My Desert Island Is Stuck in 1997
So I happened to catch about 30 minutes or so of High Fidelity on TV this morning. It was the first time that I'd seen any portion of the movie in years, and possibly since I saw it in the theater.
Let's be honest here -- the movie is awful. Whereas the book was clever, honest and funny, the movie felt completely fake, whether it was John Cusack's awful voiceover and non-believable turn as an obsessive music fan, to Todd Louiso's annoying portrayal of Dick, to the complete and utter ridiculousness of casting Iben Hjejle (a lovely and talented Danish actress who wasn't believable as an American, let alone a Chicagoan, for a second) as Laura. It was an altogether misguided attempt to turn a book into a movie. (That said, the Weitz brothers' adaptation of About a Boy was excellent, aside from the change to the whole Ellie subplot and the somewhat schmaltzy ending.)
And while watching the movie reminded me of how bad it was, it also reminded me of the concept of the "Desert Island List" -- i.e., the list of things (albums, books, etc.) that you would want with you if you had to spend the rest of your life stranded on a desert island. Yeah, it's a pretty silly concept, but it can still be a slightly entertaining exercise to try to figure out what your favorite all-time albums are. Honestly, I don't think I've considered the question in years.
For much of my 20's (i.e., late 90's, early 00's), I had a pretty easy Top 5 at the ready -- Afghan Whigs, Black Love; Dinosaur Jr., Where You Been; Guided By Voices, Under the Bushes, Under the Stars; Son Volt, Trace; and Sunny Day Real Estate, Diary (depending when you asked me, I'm pretty sure I alternated Wilco's Being There and Uncle Tupelo's Anodyne with the Son Volt disc).
Amazingly, as I thought about the question this morning, I realized that my list really hasn't changed much over the last decade. Every single album on my 1997 list would still get strong consideration for my list today. The only albums that I would consider putting in the list now that weren't in the original list are: Guns n' Roses, Appetite for Destruction; Jawbreaker, Dear You; Neutral Milk Hotel, In the Aeroplane Over the Sea; Teenage Fanclub, Bandwagonesque; and maybe The National, Alligator. And even then, I'm not sure which, if any, of these would displace any of the original five.
What does it mean that all of these albums (except for Alligator) are from the 90's or before? Am I stuck in the musical past? Is music not as good today? Do I not relate to music the same way in my 30's that I did in my 20's? Am I just getting old and cranky?
The answer probably includes aspects of all of these things. The one thing I know for sure, though, is that I'm gonna have to make room on that list for Chinese Democracy whenever it finally comes out.
posted by Steve @ 2:32 PM
3 comments
3 Comments:
It means your getting old. Take it from a guy whose musical top 5 is stuck in the mid to late 80s and is about a decade older than you.
I've been thinking about this, and I think it means you're frame of reference is too small. There are no records from the '60s-'80s that make the cut?
I'd add that, since the '90s, undergrounds music has become more balkanized, which means there's less chance of a band making a grand gesture that reaches beyond its indie ghetto.
Finally, you, like me, may feel like the intellectualization of indie rock in the last 10 years or so has made for music that's less affecting than the (slightly?) less self-conscious--or perhaps I should say self-aware--'90s.
I suppose I should clarify -- these aren't the albums that I consider to be the 5 "best" albums of all time. Instead, they're the 5 albums that mean the most to me; that have I have the closest relationship with; that I consistently listen to the most; and that I would have the hardest time spending the rest of my life not listening to.
Another clarification -- this is my list from 1997(ish). I'm still trying to figure out if it's changed at all in the last decade.
All that said, you're right -- a very small percentage of my CD collection predates 1990. I've got a lot of the usual suspects (Beatles, Clash, Dead, Genesis, Television, Velvet Underground, etc.), but by and large my collection post-dates 1990, which is the year I got my first CD player. (I still have a ton of old 1980's metal on cassette somewhere in my parents' house if you want them.)
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