Tag Archives: 2023

Something Other Than Years

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It’s been a few weeks, hasn’t it? What’s been going on?

Well, aside from the PC issues (which have since been thankfully resolved), I’ve been dealing with the holiday rush at the Day Job and squeezing in my 750 Words, and taking it easy. Catching up on a few things and deciding that other things can wait until the new year.

I’ve been thinking about what I’m going to do here at Walk in Silence, because I feel it obviously needs a major change. On the one hand I’d been hyperfocusing through numerous entries about older music connected to certain parts of my past, and I’ve decided I’d rather not go that route anymore. I don’t need to post that kind of self-induced therapy anymore now, do I? But on the other hand, I’ve also been frustrated by my ‘new release posts’ which, let’s face it, are sounding a bit repetitious with not a lot of follow-through.

I’ve discovered that I’ve tied myself too closely to time management here, so to speak. I’m either talking about the personal past or talking about the immediate present. And I’m in dire need of untying myself from all of that. All of it has become less enjoyable and more…rote and uninteresting. It’s my own fault, really. I was just focusing too much on the acquiring of the music and not giving myself enough time to let it resonate with me. And that’s a problem when you acquire an album you like at the time but only vaguely remember any of the songs from it a few months down the line.

I want to change that.

You may have noticed that I haven’t posted my end-of year list here, and that’s partly due to my inability to focus on new releases much this year. Sure, I do have a few favorites from this year (the above Lucinda Chua album, YIAN, is one of my favorites of the year, and of course I’ve had the ‘last’ Beatles song “Now and Then” floating through my head since it dropped). But…do I even have a countdown? Or a mixtape, for that matter?

I don’t, but I’m going to change that come the new year. I want to stop focusing on the acquiring and return to the resonance.

Until then, see you on the flip side, same schedule as always!

Walk in Silence XXVII

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Dang, how are we on volume 27 already? Or more to the point, how are we not at a higher volume, considering I started the series in 1988? Heh.

Either way, I’m happy to return to making mixtapes more consistently again. I’ve made it a point to give my listening habits a bit more breathing room — and paying attention once more to when a song or album catches my attention, and letting my brain latch onto it instead of just flitting onto the next shiny. I know it’s helping that I made that choice on purpose to tie in with my MU4 novel project, but the real point was to reconnect with why I love to listen to music so much. I’d lost track of that for a while.

[Note: One song is missing from this Spotify version of the mix, “Splinter” by Chatham Rise, which sits between Miss Grit and Beck as track 9.]

What I’m Listening to Lately

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Yes, believe it or not, I am not just listening to Belfry-era albums while writing! In fact, I’ve got a lot of relatively new tunes playing as well! Here’s a smattering of what’s on rotation here in Spare Oom…

The Tubs, Dead Meat, released 27 January. This is totally something I’d have listened to back in the late 80s-early 90s. It’s got that post-punk jangliness I loved at the time (The Church, IRS-era REM, and so on), plus its lyrics are very of that time (and very much similar to those of my band The Flying Bohemians). Thanks to KEXP — again — for introducing me to this great London band!

Belle & Sebastian, Late Developers, released 13 January. It’s essentially leftovers from the band’s 2022 album A Bit of Previous but they stand extremely well on their own. It’s a super fun listen and kind of sounds like a successful mix of their folkier early sound and their poppier later years.

Everything But the Girl, “Nothing Left to Lose” single, released 13 January. Tracey Thorn and Ben Watt are back as EBTG after far too many years and they haven’t missed a beat. This is a stellar song and I’m eagerly awaiting their new album Fuse, which should drop mid-April.

New Order, Low-Life (Definitive), released 27 January. For some reason I always skipped over this album when I listened to this band back in the day, preferring Brotherhood instead, but giving this one a new listen recently has made me realize just how flipping great it is! However, as I’d mentioned to a friend earlier, it occurred to me that this is a stellar album marred by songs being in the wrong key; not that Bernard Sumner is out of tune (he tends to waver sometimes, which I’m used to), but that these songs are so out of his range, as he really strains on some tunes like “Sunrise”. Still, great album!

파란노을 (Parannoul), After the Magic, released 28 January. Noisy shoegaze from South Korea? Of course I’ll give it a listen! You guessed it — another band introduced to me by KEXP. They’re definitely reminiscent of Ride, with songs that sound like light bursts and unassuming vocals that insert themselves perfectly into the melodies.

Dave Rowntree, Radio Songs, released 20 January. The debut from Blur’s drummer is intriguing in that it’s quite moody and mellow but also reveals who might have been behind some of Blur’s more quieter and more introspective songs as well.