What I am Listening To: Archive

An at times depressing, but beautiful record. My favorite Matthew Good solo album, it was written at a time when Good was suffering with his mental health and diagnosed with bipolar depression.

As someone who has long been diagnosed with this condition, I can very much relate to the tone of the music and what Good went through.

Born Losers is the most radio friendly song and an enjoyable one. True Love will Find You In the End is a nice cover of a Daniel Johnston song - a man who has his own interesting, at times tragic life story.

Other great songs are the long, strange opening tune Champions of Nothing, the rock song I'm a Window and the breakup feely song She's in it for the money.

Not as easily accessible as the Fleet Foxes'  2008 eponymous debut album, Helplessness Blues is richer and more epic sounding.

Terrible album cover aside, Gimme Some is a very good record. On this record Peter, Bjorn and John sound closer to the extremely catchy pop of 2006's Writer's Block and less like 2009's more experimental record Living Thing.

Luke Doucet's debut solo album (2001) has some classic bluesy and heartfelt songs from the singer-songwriter and excellent guitar player.

I have been a big fan of this record since it came out in 2007. I believe it made my top ten list of albums that year. "Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!" is one of Cave and the Bad Seeds finer collections. It sports the familar narrative style (the title track, "More news from Nowhere") of Nick Cave. Lyrics are sometimes sublime and clever, sometimes rough, direct and highly sexual or violent ("Today's Lesson"), but that is Cave for you. He is never one to mince words.

Some tracks are less narrative as much as hypnotic and trancy, such as ("Night of the lotus eaters"). Still others are highly melodic ("Midnight Man") and there are a few ballads ("Hold on to Yourself", "Jesus of the Moon").

I remember graphically when and where I bought this album and the affect it had on me.

I had returned to Saskatoon after a year in Waterloo, Ontario and a year back home. Musically I was open to everything. I was inhaling Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Nick Drake, Beth Orton, Ani Difranco and a hundred other artists.

I had previously bought the compilation album "Hat's off to Roy Harper" mostly on a whim (I think I heard one track or the name associated with Led Zeppelin) and was blown away by how eclectic yet familiar, right at ease and distant at the same time that it made me feel.

So around 2001, I purchased this CD at Vinyl Exchange the only place I could find it in town. Music that was not mainstream was much tougher to come by back then. I believe I bought it partly because it was one of only two CDs offered of Roy Harper's (of his thirty or so total) and it was his newest offering.

By now, I was a Harper fan but my knowledge of his catalog was limited. Between the legally troubled Napster and Kazaa, it was difficult to find Roy Harper songs and certainly not this album.

Not Harper's best album, not his worst, it does have the ability to transport you away, if only for a while.

I am not completely sure on my verdict of the 2010 album Transference by Spoon. Some songs I love, while others I loathe. Some listens I really enjoy it, in other moods I do not.

Regardless, I can't stop relistening to it.