The last two weeks have been, well, blah. It's not that blah things are happening, but more that I'm just burned out. Totally. I'm sick of making Christmas stuff, I'm tired of spending every waking hour not already scheduled for other things sitting at the shop churning out merchandise. And mostly, I'm just tired. So very tired. I've bitched for, like, half a decade about how energy drinks are probably just death in a can and that someday we'll find out we've totally done ourselves in by drinking massive amounts of them -- and yet in the past few months I've developed a really bad RockStar habit. Hell, when you run on three or four hours of sleep a night for long enough, you've got to do something to stay awake.
Anyway, after staying up for over 24 hours between Thursday afternoon and Friday night, I decided maybe it would be good to just take the weekend off. Sleep in. Sit at home. I even broke out the Guitar Hero III Saturday night, even though I swore I wouldn't sit down to play it until after the Holidays were over. And now I'm messing around on the computer and listening to Neurosonic's Drama Queen album for, oh, the 50th time since, um, Monday.
So in the interest of totally wasting time doing unproductive things, I'm going to make a list.
I like a lot of different kinds of music. Most of the time, when I find a song I really like, I just add it to my iTunes playlist or whatever and appreciate it however often it pops up in the shuffle. Back in the day of cassette tapes, I'd rotate pretty evenly through the albums I had, and was a big fan of mix tapes. Now and then, though, I find a particular group or album that I latch onto. And when I say "latch onto," I mean really obsessively. My old college roommate has a list of albums and artists she'll never be able to hear again without suffering post traumatic stress after being subjected to constant and repetitive play for weeks and weeks at a time -- and that was a decade ago. (Then again, after rooming with her, I have a permanent hatred for chick flicks and their accompanying movie soundtracks, so I'd say we're pretty even.)
So, here's the list of albums which have spent very extended periods of time in my CD player on "repeat":
1. The Bangles Greatest Hits -- What is there to say? Best girl band of the 80s, hands down.
2. In The Zone -- Okay, I hate to even put this one on here, but I feel like being honest. And as a little disclaimer, I would like to say that I just like some of Britney's songs and not really her as a performer -- what she puts out is all the product of her producers and stuff anyway, and given that so many of her songs are really enjoyable despite the fact that she can't sing worth crap, I can just imagine what somebody with a decent voice could do with that material. Anyway, it's a good record for working out, and, you know, fun.
3. Stripped -- Great album, and now that we've seen Christina in concert, I have to say she sounds even better live, which is saying something. Back to Basics is an even better album, but I never did get that itch to just play it over and over like Stripped.
4. Decade -- I'm an 80s chick, and you can't have a good 80s pop collection without Duran Duran. I was listening to this album over and over back in the day when I had to take the tape out and flip it after each side was done. My first copy was actually dubbed off from a friend's cassette, and I nearly wore it out before cheap CD players came along and I replaced it.
5. Garbage / Version 2.0 -- These were long term CD player residents back in Chicago, especially when I was at work. I think I kept them at my desk for something like three months, alternating them now and then. Shirley Manson kicks ass.
6. She / Star Turtle -- One of my housemates at Missouri Scholars Academy in 1992 was totally in love with Harry Connick, Jr. I'd never really heard of him, but I liked what I heard. It wasn't until he released She, though, that I really developed an intense appreciation. The big band stuff is okay, and I know a lot of his fans didn't really appreciate it when he ditched the jazz and headed for funk, but I couldn't get enough of it. In fact, "She" is right at the top of the list of albums my college roommate never, ever wants to hear again. By the time Star Turtle came out, I had a CD player and listened through headphones to spare her the "torture."
7. Schizophrenic -- Funny thing... Back when *NSync was still together, I used to make fun of JC's lyrical abilities and praise Justin's. And then Justin released Justified and JC released Schizophrenic, and I was left making fun of Justin instead. There's not a single track on Schizophrenic that I don't like, which, I suppose, is true of all the albums on this list. Thus the repetitive plays.
8. FutureSex/LoveSounds -- As I said, I was never very impressed with Justified. So I wasn't all that excited about a second album. But when Kourt bought it and played it, it turned out to be really great. The thing is, though, that you have to basically listen to the whole album in its entirety, because whenever you hear just one track your brain automatically goes to the next one right after, and you just have to hear the whole thing to get your brain clear of the earworms you know come next.
9. Eye to the Telescope -- I heard Black Horse and the Cherry Tree on VH1 one night and immediately had to get the album. KT Tunstall is brilliant. I expect her second album is just as great, but I haven't gotten the chance to hear it yet. I'm hoping, maybe, for an iTunes gift card for Christmas so my broke ass can get it.
10. Contraband - The Best Of Men At Work -- Again, great 80s band, great stuff even beyond the really popular singles, and I found it to be a great album for working in the architecture studio in college.
11. Celebrity / No Strings Attached -- Yeah, I'm an *NSync fan, and probably always will be. Yeah, I get laughed at about it, too. And everyone can kiss my ass. Like I'm the only one. Over two million albums in a week doesn't happen to an album that sucks. They broke up at the peak of their popularity, and if Justin hadn't gotten the itch to go solo I think they'd still be around, still making progressively more interesting records. And you should have seen them live back in the day.
12. Drama Queen -- Okay, if you haven't heard of Neurosonic yet, go over to their myspace (they're in my top friends) and check them out. Or, hey, just go buy the album. Trust me. I've already gotten my sister hooked, and that's saying something -- she's picky.
13. Best O' Boingo -- Anyone who can't appreciate Oingo Boingo is insane.
14. Discography -- That's the best of the Pet Shop Boys, for anyone not familiar. Everybody's got to get their gay 80s synthpop on from time to time, right?
15. The Hits -- I've said before that if I had to pick one artist whose music I had to listen to for the rest of my life exclusively, it would be Prince. He's a frickin' genius. His newer stuff is just as great as his 80s fare, but being the 80s freak I am I have to lean towards the old stuff.
16. Flood -- I don't think it would have been possible to spend 5 years in an architecture school in the 90s without falling in love with They Might Be Giants, this album in particular. It's the best for long car trips and allnighters.
There. I've been random. Maybe I'll go play some more Guitar Hero now.
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