oddly, it's easier to talk about listening to the carpenters than it is to talk about listening to the tragically hip. the album music@work is one of my favourites. it's very dense and and threatening, like stormclouds. that the album pushes right into the absolutely paranoid and evil tiger the lion makes me very happy. i like the phrasing a lot, both musically and lyrically. 'danger in the language': i like that. like don delillo in 'the names'. i found in the fall of 2002, i believe it was, that i could listen to the whole album on the bus between SFU and downtown with some judicious track skipping. again, the weather was often bad, and i would be tired and zoning out, so i associate the album with stormclouds. the last 6 tracks are the strongest run. the bastard, too. i love hearing the word 'algonquin' in song. i like the album's density. it's thick, formidable, almost overbearing. i like that.

no other tragically hip album is this effective for me. phantom power comes very close, but it's a pop album, more listenable but less meaty, more for doing dishes than for zoning out on the bus. i like half of trouble at the henhouse, but don't listen to it often, for the 2-3 songs that i can't abide. i have the one after music@work, but i never listen to it anymore.

so, it is easier to publically enjoy the carpenters, i think, but probably for the wrong reasons... if i'm listening to the carpenters at work, it's assumed to be ironic. people try to catch me winking. it's like a fucking knight rider t-shirt. i got asked recently, quite honestly, "the carpenters? that's, um... ironic... isn't it?" no, i said, no... it isn't. can't you HEAR? don't you SEE? i have a lot of respect for the person who asked, though, so i went on with my earnest treatise on how much SORROW and TRAGEDY there is in the whole carpenters mythology. goodbye to love, ticket to ride, even top of the world are tragic songs. with the tragically hip, those explanations aren't necessary, because hipsters don't listen to the tragically hip.

i imagine it would be just as difficult to talk about josh rouse. he's so.. smooth. mellow. gorgeous tight songs, though, in a very comfortable 70s fashion. i downloaded the new nashville album and it's perfect. too perfect, maybe; i don't know how i'll like it after listening to it constantly for the next month. that said, i still quite enjoy 1972, esp. the last song, rise. right now the standouts are winter in the hamptons and my love has gone. i'll buy a proper copy when i have some money. i finally have a job, but still can't afford to buy records. it hurts me.

i've been stocking my computer at work full of albums that i might want to hear there. there's not enough room for my whole collection, obviously, so i may be rotating... deleting a lot of songs to get the top 700 songs from all my 700 CDs collected on one crappy imac hard drive. it's an old itunes, so it doesn't count the number of times i've played a track, which is actually one of my favourite features. i realized how much i liked steely dan's pixeleen and the supremes' can't hurry love when i found them at the top of my chart. it's my own personal autobiography.

i think the song at the top at work, if i had a counter, would be saint etienne's side streets. 'the neighbourhood that i live in...'. i was signing it on the way to the liquor store for wine the other night. 'i walk the side streets home, even when i'm on my own, if i let myself believe all the bad press and all the stories, i'd never set a foot outside'. it's true, i do walk the side streets home, etc., but it's easy for me.

i'm still not over sandy denny's the north star grassman and the ravens. it's an incredible album, once the lame rockabilly is sifted out. i wish the lyrics had been included in the reissue package.

also, today i rediscovered the a camp album through the b-side train of salvation. this was my bestest ever album of.. 2002? maybe 2001?