In the past two weeks, The Postal Service has really been dominating my listening habits. I have gone through three distinct phases in regards to this album. But in order to describe these phases, I will also need to describe some quirks in my personality regarding how I listen to music.
The initial phase, occurred when I was first introduced to "Give Up". Michael gave me a copy in mp3 format, saying that "This is what all of the hip kids are listening to". As is my habit, music that enters the iTunes on my PowerBook tends to stay there indefinitely. Whenever I listen to my iTunes on my PowerBook, I will check out the new music that found its way onto there. If it I like what I hear, I will buy the CD. If I don't like it, then I will not by the CD, and remove the music from my computer.
It is at this point that the album will have "graduated" to a point where I can listen to it in the places where I do most of my listening: on my home stereo, in the car, and it my iTunes that at work. I feel that it is important to note that my iTunes libraries at home and at work are separate, on purpose. Only the music that I have purchased finds its way into my iTunes at work. This is how I keep discipline over myself, in regards to enforcing that I legally obtain music.
That tangent side, it took about three listens of "Give Up" for me to actively seek out and purchase the CD, bringing me to phase two of my admiration of this album. Phase two was pretty much like how I romanced any regular album - I listened to it heavily (not quite every day). "Bad" albums, or "flings", will fall out of this rotation in a week or two. "Good" albums will hold on for at least a month. "Great" albums will hold on for one to three months. "Seminal" albums will always exist in my regular rotation at some level.
Examples of some seminal albums:
- Tool - Undertow
- Tool - AEnima
- Tool - Lateralus
- 16 Horsepower - Sackcloth 'n Ashes
- Radiohead - O.K. Computer
- Massive Attack - Mezzanine
- Faith No More - King For A Day, Fool For A Lifetime
- Sleater-Kinney - Dig Me Out
- Sleeping At Last - Ghosts
For example, I listened to "Lateralus" on a daily basis for over an entire year. And I still listen to that album between two and three times per month. That is what I consider to be the quintessential "seminal" album.
Anyway, during phase 2, "Give Up" appeared as if it was on its way to only "great" status. I listened to it a bunch, including trying to infect Kevin with it. I definitely saw the value of this album, but my listening eventually tapered off sometime in early January. It could have been due to all of the new music that I received via Christmas, but I'm not sure.
But all of a sudden, "Give Up " experienced a resurgence, bringing about phase three. For the past two weeks, I have found myself listening to this album almost daily. I think it is due to a combination of this album being great, and the mood that I have then in lately. But for whatever the reason, I am totally in love with this album right now! It is too early to tell yet if this disc is going to achieve "seminal" status, but I feel that there might be a good chance...
If you haven't heard it yet, you truly owe it to yourself to go and give it a listen.
-Andy