What a beautiful album. When I first listened to it about six months ago, I thought "Wow, what a simple and pedestrian album, this does not deserve praise." Now I realize, the themes of this album could not be expressed if it was not so "simple and pedestrian". It presents to you a character who feels truly alone and isolated in a typical American society. It does not wallow in conceptual "loneliness" like most albums which share this theme, but rather offers someone struggling to integrate their authentic self into such a herd driven society. It is extremely easy to relate to such simple acts, like "I went alone down to the drugstore, I went in back and took a Coke, I stood in line and ate my Twinkies". Instead of conceptual loneliness that has been explored so much in music, it offers anecdotal loneliness.
But even still, that is selling the album short. Much of the album deals with juxtaposing such mundane things such as the weather, with the feelings we have inside ourselves. The song "Snowstorm" is about listening to weather reports, and an incoming snowstorm, which compliments the "whiteness" within the narrator. He feels nothing except white noise. It takes the simplicity of everyday life, and shows how it is a reflection of what is inside us.
All of this is magnified by the opening track "Blue Thunder". It is a song about the narrator driving away to a new place. I do not believe it is a coincidence that the car is named after something occurring in weather patterns either. It is ambiguous about whether or not he actually does leave for a new place, or just fantasizes about it, but either way, it tells a lot. If he actually does drive off to a new place, it goes to show that everywhere is all the same, and if you feel lonely, it is all just drab, like chewing on styrofoam.
I recommend this album to anyone.
No comments:
Post a Comment