Record Reconstructor

If ever I needed an incentive to get through writing about Muse yesterday, it was the knowledge that next in the pile was this album, which is so loaded with personal associations, gig stories and general musical interest that this blog entry might end up being three thousand words long before I decide to rein myself in.  It's the seminal album by a band who's reputation is either a mould-breaking, hyper-talented band who defy classical genre classification, or a group of pretentious metal wannabes who's very name (along with Radiohead) was internet shorthand for identifying obnoxious music snobs in the mid 2000s.  It's Tool time. Listen to a dubiously legal version of me here People like to think they are clever, especially adolescent men, and I was no exception.  Certainly a large proportion of people, me included, love the way that revelatory moment feels when it lands on you out of the blue, when you realise that the thing you were already enjoying has a h...

[[Editors Note]]:  Ever had writers block?  I've had half this blog post written for a couple of days now, but I'm finding it hard to coalesce my thoughts into some kind of coherent narrative about this album.  I've got fragments, parts, but no glue, nothing binding to hold it together.  In the interests of not letting this project wither on the vine because I can't seem to collect my thoughts about this album, I'm going to power through it for the next 45 minutes and see what I come up with, but apologies is this isn't my best writing (which is of dubious quality at the best of times). [[Editors Note 2]]:  I am going to finish this entry today if it kills me.  It's now been nearly 9 days, the longest I have had an unfinished blog entry so far, and I need to put this behind me now. * * * I've spend a day or so trying to figure out how to frame my feelings for this blog post;  don't worry, this isn't one of those scary over-share stories I ...

Yes, yes, I know.  Things are crazy right now, as I mentioned a few posts ago.  As well as closing out the fiscal year at work, a process which is always an excruciating amount of work at the best of times, I've also been planning and organising a Charity Netrunner tournament which takes place in 9 days time (and looks to have raised about £1,200 so far), organising myself and preparing for a trip to the US to play in the Netrunner World Championships in 18 days time, and trying book and organise my partners 40th Birthday Party in 39 days time.  Every time I've looked at The Pile in the last few days, I've felt guilty that I'm neglecting something that I started, I'm enjoying, and I want to see through.  Which is a convenient segue into what I am going to talk about with this album... Listen to me here I should get the "talking about the album" bit out of the way up front, because I don't have any complex or deep thoughts about it really.  ...

This one has been a head-scratcher for a couple of days.  I've actually listened to this album two and a half times over the past 48 hours just to try and get a handle on it.  Sometimes I see an album in the pile and I know what I'm going to write about.  Sometimes, I listen to it and it reminds me of a person, place or experience I want to share.  But this is none of those things, it's an album by a critically acclaimed singer-songwriter filled with emotion - and it bothers me, because it makes me confront something of a failing in myself. Listen to me here If you're not familiar with Eels, they are really just one guy, Mark Oliver Everett, who produces weird, stripped down kind of blues-pop songs which are hard to put into a specific genre.  He's still going to this day, having performed at the Royal Albert Hall last year, which speaks volumes to both his prolific songwriting nature and his popularity.  I came across them because of my Dad. ...

I find economies of scale interesting.  There was a time, as has been evidenced by the stickers on front of some of my CDs, that people including myself happily paid £15 for a new release on CD.  The most recent CD purchase I made, which was Arcade Fire's new album, also cost me £14.  Some time between those points, the beginning of the domination of CDs as the format of choice, to their destruction at the hands of Spotify, mp3s and iTunes, the cost of producing CDs was so small that people were giving them away like candy.  For example, on the front of music magazines. I have approximated the track list as best I could here On a side note, remember music magazines?  The rise of the internet has changed the landscape of being a music fan a great deal since my teenage years.  I never bought lots of music magazines, but long before you could find out anything you wanted with a quick trip to Google, I had been known to buy the odd copy of Kerrang! ...

This one is a puzzler folks.  Not necessarily in terms of why this is in my collection, not only why it exists at all, but in the decisions that were made in bringing this assemblage of alternative music from 2001 together, some of which are frankly baffling.  It's a weird artefact from a stranger time, but also one which is a perfect excuse for me to talk about a place which probably has more personal stories attached to it than any other. I've done my best to replicate the track list for you here , but with some omissions due to the bizarre track list. Before I forge ahead with my trip down memory lane, let examine the album itself, shall we?  Because its frankly a weirdly preposterous collection of music. The "Now That's What I Call Music" series have a clearer thematic tie than this album does. First, I get the inclination.  Some Sony music executive somewhere goes "Hey, alternative music is popular right now, and we have all these ban...