We lost our faith in me

It's getting rarer and rarer, but I did manage to fall completely in love with two new songs this week. They're the opening tracks to the new Tindersticks album, Waiting for the Moon. The first song is a little bit of a surprise because their regular vocalist doesn't sing on it. Instead, a beautiful mellow guitar plays while a smooth, frail male voice chimes in to sweetly croon "My hands around your throat/If I kill you now, well, they'll never know." It's the most tender, touching music but the lyrics paint a very different picture. Then their usual vocalist comes in on the next song (Say Goodbye to the City) and everything comes together to floor me with their delivery. Just totally fucking brilliant.

That's all in the eye of the beholder, of course. That should go without saying. But that immediate connection to songs and infatuation with them is why I continue to try. There's no analysis or explanation really needed as to why the songs affect me. When those chords and vocals and lyrics come out of the speakers and captivate me - like THAT - there is nothing more to say about it. When it works, it works. And it's amazing. Overanalyzing everything can be fun (if you're into that sort of thing), but it serves no real purpose to examine the reasons for that attraction. Those first few notes hit and BOOM --- that is it! Any other enjoyment of it is icing on the cake.

Not to discount, of course, music that takes a while to sink in or repeated listens to really understand. I think there's immeasurable value in some music of that type. But still, there should be something that grabs you right away and makes you want to take the time to get to know it. That immediate, undeniable clicking with a song is what I look for and I'm finding harder to come by as time goes on. I can give bands like Opeth and Agalloch a billion chances to seep in, but if it ain't there it just ain't there. Likewise, I could pretend I'm not totally moved by The Coffinshakers. But damn it all, the music comes out of the speakers and my reaction is either good or it isn't.

I think I got away from that simple fact for a while. It's easy to trick yourself into thinking that music has to be X to be good. That's one of the dangers in being able to recognize patterns and being curious about why they're there. To intellectualize it enough to blur the inherent emotional response and confuse yourself a little in the process is very easy. Sometimes you just need to take a step back and realize that the music either moves you or it doesn't.

Did I just spend a few paragraphs overanalyzing why it's bad to overanalyze? Sorry. I'm making a lot of progress in moving away from overthinking everything. I still fuck up sometimes though :-)

I did a banner for the re-vamped Heavy Metal Is The Law discussion board this week. It used to be called Power Metal Zone, but no longer. The owner is a good guy. His board nic is taken after Les Claypool's strange band Blind Illusion. They were like 60s speed metal with psychedelic sci-fi themes. Their only album, The Sane Asylum, haunts cut-out bins everywhere. But fuck, I liked them. Better than the last few Primus albums, that's for sure.

You know, I bet he'll read that and inform me he took it from something else.