Skip to main content

10 favorite albums of 2010 - #6: The Way Out by The Books



Hello, greetings and welcome. Welcome to a new beginning, for this tape will serve you as a new beginning. That's right, a new beginning, as we're about ready to begin. On this recording, music specifically created for its pleasurable effects upon your mind, body and emotions is mixed with a warm, orange-colored liquid.
So begins this bizarre, baffling, beautiful album by The Books. Just listen to it. Set aside a quiet 50 minutes some day and just listen to the entire thing, from beginning to end.


This album will float around in your head for weeks afterward. Songs like, "A Cold, Freezing Night" will disturb you while you walk down the street. In a moment of meditation, words from one of the "Group Autogenics" will take you by surprise.


The catchy, flinging, "I Didn't Know That" will inevitably work it's way into your everyday thinking.


But this album exists not only in your mind. There are genuinely human moments on this album, like the ethereal "Beautiful People" and the sometimes-humorous, sometimes-heart-wrenching "Thirty Incoming."


This album is chock-full of awesome samples of thrift shop tapes, traditional folk music instrumentation, and a melange of masterfully manipulated music.


If you like the music, I suggest checking out the band's website as well. If you want to get into their head (and read a little more about the strange process of making this music), check out their blog. Absolutely brilliant.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Jesus, Lover of my Soul

An old friend and spiritual mentor of mine left a comment on my last "Religious Conversation" Post . It provoked so much thought that I wanted to share it with everybody, because I know quite a few of my religious friends are reading this, and I know quite a few of you who would make a similar statement. Here it is: There is an element in this conversation that is being overlooked (at least, I presume). There is an aesthetic beauty and, more, an affection, which Steven appears to have for God. This is not illogical; in fact, all human beings exhibit it for something. It may be subjective, and it is not conclusive, but it is completely logical. And I can't imagine an argument that would refute it. It is something like a man saying, "I love my wife. I appreciate her many virtues and charms; I believe her to be the woman most worthy of my affection and lifelong commitment." If I say this and someone were to say to me, "But EVERY man says that of his bride!

The Clink (New Friends)

Each other is all we have. It's no surprise, then, that when we think about the chapters of our lives, those chapters usually begin and end with the beginning and ending of relationships. My current chapter began in July 2016, when I made the move from Philadelphia to Denver. In many ways, it was the fulfillment of a promise made between Peace Corps friends; Carly, Evan, and I spoke often of our desire to live in the same place some day, and after two wonderful years spent with Kyla, it was time for me to join them. The great advantage to this arrangement is that Evan and Carly had been cultivating friends in my absence, so upon my arrival last summer, I was met with a wonderful group of people who had been carefully conditioned by Evan and Carly to like me. Readers of this blog will remember Evan and Carly from my Peace Corps days. They were the closest I had to family for two years, and by the end of our service, we were inseparable. Evan Pappy. Pop-pop. Dilly-dally

Religious Conversation With An Old Friend - Part 2

Keeping with the tradition of posting a religion-related comic before the serious  conversation: Okay, so here we go with letter* #2: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hi Stephan! Good to hear from you, man! I'm glad you responded to that post, actually. I post those in hopes that my Christian friends will respond. You're one of my Christian friends that can talk about these things without being unreasonable and/or put off. First you say,  Such a list saddens me, because many of those items can be easily explained through actually studying the context (textually & culturally), as well as distinguishing "paradox" from "contradiction". I know exactly what you mean. I'm familiar with many of these explanations. For me, the important thing isn't that there are alleged contradictions in the Bible per se or that there are alleged workarounds; the important point for me