like to them and would sing them raccously when a bit they liked came on. My favourite moment has to be my five year old singing that he 'was the laaaast heretic', at the top of his voice. Or the three year old asking if you'd 'ever take a punch in the rib cage, sonny?' Probably bad parenting even letting them listen to it, but fuck it, they're teaching them hymns at school and we've never actually mentioned God to our kids.They don't know heretic, they don't know God.
Anyhoo what I mean is that when I was younger I used to listen to albums over and over again. I remember being given the Jam's back catalogue, on vinyl, when I was about thirteen and listening to them constantly for weeks. I knew every word to every song, I knew what chords were coming and where the beat came in and when it was ending. I absorbed those records as if my life depended on it. I still know them by heart now and hearing them is like a flashback to that spotty hormone ravaged time.
With the last Kasabian album I listened to it maybe three times, picked four or five tunes that I liked and labelled it a 'good album'. Then I slipped it away in the glove compartment of the car and probably wouldn't have listened to it again, if the kids hadn't claimed it and hijacked my listening for a month. Same with the last Arctic Monkeys album. It's a brilliant album, but on first listen I didn't really get it, wrote it off and packed it away.
Maybe it's the same with everyone these days, with the I-Tunes, pick the tracks you like, sort of mentality, but it worries me that I'm not really as 'into' music as I was when I was younger. It's all just snatch and listen nowadays. Get a tune, play it to death for a while, then find it on my hard drive six months later and probably not remember what it was, or even like it that much anymore. I can't remember the last time I listened to an album again and again, outside of the school run. Maybe it's just that albums aren't as good as they used to be. Maybe the acts know how we're listening to music these days and have adapted. Who know...
Right. This is a track by White Belt Yellow Tag. It's not their newest (that's 'Remains', which is released through Distiller Records on October 19th), but it's the one I like the most.
Anyhoo what I mean is that when I was younger I used to listen to albums over and over again. I remember being given the Jam's back catalogue, on vinyl, when I was about thirteen and listening to them constantly for weeks. I knew every word to every song, I knew what chords were coming and where the beat came in and when it was ending. I absorbed those records as if my life depended on it. I still know them by heart now and hearing them is like a flashback to that spotty hormone ravaged time.
With the last Kasabian album I listened to it maybe three times, picked four or five tunes that I liked and labelled it a 'good album'. Then I slipped it away in the glove compartment of the car and probably wouldn't have listened to it again, if the kids hadn't claimed it and hijacked my listening for a month. Same with the last Arctic Monkeys album. It's a brilliant album, but on first listen I didn't really get it, wrote it off and packed it away.
Maybe it's the same with everyone these days, with the I-Tunes, pick the tracks you like, sort of mentality, but it worries me that I'm not really as 'into' music as I was when I was younger. It's all just snatch and listen nowadays. Get a tune, play it to death for a while, then find it on my hard drive six months later and probably not remember what it was, or even like it that much anymore. I can't remember the last time I listened to an album again and again, outside of the school run. Maybe it's just that albums aren't as good as they used to be. Maybe the acts know how we're listening to music these days and have adapted. Who know...
Right. This is a track by White Belt Yellow Tag. It's not their newest (that's 'Remains', which is released through Distiller Records on October 19th), but it's the one I like the most.
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