First off, I am not really sure how this thread is going to go. To be honest I just wanted to talk about one of my favorite albums of all time. Let me just say that I find it a bit therapeutic. Though I will probably just sound like a middle school teenager expressing his or her feelings on social media by posting a song lyric. But instead of just having a thread about that one album, I thought a thread about all of our favorite and beautiful albums?
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, or so it has been said (exactly by Margaret Wolfe Hungerford...not so exactly by the likes of Shakespeare and Benjamin Franklin)..so it stands to reason that beautiful music can take many forms,,,rock, pop, opera, classical, polka (yeah even polka). So this thread will be dedicated to all those albums that you...the TSC member...has meaning to you or you just like how all of it is put together. If so inclined, maybe a little explanation as to why you think this is an Undeniably Beautiful Music Album.
So...I guess I will go first.
Okay something that you should all know about me. For the longest time (and even now I guess) I have had the propensity toward music that might lean toward the sad or depressing side. I would call it melancholy...my friends call it "sad bastard music." This mood comes and goes...I guess that mood is back again. Okay enough of that.
But in all serious...I do have an inclination for singer/songwriter music. As such, I am a HUGE fan of Aimee Mann. Who is Aimee Mann you say? Oddly enough most people that lived in the 80s, in some form or fashion, have heard her as she was the lead singer and founder of a group called 'Til Tuesday. Their most famous song, was of course, "Voices Carry." You might also know her from the movie "The Big Lebowski" as the nihilist who gave up her toe for the elaborate fake kidnapping scheme. But I am getting way off course.
I am a sucker for concept albums, from "Tommy" by the Who to "The Dark Side of the Moon" by Pink Floyd From "American Idiot" by Green Day to "The Suburbs" by Arcade Fire. It's the long form version of telling a story through music. One album that tells a cohesive story. "The Forgotten Arm" by Aimee Mann is no exception.
I will admit that Aimee Mann isn't the best singer. She isn't the best musician. But that woman can write a song. Think of Bob Dylan...but you know...a woman.
"The Forgotten Arm" came out in 2005. Roughly the same time as some of my other favorite albums (or at least I discovered them about the same time): Arcade Fire's "Funeral," The National's "Boxer," and Muse's "Absolution."
This album really caught my attention as there is a very raw and emotional feeling to this music. As such, Aimee Mann through various interviews revealed that "The story in The Forgotten Arm is girl (Caroline) meets boxer (John) at a county fair, boxer and girl go gaga for each other, boxer and girl go on the road, boxer is addicted to drugs, girl cuts boxer loose, boxer wises up to his problem and quits the stuff, boxer and girl ride off into the sunset. The title of the album refers to a boxing maneuver wherein a fighter in close quarters uses one arm to punch and lets the other arm hide in plain sight, waiting to land a surprise blow. No doubt this idea of a sucker punch fits perfectly with the ups and downs of Caroline and John's cross-country tryst-- falling in love, learning about your lover's drug addiction, the addict finding out he's being dumped. It's also a maneuver Mann uses adeptly within songs, dropping in a deceptively powerful detail that snaps a scene into sharp focus, like this couplet from "The King in the Jailhouse": "...they pack up their troubles in an old Cadillac-- that's her in the mirror, asleep in the back."
Okay, I'll admit this sounds a bit like a Thelma & Louise type movie. But once you listen to the album...I assure you that it is nothing like Thelma & Louise. The music itself is beautifully orchestrated...and sad. It's sad because you really feel the rawness of what each character is going through. It's a rollercoaster of another person's emotions. But it's more than that. I don't know. The music is highly relatable even if you have never been in such a toxic love affair.
I love just about every song on the album. But admittedly, I have my favorites. Like..."Little Bombs." A song that illustrates a hyperbole of hopelessness and hope. I can only imagine that the character John in the song had been a big part of life and is now only a spectator and he is coming to terms with it. Or maybe it's a man that squandered opportunities and thought that even if he failed...he would fail in a huge explosion...only to realize that his failure just amounted to something more of a...fizzle.
The subsequent song "That's How I Knew This Story Would Break My Heart" is just as powerful and beautiful. From the perspective of the female lead in this story, Caroline, the first set of lyrics read:
I drew a picture of you
You and your anchor tattoo
And saw the face that I knew
Covered in shame
You drew a bird that was here
A kind of sweet chanticleer
But with a terrible fear
That the cage couldn't tame
That's how I knew this story would break my heart
When you wrote it
That's how I knew this story would break my heart
Okay...by now you must think I have lost my rocker. Well I have...I will admit it. And I understand that my affinity toward this Album specifically is not likely to get the rest of you rushing out to listen to it. But if there was ever an album that put the human condition on display and explain it through song...it is this album.
To my ears, this album is undeniably beautiful!
Okay, so...do I dare as? What are your Undeniably Beautiful Music Albums. I have more...if you can put up with it...but I want to here yours. A couple of songs from the album linked below.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, or so it has been said (exactly by Margaret Wolfe Hungerford...not so exactly by the likes of Shakespeare and Benjamin Franklin)..so it stands to reason that beautiful music can take many forms,,,rock, pop, opera, classical, polka (yeah even polka). So this thread will be dedicated to all those albums that you...the TSC member...has meaning to you or you just like how all of it is put together. If so inclined, maybe a little explanation as to why you think this is an Undeniably Beautiful Music Album.
So...I guess I will go first.
Okay something that you should all know about me. For the longest time (and even now I guess) I have had the propensity toward music that might lean toward the sad or depressing side. I would call it melancholy...my friends call it "sad bastard music." This mood comes and goes...I guess that mood is back again. Okay enough of that.
But in all serious...I do have an inclination for singer/songwriter music. As such, I am a HUGE fan of Aimee Mann. Who is Aimee Mann you say? Oddly enough most people that lived in the 80s, in some form or fashion, have heard her as she was the lead singer and founder of a group called 'Til Tuesday. Their most famous song, was of course, "Voices Carry." You might also know her from the movie "The Big Lebowski" as the nihilist who gave up her toe for the elaborate fake kidnapping scheme. But I am getting way off course.
I am a sucker for concept albums, from "Tommy" by the Who to "The Dark Side of the Moon" by Pink Floyd From "American Idiot" by Green Day to "The Suburbs" by Arcade Fire. It's the long form version of telling a story through music. One album that tells a cohesive story. "The Forgotten Arm" by Aimee Mann is no exception.
I will admit that Aimee Mann isn't the best singer. She isn't the best musician. But that woman can write a song. Think of Bob Dylan...but you know...a woman.
"The Forgotten Arm" came out in 2005. Roughly the same time as some of my other favorite albums (or at least I discovered them about the same time): Arcade Fire's "Funeral," The National's "Boxer," and Muse's "Absolution."
This album really caught my attention as there is a very raw and emotional feeling to this music. As such, Aimee Mann through various interviews revealed that "The story in The Forgotten Arm is girl (Caroline) meets boxer (John) at a county fair, boxer and girl go gaga for each other, boxer and girl go on the road, boxer is addicted to drugs, girl cuts boxer loose, boxer wises up to his problem and quits the stuff, boxer and girl ride off into the sunset. The title of the album refers to a boxing maneuver wherein a fighter in close quarters uses one arm to punch and lets the other arm hide in plain sight, waiting to land a surprise blow. No doubt this idea of a sucker punch fits perfectly with the ups and downs of Caroline and John's cross-country tryst-- falling in love, learning about your lover's drug addiction, the addict finding out he's being dumped. It's also a maneuver Mann uses adeptly within songs, dropping in a deceptively powerful detail that snaps a scene into sharp focus, like this couplet from "The King in the Jailhouse": "...they pack up their troubles in an old Cadillac-- that's her in the mirror, asleep in the back."
Okay, I'll admit this sounds a bit like a Thelma & Louise type movie. But once you listen to the album...I assure you that it is nothing like Thelma & Louise. The music itself is beautifully orchestrated...and sad. It's sad because you really feel the rawness of what each character is going through. It's a rollercoaster of another person's emotions. But it's more than that. I don't know. The music is highly relatable even if you have never been in such a toxic love affair.
I love just about every song on the album. But admittedly, I have my favorites. Like..."Little Bombs." A song that illustrates a hyperbole of hopelessness and hope. I can only imagine that the character John in the song had been a big part of life and is now only a spectator and he is coming to terms with it. Or maybe it's a man that squandered opportunities and thought that even if he failed...he would fail in a huge explosion...only to realize that his failure just amounted to something more of a...fizzle.
The subsequent song "That's How I Knew This Story Would Break My Heart" is just as powerful and beautiful. From the perspective of the female lead in this story, Caroline, the first set of lyrics read:
I drew a picture of you
You and your anchor tattoo
And saw the face that I knew
Covered in shame
You drew a bird that was here
A kind of sweet chanticleer
But with a terrible fear
That the cage couldn't tame
That's how I knew this story would break my heart
When you wrote it
That's how I knew this story would break my heart
Okay...by now you must think I have lost my rocker. Well I have...I will admit it. And I understand that my affinity toward this Album specifically is not likely to get the rest of you rushing out to listen to it. But if there was ever an album that put the human condition on display and explain it through song...it is this album.
To my ears, this album is undeniably beautiful!
Okay, so...do I dare as? What are your Undeniably Beautiful Music Albums. I have more...if you can put up with it...but I want to here yours. A couple of songs from the album linked below.
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