The random witterings of Jonathan Morris, writer.

Friday 6 March 2009

I Love You (But You're Boring)

Whenever I’m deciding which CD to listen to – a fraught, complex and painstaking process – there are always certain CDs I skip. It’s odd. They’re like blind spots. Albums which I’ve bought, usually out of completism, but which I never seem to get round to listening.

A lot if it is arse-end of Britpop stuff; Blur’s last album, the Tears album, Ian Broudie’s solo album, Jarvis Cocker’s solo album. I think I’ve listened to each of them a maximum of once, and they made so little impression on me, I’ve never been able to summon up the enthusiasm to given them a second try. I think I did, once, manage to give Suede’s final album a second try, but to be honest I’d rather just listen to their earlier b-sides for the squillionth time. I also haven’t managed to listen to Oasis’ one-before-last album all the way through; until I have I’m not allowed to buy their latest one.

There’s also synthpop stuff. The Human League’s Romantic?, which still has its ‘£1’ sticker on the front. I don’t think I’ve ever managed to get more than twenty seconds into any of the tracks on it; the incredibly tacky production and instrumentation always puts me off. The same goes for a lot of Sparks’ 80’s stuff – I’d probably quite enjoy it if I could get past all the Casio synthesizers.

There’s other stuff. Paul Simon’s last album, which I remember enjoying, but which suffers the great misfortune of not having been recorded during the 1970’s. And the last Magnetic Fields album, Distortion. I love the Maggies, but boy oh boy it was a disappointment. Potentially great songs that sound like they were recorded inside a giant bucket.

One day I’ll get round to listening to all these albums. But... not today.