Physical or emotional, pain takes many forms. The worse it gets, the more frantic and desperate a person can feel. Sometimes, without a way to cope, it could bring you through a downward spiral of uncontrollable rage and misery. “The End” by Blue October is riddled with this pain and torment in every lyric and beat.
Ever just feel kind of in-between? Not quite depressed, but void of a specific emotion? You only want to sit there staring at the wall. You feel apathetic to life at that moment. You are an average person on this big spinning blue rock. The song “Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm” by the Crash Test Dummies always conveyed this to me.
This week we talk about what’s in our headphones, we review Green Day’s latest, ¡Uno!, and get into an in-depth discussion about what constitutes a “zero” rating.
It’s three in the morning; you’re driving home; it could be raining; it could be eerily calm. Whatever the circumstances, it’s time for that thing we all do when we’re completely alone with our own thoughts… that’s right, we think! And it doesn’t always lead us to the best of places.
At this point in time, you’ve received both Steve and Jon’s point of view on how we review things. As for me, sometimes I feel that I have an easier time rating these albums, having enjoyed a broad range of musical tastes and preferences throughout my life. I’ve been listening to music as far back as I can remember, and my dad raised me on everything from Classic Rock to Motown, Pop, and R&B. I know that, as of yet, I am the only one of us to have given five stars to anything, and I’m hoping that an explanation of my rating system will help everyone to better understand why.
It is very true that Steve has a fine ear for hearing music on an artistic scale, so he tries to rate it that way. Matt, on the other hand, has professed on numerous occasions that his ratings are based on his own musical preferences. I try to follow the fine line between both ideas. My first response is usually a like/dislike gut reaction, but I always try to nit-pick and pull out the positives and negatives as I go, especially if they contradict my initial idea.
Billie Joe Armstrong’s recent hospitalization, we review Hoobastank’s latest album, Fight or Flight, and talk with our guest Tyler Parker about his Shadow Play Project and his singing talent.
Each week, during the Crash Chords Podcast, Matt, Jon, and I task ourselves to an engrossing album review—usually ripe with vehement discourse, a heated exchange of opinions and observations, and a few revelations. Then, once all has been said, a fixed summation is usually warranted to close the book on the matter and call it a day. But the book is never quite closed, is it? That’s the wonderful thing about music (and art in general), that all it really takes for a work to gain someone’s favor is for that person to see it in a personal light. As long as it’s something provocative and close to home, anything has a chance at success. This is why, I believe, once our ratings have been spoken, they often result in a more generalized debate on the grounds with which we make such judgments, and the flexibilities we must grant.
Sometimes an emotion is too strong, too unfathomable, to be put into words. It’s not enough to say, “I grieve.” This is when music becomes the voice, the only way to tell the world, “I am not okay.” Grief haunts us at the worst moments. It never truly goes away, even if we come to terms with the loss.
You know you should get to work, or get to sleep, or just get calm—but you can’t. Without prompting, your heart starts racing, your blood starts pounding, and your breath starts coming up short. A manic mood overtakes you, spurring movement and placidity alike.
