I have mentioned before that I took a trip to France in 2002, and only took five compact discs with me for the duration of the trip.  As you might imagine, I listened to these albums over and over and over again. I knew them forward and backward, every lyric, every chord change, every nuance.  There is something about deep and repeated listens to a work of art that builds a bond between the musicians and the listener, even though that bond might only work in one direction. When I listen to any of those five albums, I am assaulted by old sights, sounds, smells, feelings, thoughts, places, situations, and people. The debut album from Starsailor is one of those.

I never saw this band live.  I've never even watched a live performance of theirs on the Internet, though I'm about to change that as soon as I'm done writing this blog post.  My only relationship with Starsailor is through their compact discs that happen to be in my collection.  Love Is Here is the first, arriving in fall 2001.

At that point in my youth, I generally leaned toward louder rock records.  This wasn't the case all of the time - after all, I loved that first Elbow album and anything Radiohead wanted to throw at us - but mostly, yeah. This album occupied a space in my collection that didn't have a lot of company.  Most of the guitars on this album are acoustic, and there are a TON of keyboards... piano, synth, organ. All of that kind of makes the bass stand out more than on many of the music I was listening to at the time, and that might be something that attracted me to this band.  All I know for sure is that I loved this album from the opening notes of the opening song all the way to the closer.  It pulled at the emotions then, and today the sad songs sound just as poignant to me, but with the added gravitas of 20 years worth of additional life experience filtering who I was and where I went when I was spinning this disc six times a day.

In some ways, listening to this album today feels very different.  I know a great deal more about how to make music than I did in 2002. I find myself dissecting the songs technically more when I listen now... oh, there's some electric guitar arpeggio added for atmosphere and there's reverb on it... oh, that's a B3 organ... oh that sounds like a slide guitar...  oh, I wonder if that's a pump organ or an accordion in that section... you know, those types of thoughts. All of that aside, if I listen with my eyes closed, I remember exactly what it felt like to step off the téléphérique du Brévent with a bunch of skiers and snowboarders and then stroll away a bit and be all alone at what felt like the top of the world.  

I need to be alone while I suffer. 

A lyric that I still think was written just for me.

New music used to be released on Tuesday. For albums that were eagerly anticipated, local music stores would start selling them at midnight.  I happened to be eagerly anticipating Pearl Jam's 5th album, Yield. At the time, I had a job where my shift ended at 11 PM on Monday nights, and I decided to go get Yield as soon as I could. After work, I drove to Dingleberry's in Centerville (a great record store that is no longer with us) and browsed records whilst listening to whatever was playing on the in-store speakers until midnight.  At midnight, I purchased the CD, and proceeded to listen to it on the way home.

The only song I had heard from the album prior to purchase was "Given To Fly", which was the radio single.  There was a little bit of controversy around it, because of its similarity to a Led Zeppelin song, but since I hadn't really listened to any Led Zeppelin at the time, I didn't notice.  The single didn't particularly move me, but there was music industry buzz around the release, and I had read some positive reviews.  (See, back then, you had to do your research before buying an album.)  

Yield kind of smacks you in the face when it opens.  "Brain of J" was the kind of raucous rocker that reminded me of "Once" and "Go".  I was all in immediately.  The second track, "Faithful" has a steady, meaty riff in the pre-chorus and chorus.... the third track, "No Way" is a place where Jeff Ament demonstrates the groove that I enjoy from his playing (though I love his work on this entire album), and I also immediately dug the lyrics.  I fondly remember the feeling of discovery as I drove home... the soaring chorus of "In Hiding", and the sing-along album closer "All Those Yesterdays".

When I got home, I had a chance to really examine the packaging.  The CD came in a rather creative digipak, with a triangle cut-out on the cover, allowing you to see the yield sign on the panel behind it.  When you open the cover, the sign is in a completely different context.  The album also came with a nicely designed booklet where you can read the lyrics and all of the track credits.  I spent plenty of time sitting in my room, reading through the liner notes and lyrics whilst listening to this album.  It's a fond memory of a long gone time...

For Squirrels - Example

This album came out while I was in high school.  I loved the lead single, and remember watching its video quite a bit on MTV, but by the time I got my hands on the album and listened to the entire thing, there were six or seven songs I liked even more.  Front to back, this is an album I always loved.  

Tragically, a van accident killed the lead singer and bass player shortly before this album was released, so this band remains rather obscure.  I remember in my early twenties always being surprised when I would meet someone who also had this album.  Usually, if someone had it, they were just about as enthusiastic about it as I was.

Example reminds me of my youth, gone many years ago.  It reminds me of longtime friends,  many of whom are gone in different ways.  It reminds me of driving down 35 or 270 or 33 to go hang out.  It makes me wish I could write a song that makes someone feel the way that "Disenchanted" still makes me feel all these years later.  It makes me wish I could write something with the brilliant simplicity of "Eskimo Sandune".

Also, these lyrics from "Under Smithville" have taken on different meaning for me than they did back in the day:

"And I've been feeling so old / Tell me now who you think I am"

Boyz II Men - Cooleyhighharmony

This album came out in 1991.  I was in junior high school.  I remember that you couldn't get away from the two hit singles on this record.  The more upbeat of them, "Motownphilly", had a video that was on MTV all of the time... you know, back when MTV played videos.  Four young black men, well-dressed, and singing some tight harmonies over a hip hop beat.  I don't remember having heard anything like it.  The other ubiquitous single, "It's So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday", was sung a cappella in four part harmony, with finger snaps being the only percussion.  I didn't know at the time that this was a cover.  What a fantastic choice to do a rendition of this song like this and put it on the album.  Maybe the album doesn't go nine times platinum without this song.

To do my due diligence for this blog post, I went back and listened to this album again.  It sounds very much of the time period from where it came, but it still sounds good.  

Those of you who remember this album might think that I have forgotten to mention "End of the Road", which was another single that you couldn't escape from hearing.  Well, it wasn't originally on this album.  It was a single produced for a movie soundtrack, and it did so well, that the label put it on the re-issue of Cooleyhighharmony that came out in 1993.  (The re-issue contains a fantastic a cappella rendition of "In the Still of the Night", and I remember wishing I could sing like that.  I mean, check out the glory of the nineties in this video.)

Listening these songs again takes me back to wandering the halls of Central Junior High.  I am also reminded of my younger brother, who loved this group and this album.

Part of the lasting appeal of music that we may have discovered many years ago is the place we happened to be in our lives when that particular music became part of our soundtrack.  I am sure this is true for other folks as well, but for me, certain songs and certain albums really take me back to a specific time or place…and sometimes those are warm memories and sometimes those are bitter memories… but for me, there aren’t many things that take me back the way that music does.  That being the case, here’s the first entry in an ongoing series “Music as a Time Machine”. 

Toadies - Hell Below/Stars Above 

Toadies. The pride of Forth Worth.  Their debut album showed up while I was in high school, and for a time you couldn’t get away from that lead single.  It went platinum, back when albums still used to go platinum. You would think that this kind of success would establish them some goodwill with their record label… but you would be wrong. 

The second album that Toadies presented to their label… well, the label didn’t like it. The band went back to the drawing board… went back to touring… went back to writing.  I remember avidly following them via their website and their message board. The members of the band would often interact with the general public there on the message board, and I gathered from reading the posts, they would do this in the community as well.  They gigged regularly - at least around Texas. They would go to other shows. They would host the occasional party at one of the band members’ homes. They would talk about their interests outside of music. All of this turned these people who seemed very much like rock stars to the high school version of me into regular folk for the early twenties version of me. 

We finally got a second Toadies album, Hell Below/Stars Above.  Amazingly enough, it’s actually better than their debut album, the one that went platinum.  The band went on the road to support the album, and I remember seeing them in Cincinnati and in Columbus and in Cleveland with my friends.  (Notably, Justin locked his keys in the car at a rest stop in Lodi where we stopped on the way home from the Cleveland show for a snack. Good times.)  Sadly, the label didn’t do much of anything to help promote the record. I don’t remember seeing any videos, and I don’t remember any radio play. Sales lagged.  All of the stress of this time caused the band to fracture. 

We still have these songs though.  The album starts off with a Vaden Todd Lewis scream over some riffy guitar. Lisa Umbarger’s fine bass work stands out here, from “Push the Hand” and “Motivational”, where it really drives the song… to tracks where it is just as important to me, but maybe a bit more subtle, like “You’ll Come Down” and “Pressed Against the Sky”.  Have a listen to the title track and it’s very gospel-sounding outro… this is a song that has been a huge influence on my own songwriting. It’s also nice that this band has some love for Dayton, being clear fans of Kim Deal’s work… and they are on record stating their admiration for Brainiac as well. 

I still love these songs, and every time I hear them, I think about driving on 70, 35, 33, or 71, on my way to a party, a jam session, or a concert, looking forward to seeing my friends and having this record playing at an unsafe volume in the car.  I also think about Pete, gone way too soon.