Eshtine

top ten albums: here's one of them

(Recently Rolling Stone magazine put out a call for people to submit what they consider the top ten best albums ever recorded. I decided that I would list only the ones that I consider the best, which inevitably means the ones that have part of my personal history wrapped in them, not the albums that everone says are classic. So I'm posting bits of my list, in no particular order.)

Over the Rhine, Good Dog Bad Dog

There are a lot of CDs being released these days. There are millions of singers, legions of bands. And most of them are not very good.
Itís hard to appreciate this unless youíre on the front lines, as I was, briefly, when I was a DJ at a community radio station. Hundreds of promotional CDs from bands came to the station every week. The music director, who was either demonstrating how much he liked me or how much he hated me, put many of these in my mailbox at the station. I tried at first to actually listen to what Iíd been given, and to be kind to these poor souls looking for their big break by playing tracks on my show. But after a while I gave up. There was no quality control filter at work on these CDs before they reached me. People have recording studios at home now, CD manufacturing is downright cheap. Anyone, talented or no, can get their work to a radio stationóparticularly to a community radio station. Yay for power to the people. So sorry, those of you who actually have talent. Your CD looks just like the new one put out by that garage band down the block, Embryonic Afghan.
Then a CD appeared in my mailbox on a night when I had planned to play some apocalyptic songs. (Having no set format for my show, Iíd often get it into my head to attempt a theme even when I had no idea how to pull it off.) I looked at the track listing and saw the first song was called ìLatter Days.î Yes, that would do. I may have previewed it briefly, I may have just stuck it on the air. I preferred kamikaze programming.
What can you say about an album whose opening words are ìWhat a beautiful piece of heartache this has all turned out to beî? What if these words apply to the music itself, all stately piano chords and a voice that almost catches in the throat?
I cannot express the wonder and joy of listening to all of Over the Rhineís Good Dog Bad Dog and discovering every song was perfect, just what it needed to be. It is simple, by todayís over-produced standards; the recording credits mention a third story bedroom and a kitchen and final mixes done at the neighborís house. It proves how a pure melody makes a song, not fancy digital trickery. These songs would still be pretty dressed up, but oh how lovely they are just as themselves.
This was the first and only time a CD that randomly appeared in my radio station mailbox was listenable all the way through.