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August 22, 2005
Music for the Nice People: Old Man Week Edition
It's Old Man Week here at greenideas! Expect rants about whippersnappers and plaudits for hard candies.
Seriously though, when I decided to do an Old Man theme week, I'd intended to make it strictly about curmudgeonly grousing about stuff that annoys my aging sensibilities (you know, like these kids today, with their hair and their clothes). But it occurred to me that (and stop me when this gets unbearably sanguine) part of being a legitimate grown-up is not being a mopey, disaffected kid anymore. The nice thing about that, is that it means not being a totally morose bastard all the time.
Here's where the music comes in. See, I've noticed a massive shift in my listening habits: namely, I've largely stopped listening to sad bastard music (except for when a spot of bad news sent me barrelling towards the Elliott Smith), in favor of records that are genuinely (and I really do choke when I say this) joyful--like this:
"Bridges and Balloons" by Joanna Newsom is probably the first track that I ever really latched onto for no other reason than the pure exuberant joy of it. To my mind, it's a quality that's endemic to the whole first wave of the free/freak folkers who exploded onto the scene last year. It's what's great about Newsom, and Devendra Banhart, and Vetiver (and it's also why I kind of hate the "second wave" folks like Mike Wexler, et al, for their cynical adoption of barely year-old genre tropes). There's just something simple, charming, and transcendant about this track, and I deeply love it.
(For the record, I realize that many if not most of you have this track already, but I'm trying to make a point here.)
Maybe less life altering (for me, anyway), but no less gleeful is "Caravan" from Van Morrison's Moondance. Is it challenging? Nope. Is it groundbreaking? Maybe, but who cares? All it is is the most fun you can have listening to a six-minute pop song. I honestly just don't know what else to say about this song, besides that it's utterly magical and I love it immensely. This ties into the Old Man week theme too, since it's hard to think of anything more unhip than adoring Van Morrisson.
Okay. That's done. For the rest of the week, it's all about the curmudgeon.
Posted by matt at August 22, 2005 06:15 AM
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