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February 14, 2006
Matriarch musical express, Vol #1
Everytime you -- in your mid-twenties -- return home for a quick jaunt, something changes. I am no different. About three spells ago, I learned that my mother -- a Catholic in heritage only -- was listening to Christian music.
My mother, a passive, but nonetheless eclectic music listener, has always had a peculiar interaction with music. She often drove to work listening to WSOU, which any proper New Jerseyian knows to be (or, perhaps, was) a haven for Pantera and other heavy metal, thrash music.
During my inevitable foray into house/trance music in college, my mother listened with a keen ear to Paul Van Dyk. My most recent return home -- and the revelation of her Christian music affinity -- coincided with my devout listening to Sufjan Stevens' Come On, Feel the Illinoise (KO MS #1 pick.
So, for Christmas, I purchased her the same album, and we proceeded to rock-out, as it were, to Illinoise during our co-preparation of Christmas dinner. She dug it, as well as demanded I become her personal DJ. Given the wonderfully vague template of MS, I decided to make my mother an unknowing blogger. I think I mentioned it to her, but her grasp of blogging is probably rudimentary at best. So, in order for her to receive two new CDs (CDRs mind you, I'm not made of money), she has to review what I previously gave her. The arbitrary rules I initially created were that she needed to give each CD a five-word review, 1 to 5 stars, and name her favorite song and why. Well, that didn't work so well.
But she did give her enthusiastic approval and her comments, dictated to me, will appear below.
This will be a semi-regular feature here at MS. The next two CDs in the queue are Cat Power's The Greatest and Postal Service's Such Great Heights.
The overall album evoked a "country bumpkin trying to escape his mundane life," who "thinks the outside world is much better than what he has now."
Song highlights: Chicago: "He keeps saying, I made a lot of mistakes, like he's sleeping in the car or something" Casimir Pulaski Day: "Soothing", and John Wayne Gacy Jr.: "Chilling."
Despite Stevens' wonderfully exploratory lyrics and her recalling of the more chilling of the Gacy lyrics, she loved the music, which was slow and soothing, and allowed her to work without thinking much about what he was singing.
Have a CD suggestion my mother should review, e-mail keithobrien@merryswankster.com
Tags: Sufjan Stevens, Illinoise
Posted by Keith O'Brien at February 14, 2006 05:52 AM
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Comments
My mom dug the Clientele's Strange Geometry, but you could slip that one onto oldies radio Folger's Crystals style and no one would notice, so it may be too easy.
Posted by: Jeff Klingman at February 14, 2006 08:23 AM
It's all about the work up to Daydream Nation or They Threw Us in a Trench...
Posted by: Keith at February 14, 2006 09:26 AM
