{"id":6267,"date":"2017-03-10T10:26:07","date_gmt":"2017-03-10T14:26:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/?p=6267"},"modified":"2024-09-01T22:08:09","modified_gmt":"2024-09-02T02:08:09","slug":"friday-playlist-21","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/2017\/03\/10\/friday-playlist-21\/","title":{"rendered":"Friday Playlist"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yesterday was the 30th anniversary of the release of U2\u2019s The Joshua Tree<\/em>. I remember buying the cassette shortly after it came out, but I either got a bad copy or let it sit in the sun or my tape player mangled it, because within a couple plays it began sounding terrible. As I was five months from getting my drivers license, I couldn\u2019t just run back to Musicland – or whatever relic of the 80s I purchased it at – and swap it out for a new copy. In fact, it was another year or two before I finally replaced it, so my history with the album was delayed a bit. I heard all the massive singles – when I think of the spring of \u201987, those first three songs of side one are prominent memories – but didn\u2019t really learn about all the excellent songs on side two for some time.<\/p>\n

I went through the obligatory U2 Phase<\/em> in college, mostly in the winter of \u201993 as I recall. That\u2019s when I purchased every album in their catalog, spun them on high repeat around the house, and had a tape of my favorites to listen to in the car. I was deeply into The Joshua Tree<\/em> at the time, and likely would have called it my favorite U2 album.<\/p>\n

Fast forward nearly a quarter century and I rarely listen to U2 anymore. I gave up on their new music when it became nearly impossible to distinguish between their songs and Coldplay\u2019s.1<\/a><\/sup> And the old songs meant less to me than they used to, so spins of the classics became less frequent, too. Once a year or so I\u2019ll put on The Joshua Tree<\/em> or Achtung Baby<\/em> and listen all the way through. But when a U2 song pops up on the radio, I\u2019ll often search for something newer and more interesting to me. <\/p>\n

I still think Achtung Baby<\/em> is a slightly better album, mostly because The Joshua Tree<\/em> was evolutionary – the perfection of the early U2 sound – and Achtung<\/em> was revolutionary – tearing it all up and trying on new things and having it work amazingly well. But I\u2019ll admit, for all my indifference to U2 these days, spinning The Joshua Tree<\/em> yesterday was a very, very nice hour or so. Much like The Bends<\/em> and OK Computer<\/em>, I think I\u2019ll call these my 1A and 1B U2 albums.<\/p>\n

For today\u2019s playlist, a couple Joshua Tree<\/em> songs, a couple from Son Volt, and another very fine tune.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/user\/224aiwksicafjldlua6nnpo4y\/playlist\/5wz42eWnnbNw6HR6m8l9Px<\/p>\n

\u201cRunning To Stand Still\u201d – U2. One of the greatest songs in their catalog.<\/p>\n

\u201cColour Of Water\u201d – Rose Elinor Dougall. A very Irish name, although she\u2019s officially listed as English on wikipedia. This is a lovely song.<\/p>\n

\u201cSinking Down\u201d – Son Volt. Son Volt has been all over the map through the years. Sometimes Jay Farrar is completely locked in and his albums are perfect. Other times he drifts a little and I\u2019ve not been interested in his output. I\u2019ll admit I was surprised when I listened to their new album Notes of Blue<\/em>. It stacks up well with their best work, which is quite an achievement for a band that\u2019s been around for over 20 years now. This scorcher is one of the album\u2019s strongest tracks.<\/p>\n

\u201cWindfall\u201d – Son Volt. Son Volt\u2019s 1995 debut album Trace<\/em> remains the countriest album I\u2019ve ever loved. The lead single, \u201cDrown\u201d, fit nicely into mid-90s alt-rock radio. But the rest of the album had a serious twang to it. But I remember driving home from my second-shift job one night, hearing the band on Rockline, and them playing this song live in the studio. As I was driving across eastern Kansas after the sun had set, I was in a perfect place to hear it. I listened to the whole album the other night and it holds up really, really well.<\/p>\n