Today’s playlist brought something rather queer to my
attention – the transition we made from tape to CD. Vinyl was definitely doing great
back in the 80’s and early 90’s, but forget that medium for this discussion, becaue it doesn't pertain. (I love the word "pertain.")
Pyromania was definitely a cassette album for me and back in
the days of cassette, a solid entire album was greatly appreciated over an album
that just had two or three good songs. (Stupid thing to say, right? Gimme a
minute. Real quickly... back in the day, we still bought shitty albums even if we knew they only had two good songs. If those two songs were really good... fuck it!)
In the days of cassettes there was too much rewinding and fast
forwarding. Remember, or imagine (if you’re a little 20 something
douche), halting a party or drunken get together for two to five minutes while
you fast forwarded an entire side of a tape to find your jam! It sucked! I remember saying things like, "hold on a second, this should be it." Hit play and "fuck! Oh wait, I was going the wrong way, I have to rewind."
When we got to the CD age it was so nice to pop in an album,
that you knew only had two great songs, quickly scan to them, hear
them and then throw in the next CD. Pyromania was a cassette that didn’t need
much tape movement, but sadly Blur’s debut needed some track skipping. 
Did you know that Def Leppard’s drummer only has one ball?
He didn’t just lose an arm in that car crash. (I’m just fucking with you, a
groupie cut off the ball years earlier.)
Pyromania was about as deep as I got into the “hair metal”
scene. I guess this pre-dated “hair metal,” but when that shit took hold over
the next few years, I was NOT paying attention.
I’m pretty sure I was in eighth grade when this album came
out, I owned it on cassette and soon after I chewed it up and spit it out, I started getting into early rap and
then my lifelong love of Indie Rock.
I have said this on the radio numerous times and I will
defend this statement until my death – “Photograph” is hands down the best Def
Leppard song ever recorded! If you disagree, I’ll cut one of your balls off and watch you bleed out.
(I’ll figure out something different for any of the ladies that disagree.)
Side one of this album was hit, hit, hit, hit, dud. “Rock
Rock!,” “Photograph,” “Stagefright,” Too Late For Love,” and then “Die Hard The
Hunter.” Side two was hit, hit, kinda hit, whatever, dud. “Foolin’,” “Rock Of
Ages,” “Comin’ Under Fire,” “Action! Not Words,” and “Billy’s Got A Gun.” Not
bad for the tape era.
I almost forgot to mention the intro to “Rock Of Ages.” “Gunter
glieben glauchen globen,” or whatever to hell it was, was so goofy and
transfixing… it made loving this album so easy. 
I loved Blur’s debut album, Leisure, when it was released,
but I really only dug the two “hits.” And the “hits” were fucking awesome!
Leisure was a CD era release for me, so it was so easy to go from track No. 1, “She’s
So High,” to track No. 7, “There’s No Other Way,” to get my Blur fix!
I just realized while looking at the Leisure Wikipedia page,
I had the UK version of this album. The U.S. track listing was different, and I
remember getting mine for free from my college radio station and it didn’t have
any artwork. It must have been a U.S. advance before they fucked with the
sequence of the album. What a fucking crime!(Editor's Note - Advance copy. Back in the day before the World Wide Web, record labels would print up "advances" of albums. Usually with no artwork and send them to radio, magazines and tastemakers. NOTHING got my dick hard like getting an album advance weeks or even a month before an anticipated album's release! I have the advace to Radiohead's OK Computer that Capitol Records super glued into a cassette walkman, so nobody would play it on the radio early! Fucking internet ruined all that. Now everybody gets shit when it leaks.)
Leisure is kinda one big song outside the “hits.” But, I will walk away from this listen with a new appreciation for “Fool.”
For the life of me, I can’t figure out what the opening
track, “No Hope,” on The Vaccines second album, Come Of Age reminds me of… The
Jam? The Strokes first album? I dunno, maybe? But, I love it! It's a new spin on the classic youthful lament of "what will the future hold?" Who cares? Cause I'm obsessed with myself and all my bullshit. Cheers! It makes me wonder what The Clash would have written had they come up in the age of The Kardashians or The Jersey Shore.
This album is a lot of fun, bouncy and energetic. “Teenage
Icon,” is something I really appreciate because it references stuff that I
know, but just barely. It makes me feel young and God bless a new band that can
do that!
There’s a definite early 50’s rock style here mixed with
some 80’s modern rock… I guess if Buddy Holly was in the Jesus And Mary Chain,
this is what you’d get? I’m asking, cause I have no idea what I’m talking
about.
“Bad Mood” is another one I appreciate, cause I’m usually in
one. “I Wish I Was A Girl” and the album cover make me wonder if there’s going
to be an Against Me Laura Jane Grace thing going on here, but who cares? And the last track “Lonely
World” is just pretty and off key enough to be endearing and awful at the same
time. I love it.
I gotta go back and listen to The Vaccines first record, What Did
You Expect from The Vaccines?, again.
This record also made me make a mental note to put The Jam,
The Buzzcocks, and Buddy Holly on next month’s playlist.
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