Seasonal Albums

[create_destiny]

There are certain albums that are best enjoyed during a particular time of year. To listen to such albums in their "off-season" is to deprive yourself of the full album experience. R.E.M.'s Green album, for example, is best enjoyed in the spring, whereas Fables of the Reconstruction should be played in the fall. Talking Heads Speaking in Tongues or Jane's Addiction's Nothing's Shocking are best when played in the summer. This is not to say that these albums cannot be enjoyed "out of season" ---it's just that they're best when experienced "in season."

Autumn This is the perfect time of year, the perfect month even, to listen to Concrete Blonde's Bloodletting or Portishead's Dummy. Dummy is one of the best damn albums of the '90s if you ask me and it has a long season that goes from late October to early March.

What season should your favorite albums be played in?

Comments

[ygolonac.livejournal.com]

I don't think of any of my favorites as having a best season for listening too. It all depends on my mental mood and that changes a lot more often than the seasons do.

[createdestiny.livejournal.com]

Dude, tune in. Do some 'shrooms or something.

[somethinghead.livejournal.com]

I initially discovered matt pond PA from a friend's blog post about a bunch of albums/music she was into. Actually, now that I think about it, it was a girl who I wasn't so much a friend of, but had a class with and tremendous crush on in college that I never acted upon... ANYWAY, matt pond PA's album Several Arrows Later is a fall album (and she defined it as such). The album opener is even called "Halloween."

[createdestiny.livejournal.com]

Yep, sounds like a fall song to me.

[bug-311.livejournal.com]

Oh man! I'm so glad someone else has Seasonal Music Taste... I always wondered if other people felt the same way I do. :)

For me, I like most of 311's music in the spring and summer. They remind me festivals, bbq's, beer, swimming, driving a convertible. They make me feel warm and happy, like that first week we get of spring after a long sucky winter. Like you said, it's not wrong to listen to them "out of season" but it just feels perfect to hear them at the right time of year.

Sublime is definitely a summer band for me. I tend to listen to particular music styles more at different seasons. I prefer hip hop and stoner rock in the summer more. In the fall/winter I tend to listen to more alt rock, and emo-esque stuff, like uh Pearl Jam or My Chemical Romance. I tend to lean towards more angry or depressing music when it's the middle of January...

[createdestiny.livejournal.com]

Yes, emo in the winter. The Cure, Cat Power's earlier stuff is best in winter I think. I need to get some 3-11. 3-11 for beginners. I think I've only heard a couple of their songs, but what I've heard I've liked.

[raingirl26.livejournal.com]

Wow, I've never thought about music based on seasons except, of course, The Four Seasons by Vivaldi. But what a great idea. I will dwell on it.

This song you have shared is one I only know through a movie sound track (can't pull the name right now), but totally love! I'll now have to check out the whole album.

[createdestiny.livejournal.com]

The Four Seasons is bi-seasonal---best in spring or on a crisp fall day.

The song could be from Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless mind.

[raingirl26.livejournal.com]

Oh, I loved that movie, but now I remember - it was in Stealing Beauty!!!! I've got to watch that again - it is such an embracement of life, those Italians.

[superhappytime.livejournal.com]

Oh, that was a nice try, but not an effective mother joke...

"Take me to the River"...so does that mean Al Green is only a summer guy, too? I don't think I actually ever listen to that one on Stop Making Sense...I'm trying to remember if I do on "More Buildings..." I definitely prefer the live versions of Girlfriend is Better and Life During Wartime, though...

Why? Because I'm a Girl?

[createdestiny.livejournal.com]

Talking Heads do it so much better. Your mom took me to the river once. And oh, what a night it was!

Re: Why? Because I'm a Girl?

[superhappytime.livejournal.com]

Now that one was more amusing...

So are you saying covers are better than originals? (I don't dispute this sometimes, but there are plenty of people who claim it's not possible...these people have apparently never heard the Byrds, Jimi Hendrix, etc take on Bob Dylan)

Re: Why? Because I'm a Girl?

[ygolonac.livejournal.com]

Superhappytime is just upset because somebody besides him calls me 'lover'. He's such a jealous little bitch sometimes.

Re: Why? Because I'm a Girl?

[superhappytime.livejournal.com]

I don't know if anyone who makes "I can't quit you jokes" while playing poker with his buddies and has pent up workplace anger can ever be called "lover."

More like "the guy I'm sleeping with, but I still don't trust him 100% cause he might be nuts...."

But I can see it, I suppose...now I just picture you wearing cardigans, sporting a long beard, and sipping expensive wine while voting against gay marriage while screwing over farmers on the animal rights bills...typical Californian.

Re: Why? Because I'm a Girl?

[ygolonac.livejournal.com]

*sob*

Now is the time on Sprocket that we listen to The Smiths and weep.

Re: Why? Because I'm a Girl?

[createdestiny.livejournal.com]

Hey that's an idea of a possible music post you could write up----covers that are better than the original.

Now I know you're going to laugh at me again (for loving those Georgia peach lesbians), but one example of a cover that's better than the original is The Indigo Girls singing "Uncle John's Band."

Re: Why? Because I'm a Girl?

[superhappytime.livejournal.com]

you're brining up horrible college memories now of all the lesbians at Agnes Scott college (right next to the largest lesbian bar in America, where the Indigo girls started) playing that music way too much...and some guys...but it was typically the type of guys who were also way in to Dave Matthews...

[goddamnitbabies.livejournal.com]

That was wonderful. Thanks for the reminder.

[josh-hanson.livejournal.com]

I have seasonal connections to albums, but they have less to do with the tone of the record and more to do with the when and where of my deep infatuation with it. I tend to obsess over new music and listen for a month straight.

Therefore, Joe Henry's Short Man's Room will always be a winter album as it makes me think of my first winter in Missoula, carless, walking everywhere through the snow.

Similarly, I discovered the Modern Lovers (far too late in life) working the late shift in the summer. So, I always imagine riding my bike home at midnight in the balmy summer in the absolute dark.

I love that.

[createdestiny.livejournal.com]

Yes, the time of year when an album is initially consumed is also a factor. Modern Lovers is definitely winter stuff. Jonathan Richman's later stuff is both fallish ("New England" and "Cleopatra" of course) and his goofy stuff is summery.

[anodyne19148.livejournal.com]

"Fables of the Reconstruction" is truly a fall album. That's actually my favorite record of all time.

[createdestiny.livejournal.com]

Great minds think alike. ;)

[nodressrehersal.livejournal.com]

I so want to have a seasonal album that I'm contemplating making one up. The only thing that immediately sprang to mind was Bob Seger's Night Moves and I'm worried because I'm not embarrassed to say that.

[cwmackowski.livejournal.com]

Wow, Green has always been a fall album for me--mostly because I saw R.E.M. twice on their tour for that album during the fall.

I agree about Nothing's Shocking. That's a great "roll the car windows down, drive really fast, and blast the speakers" summertime album.

[createdestiny.livejournal.com]

Green is spring for me because it came out in the spring and "You are the Everything" has a line in it about spring.

[derekfz.livejournal.com]

I think most of my seasonal associations with albums related to the time of year that I first bought them. While they're great albums any time of year, I always want to hear Captain Beefheart's Trout Mask Replica, Pohgoh's in memory of bab, The Clash's London Calling and Prisonshake's Failed to Menace in spring and early summer.

This past summer, I listened to the second disc of Frank Zappa's You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore, Vol. 5 frequently at work. I have to think the fact that it was all recorded during a summer tour (1982 tour of Europe) and almost all at outdoor concerts is what makes it feel and sound so summer-y to me.

[createdestiny.livejournal.com]

You and your Zappa fetish. I just don't get it. Give me one youtube video* that will change my mind.

*since that's the easiest way to share music in this forum.

[derekfz.livejournal.com]

Sure, make the douchebag who's on dialup find something for you on youtube!

[createdestiny.livejournal.com]

Ha ha!

[derekfz.livejournal.com]

I don't expect it to do anything for you, but here you go.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fz7NkiOp5-M