Luckily for me, music is something I can obsess about. I can control it (what I listen to, when I listen to it, and how loud I listen to it) (Answers: Indie, all the time, and LOUD). And it makes me happy.In January of 2006, a shocking, barely memorable three years ago, I started writing music reviews for this site: www.theredalert.com. The stuff I wrote at the beginning is now pretty horrific in retrospect, but that’s the sign of a good writer, right? Not liking one’s past work indicates that I’m growing. Or at least that’s what I tell myself so I don’t seem like a self-loathing heathen.
Anyway, working for the site meant that I received emails that were the ‘inbox’, that is, a list of all the cds that my editor had received and that we, the writers, were able to choose from. Once the inbox list was obtained, writers could use the MySpace pages of the bands to determine which albums they wanted, which my editor would send to us. The most logical solution for me was to take these lists (sometimes as long as six pages) and go through them one by one, listening to at least three songs for a minimum of 15 seconds each, sometimes up to a minute if the vocals took longer to kick in. I would then categorize them into ‘Yes’, ‘Maybe’, and ‘No’. If my list of ‘Yes’ were shorter than 17 thaen I would borrow from the ‘Maybe’ list. Now, this can take days, even weeks, so by the time I finally turn in my ‘Yes’ list I usually only get about 8 back. Which is fine, ‘cause I usually only do one a week (I should be writing an album review now. But there’s an hour before bed, so we’re cool).
One time, I was halfway through a list when my ex (boyfriend at the time) closed the window and DIDN’T SAVE IT. I was so pissed. Days of work. Gone. And he wouldn’t apologize. Bastard. (He’s been up to more bastardly things lately. Seriously, why does anyone put up with him?).
Anyway, my editor (who after about a year and a half became my real work boss) and I were talking about my inbox-going-through-methods and he was shocked to learn what bizarre things I was up to. Apparently, he and other writers just kinda look around and pick what intrigues them or what they’ve heard buzz on.
Yay OCD!
Here’s a list of my top favorite albums of 2008 for those less musically/OCD blessed, followed by my lists of past years to show how much music has taken over my life recently:
- The Submarines: Honeysuckle Weeks
- Jeremy Messersmith: The
- The Billionaires: Really Real Forever
- The Virgins: S/T
- The Ting Tings: We Started Nothing
- Mates of State: Re-Arrange Us
- The Republic Tigers: Keep Color
- MGMT: Oracular Spectacular
- Oh Darling: Nice Nice
- Fleet Foxes: Ragged Wood
- Lightspeed Champion: Falling Off The
- Cherry Poppin' Daddies: Susquehanna
- Flight of the Conchords: S/T
- Vampire Weekend: S/T
- Electric Presidents: Sleep Well
- Thao and The Get Down Stay Down: We Brave Bee Stings and All
- The Explorer's Club: Freedom Wind
- Colorstore: Bonefish: The Legend of Mahogany Cass
- Grand Archives: S/T
- She and Him: Volume One
- Switches: Lay Down The Law
- The Spinto Band: Moonwink
- Sia: Some People Have Real Problems
- Minipop: A
- The Breakup: Eat Your Heart Out EP
07 list:
1 Teenager by The Thrills
2 Misery Loves Company by The Lovemakers
3 Under the Blacklight by Rilo Kiley
4 An Ocean in the Air by LoveLikeFire
5 Structure and Cosmetics by The Brunettes
6 The
7 Where You Went by Okay Paddy
8 The Bird And The Bee
06 list:
1.The Oohlas/Best Stop Pop
2.Muse/Black Holes and Revelations
3.Morningwood/Morningwood
4.The Strokes/First Impressions of Earth
5.Mellowdrone/Box
6.Weird Al/Straight Outta Lynwood
7.The Tender Box/The Score
8.Arctic Monkeys/Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What
I’m Not
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