Songs don’t always have to be about “Her”

Have you ever been listening to an album and realize all the songs are about “Her” or “You”? “She” this and “You” that. That was the major issue I had recently while listening to Everclear’s “Sparkle and Fade” album. I used to really love that album and was really into Everclear for a long time. For some reason or other I, like everyone else I guess, stopped listening to Everclear. Probably just the usual over saturation of music we had in the 90’s going into the 00’s. As usual lately I’ve been going back, and suspending judgement as much as I could, to listen to the stuff I haven’t heard in a while. After the halfway mark of Sparkle I realized why I was liking it. All the songs are about “her”. Not every song needs to be about her, guys. But that isn’t any reason why I shouldn’t continue to listen through their albums. I know Art Alexakis got better with lyrics as he went on. I just won’t listen to Sparkle any more. Done.

I listened to an album I never new existed the other day while on my daily walk. Green Day’s “Shenanigans”. They’ve always been a relatively popular band so I’m not sure why I missed that one. And I can’t remember hearing at least one song off that album on the radio. Must have been one of their unpopular periods. I can see why, it certainly isn’t their best effort. It has its moments. Again, not an album I’d listen to again. I’m on a streak.

Or at least I thought I was. In the G category after Green Day I decided it was about time I revisited Chinese Democracy. It was an album I had felt like I was waiting for my whole life. And if you were a die hard Guns N’ Roses fan like I was you were probably put off. Just like me, you had probably forgot to suspend judgement and try to put it up against the other Guns albums. I did, when I first heard it.  I really didn’t think about it, the band, what I liked about Guns, and what set this album apart. Even though it was a really long time coming, and I should have expected it. Well, I did it, I put aside my past love of the Guns and approached Chinese Democracy as if it was the first thing I had ever experienced from Axl. And I loved it, as you probably would have guessed if you have read any of my previous blog posts. This was probably my fourth time listening to it the full way through and I really enjoyed it. I had broken the streak… temporarily.

My next blog entry will address my expectations of the bands I grew up with and love and how they moved into their transition periods and my reactions to them. It will also address this current topic of “It doesn’t always have to be about her.” Too many thoughts at once….

~ by nilentropy on January 31, 2014.