Sound And Fury

This one's been some time in the making so forgive me if it seems outdated.

I'm one of those musical-types, as I'm sure everybody knows by now. And as such, I consume the music of others slightly different from the average person. Most folks buy a new album, and they're immediately filled with joy and excitement at the plethora of happening grooves and dulcid tones they are soon about to partake of. While there's definitely some of that, there's also something else: judgment. You see, these are not artists with works designed for me to enjoy, they are my colleagues and my competition.

If I've been tossing around a musical or melodic idea when I buy this new music, I take the chance that maybe I'm about to hear my idea made into something great before I get my shot at it. And naturally, that sucks. Yeah, it's great that this sonic majesty gets it's place in the world, but damnit, I was here first. And I'm well aware that there is very little in music and melody that hasn't been done before somewhere, but I'm an artist. And every artist will always believe that any idea they create is theirs and theirs alone.

So any album I'm considering undergoes brutal scrutiny to meet my exacting standards. Unpleasant tones and bad choices in chord selections are cause for immediate exile. And the scorn? Well you've read these pages long enough to know that the scorn is tremendous. Music done wrong is an insult to us musical-types and will not be tolerated. Ever.

So as you can imagine, I'm a lot of fun when I'm music browsing. Particularly in any store with a listening station. Earphones and volume controls make me into a music criticizing Hitler of sorts. Not really sure why, but I suspect it's because I'm typically surrounded by the hip kiddies of the world, checking out the latest in hip-hop, pop, and the not-so-metal metal acts. And their presence and bombardment of musical tastes tend to make me extra furious. As such, any album I'm listening to had damn well better be perfect if I'm gonna invest any kind of serious time into it. Several decent acts have never made it five minutes before I've dismissed them as generic dribble. And rarely, holy-grail rarely, does an album ever impress me with every single track on it.

Rarely.

So, the other day I'm wandering around the local Borders, and happily head over to the listening station. Unlike the Best Buys and other hip locales of the world, I've noticed I can actually stumble onto the occasional gem every once in awhile. Yeah, most of it's crap, but once in a big while, there's something noteworthy and great. And on this day I was to be blessed with just such a thing. For on this day I stumble across:


When I originally heard that such an album was being made, I was pretty pissed. Alison Krauss is a pretty amazing artist, one of the few modern country types that I actually respect. And to see her selling out to the highest bidder by doing something with the singer for Led Zeppelin was infuriating. C'mon, this is Robert Plant for fuck's sake! Mister, "I sing like a squeaky hinge while I grab my sack" Plant! No good can come out of that.

But, it was at the listening station, and admittedly I was curious. So I slapped on the 20 lb. headphones, hit the requisite buttons and prepared for the worst. At the very least, it might be so horrible, so ridiculously dreadful, that I'd have no choice but to laugh at it.

First song comes on and I listen. Not bad. Not bad at all. In fact, it's kind of good. On to the next...hey, this one's pretty good too. Third one's even better. This is incredible. Typically I never get past three tracks before I start to hear the flaws. Erroneous decisions that they made in their song construction. Something that a professional like me would never do. Doesn't matter that their sonic vision may be completely different from mine, I'm a musical type. And as such, my vision outweighs everyone else's. But, no such case with this album. Nope, three songs down, all perfect, all great.

Before I knew it, I had taken a sample of every single song on the thing. And I'll be damned if I didn't like every single one. I'm shocked! With all the music I've listened to and loved, the number of albums that have delivered 100% greatness could counted with one hand. Most albums have at least one flawed song, usually more. The perfect game just doesn't happen with me too often.

But here we are. A strange pairing like this has beaten the odds. Naturally, I made it mine. And months later, after repeated listenings, I still adore it. Stranger still, it seems to have made for some interesting musings. I feel as though somehow the vibe of that work has filled a sonic space in my psyche. Like anything I create from here on out will somehow be reflective of that album. Not a dead on impersonation, I don't do that. But something. Hitting a chord differently, or looking at a vocal line another way, I don't know what. But I know things have and will change as a result.

Obviously it's rare for me to be so impacted by a musical body of work like this, but god I love it when it happens. It's why I'm in this business to begin with.