A great album.

Thanks to Gordon, I saw this comic yesterday. It's a pretty funny strip if you ask me. Then again, it seems like Cat and Girl always brings it. One of my top two favorite online comics, behind Dinosaur Comics. Anyway, because of this I totally had a hankering to hear some Belle and Sebastian.

They rule. I absolutely love them. In a blog post from last summer, I had Dear Catastrophe Waitress ranked as my 14th most favorite album of all time. I think that's in the ballpark, but I might even move it back up to ten. There are only one or two songs all the way through that I don't love.

Why is this relevant? It fits into my whole "album vs. shuffle" debate. This was probably the last album that I listen to all the way through, repeatedly, for an extended period of time. In fact, most of my top twenty albums (if not all) have been treated that way. I'm tired of not having more albums to rank in my top fifty all time. I'm never going to rank songs. Only albums. So there.

In addendum/response to a comment the other day, yes I won a Cherry Coke. Someone at lunch tried to argue that River Phoenix died of AIDS. I called him on it, then someone found this online and that was that. Conveniently, that was the very same afternoon the vending machine died here at work, and I never did see my Cherry Coke. Reward pending, I guess. Everyone enjoy their Thursday.

Musical memories.

In response to a comment the other day, I decided to stop shuffling songs. We'll see how long it lasts, but I started in earnest yesterday on the drive home. I was surprised when the second song followed the first. I knew the order of this album because I had listened to it in sequence many times, but it had been so long that hearing one song properly followed by the next song threw me off. Then I was surprised by the fact that I was surprised. It was a very introspective commute.

I thought more about how music is tied to specific memories and I came across a curiosity. I borrowed or burned "Something to Write Home About" by the Get Up Kids from someone in late 2001. This was the first time I ever heard it. But it sounded instantly familiar, and in fact from the very first listen it has been very closely tied in my mind to memories from 1998-99. I've tried to disect the possibilities as to why this is, but I've gotten nowhere. Has this ever happened to anyone else? Ever had music remind you of a time before you even knew that music existed?