Flipping This Quarter

Release Date: 6 February 2007 (O.I.E.)
Date I Got: 1 August 2007
Best Track: Green Eyed Soul
Other Notable Tracks: Corinne, Get Wise, Vagabonds and Hooligans

This is one of those albums that served as partial impetus for this blog. I got it from a work friend shortly before I left and moved cross state lines. It was a hectic time and I never listened to it or many of the others I got at the same time.

I’ve now given it a few listens in the last week, which is good because it has grown on me some. It is not completely my speed: a bit too indie, a bit too poppy, and a bit too something else. It’s a good album that provides a few solid tracks that would make good selections on an appropriate mixtape.

I am finding it difficult to describe the album accurately for I lack the appropriate knowledge base of RIYL artists. At various times I hear Matthew Sweet or Built to Spill and Some Artist that I can’t Think Of, but those comparisons are crap as I’m sure you know.

"Green-Eyed Soul" is pretty sweet, opening with a jangley picked guitar figure and a "na-na-na-na" chorus. Lyrically, it’s not as good as "Get Wise", which might actually be the best track, but I’m wary of the "The World Would Be Better Without Religion" stance because I think it’s wrong, but John Lennon has the same problem in "Imagine" so this may not even be a criticism. It’s hopeful, to say the least, and if I was willing to admit that I was an optimist, I think I’d be more down with it.

No Religion, no guilt
Just People acting like they should
No politicians spitting lies
Come on and get wise

"Corinne" is the track Allmusic recommends, and it’s a good one. It’s the most anthemic and longest cut. It reminds me vaguely of "Hey Jude", but I’m quite crazy sometimes. You can listen to this one on their Myspace page, linked below. And I see they are coming to town with the good Reverend. I think I’ll be at that show.

Get a second opinion!
[official] [allmusic] [Myspace]

Release Date: 26 February 2002 (Interscope)
Date I Got: 26 June 2003
Best Track: Source Tags and Codes
Other Notable Tracks: Another Morning Stoner, How Near How Far

Summer 2003. Living in an antiseptic nearly-new campus apartment. We didn’t pay utilities so kept the temperature absurdly cold: I wore socks all summer. No one would visit. I’d enter a room and close the blinds. My roommate would enter and open them. Three months of this.

I spent a lot of time that summer listening to Source Tags & Codes. I picked it up in a trade. I liked it right off, thought it was pretty good. I read Pitchfork’s review (linked below) and agreed with most of it, but was surprised at the 10.0 rating. This, being relatively early in my music geekdom, led me to many re-listenings in attempt to hear what the reviewer heard.

I don’t quibble with the rating, but it’s not something I hear. I like the album–a lot, actually–but there is a disconnect between me and it. In an alternate time-travel induced world where I’m still more or less me, this could be my favorite album. If I heard it at a slightly different time in my life, it would still be in the constant rotation. It is a soundtrack to events I never participated in.

And that’s sad, and one of the reasons I wanted to undertake this project. It had been probably a year since I last listened. There are just too many good albums and albums that play a bigger part in my personal narrative that good albums like this can’t compete against.

Get a second opinion!
[official] [allmusic] [Pitchfork]
[Video - Another Morning Stoner]