Fortunately, both my Dad and my brother are music junkies, so going home is a free chance to shop for music. My Dad keeps everything in tall CD towers, in order by genre and then by name, so I just browse and pick up a stack like I'm at a music store. This year, I'm having the weirdest urge for Pearl Jam and U2. I think it might be because my brother is leaving for Korea soon, and not coming back for a whole year. I'm getting all mushy and nostalgic for the days when we were all packed into the family van for trips anywhere educational and not in the least interesting. I've been to more museums commemorating the Civil War through the medium of wax than, well... it's just bad enough I've been to any. Weirdo Americans. And their little wax corpses. Anyway, my brother was the perfect sullen teen and monopolized the car stereo and its cruddy tape deck with U2's Zooropa. I was on an utterly futile quest to play a lot of Andrew Lloyd Webber show tunes, and yet my family still let me live.
I've made it through the U2's 80s and 90s catalog and I'm on to Pearl Jam. But I'll say this- I still think that U2's Pop is an underrated album. And it's not only because of my deep and abiding love of synthesizers. They tried to do something different, and I think most of the songs have a certain end of the century ennui, with a darkness under the gloss, that I like. And it's better than a lot of their albums after the critical reaming of Pop, which have all begun to sound like diabetic versions of The Joshua Tree. But at least they give the Grammy award-carver elves employed. So, as a belated Christmas gift to anyone who needs one, here's two songs from my Secret Album Love, Pop:
If You Wear that Velvet Dress- U2
Staring at the Sun- U2
Enjoy, and have a nice winter break!
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