Friday Music - Vol. 1

One of the things that makes the bus ride to work enjoyable, or at least not annoying, is having picked up an iPod a few years back. Having 40GB to stash every album you own in to have with you at all times is a lifesaver. No matter what mood I'm in, there's something for me (and often I can't decide and put it on random and see what pops up). I'll admit a lot of the time I stick to current or new albums, or favorites, but lately, I've been trying to dust off old albums I used to love quite a lot on fridays and listen to them. And so, I thought "Hey? Why not a regular post on friday of favorite music? And they both start with f...it's got to happen!" So here's a blurb about music, artists & albums I love, tacky or no, current or old, and why they mean something to me. Here we go: Volume 1.

It was hard to pick the first one, so I'll just pick the old favorite album I listened to this morning:

Zooropa, by U2.

I've liked U2 for a long time off and on- my favorite albums were when I was in university - Achtung Baby, Pop and Zooropa. They went through a huge range of styles and have mellowed a bit for my taste now, but in their prime, they were fantastic. J and I went to see the Popmart tour - the giant lemon ball was a thing of tacky beauty...Zooropa is, I think, just slightly ahead as my favorite U2 album. ..and one of my all favorite albums actually. I like U2 for the lyrics, singalongability (is that a real word?) and the Edge's ability to play the guitar like a hopped up, electric angel.
Zooropa is a great album for a rainy day...a happy day...hell, any day. I find I need to listen to it in it's entirety...there isn't one song on it that I don't like, and it really plays well as a complete album. Some say it's a moody album, but that's why I like it. I have many memories attached to it, and all of them good: long relaxing afternoons with J when we first met, walking in the rain in university with my discman, singing the squeaky part of Lemon along with my brother and J one afternoon in the sunshine, and even sitting and watching the snowfall on an early morning on New Year's day in the mountains, as my friend Peter put this album on after the KLF Chill Out album to relax to as the grand New Year's party of 2006 wound down in the snowy mountains of BC. I catch myself singing along to it unawares when I listen to it, and on more than one occasion have been smiled at while walking or on the bus as I sang outloud to it. Songs like Daddy's Gonna Pay For Your Crashed Car and Lemon are great cranking loud in the car tunes. "The First Time" has lyrics that have profound meaning to me... it all ends off with a haunting track "The Wanderer", sung by the Man in Black himself, singing about a post-apocylyptic man who loses and finds himself...almost.
I love it. If you haven't heard it, please do. It's not your typical U2 album, and a lot of people didn't care for it...me? 'Tis a grand thing.