9:48 p.m. - 2004-12-22
album of the year
In a surprising trump victory, Modest Mouse's "Good News For People Who Love Bad News" is my pick for Best Album Of 2004 (That I Bought). I should emphasize that as far as I can remember, the only other album from 2004 that I bought was Brian Wilson's "Smile," and that was disqualified because, let's face it, most of it was composed in 1966-67.
Which isn't to say that Modest Mouse's album is by any means bad. In fact, in places it's amazingly good, no matter what anyone tells you.
"Well tell me what you saw and I'll tell you what you missed: When the ocean missed the sky, you missed when time and life shook hands and said goodbye. When the Earth folded it in on itself, you missed: it said 'Good luck, for yourself, I hope heaven and hell are really there but I wouldn't hold my breath, you wasted life - why wouldn't you waste death?'"
What this is all REALLY about, though, is that if I was ever on the cutting edge, it's definitely not anymore. I can't be even remotely bothered to read Pitchfork, and I'm such an old fogey that sometimes I think Spin has my tastes a little better sorted out. And in the end I don't listen to any of them, and buy a bunch of really cheap records from the 70s at Agora and one really expensive record at Low Yo Yo (ie, Brian Wilson) and love them all terribly.
"You wasted life; why wouldn't you waste the afterlife?"
I keep quoting this song because I'm listening to it, and also because I want to allay any fears that I am some sort of retrogressive, cantankerous old fogie. Bands are still capable of producing things that totally get to me, it's just completely random that I'll ever hear them.
This is like the worst entry of this diary ever.
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