Originally Posted by sidewinder

The Smashing Pumpkins - Gish


Having finished reading my latest book last night, I took the opportunity on today's morning commute to play an album with vocals, as I usually choose instrumental music to facilitate reading. What a treat that is sometimes, allowing me to actually listen and feel the music like the good old days, rather than just creating audio wallpaper for reading, working, surfing the web, etc. Even when playing vocal albums and doing these other things, you're just not really listening most of the time. It's a shame, and today's experience really made me miss the pre-internet days when I wasn't always doing something, and could really spend alone time with music. But today I just stared out the bus window, listening to the lyrics, reminiscing.

Many of us have expressed our love for this album in the recent week(s) as part of the "favorite alternative rock album of 1991" thread. This was a strong contender for me but I ultimately ended up selecting RHCP's album. This one is definitely the more emotional of the two, RCHP's being more of a party album. Songs like ‘Crush’ remind me of being young, naïve and blind to the affections of certain females I was friends with. Stupid me. Several songs in the first half have this affect on me, bringing me back to a time in my life where I felt so helpless and couldn't act on my emotions. Nothing beats nostalgia, eh? A little light rain made for a great melancholy Friday morning commute.

It also made me a little sad and got me thinking about how great artists/bands almost always turn to shit at some point. Why is that? Unfortunately I think I know what it is...they were inspired and driven by their emotions at one point, then they grow up, become more financially stable, get into stable relationships, and have nothing really meaningful or emotional to write about anymore. To add to that, we as listeners are more prone to becoming emotionally attached to music at a younger age for the same reasons, plus becoming more busy and not being as attentive to the music as we were in say our high school years.

Anyway I've gone on long enough, the album has ended and I'm at work, should probably get some work done and return to my normal listening habit and put on some audio wallpaper. But it was fun breaking away from the norm and being reminded of one of the girls that got away, or rather, that I never even gave a chance beyond friendship but wish I had.