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White Flags, a year later.
So, WFOWC has been out just over a year now, how has the past 12 months changed you opinion of the album?
(I'd written quite a bit here first time, but my cat decided he didn't like it so promptly jumped on the keyboard to erase it!)
*This is my experience. I make my apologies here for any terrible analogies, metaphors or similies that may occur.*
So, when I first got the download, I was insanely excited. It was the first proper release from 2 of my childhood musical heroines in years, I will admit I was fairly bouncy. I ordered my CD/LP/download as soon as I could, and cued up the MP3s as soon as they downloaded.
After my first listen, I was stunned. I knew I'd just heard something awesome, but I couldn't take it in. I could barely remember anything about it. It had overloaded my musical senses! So, what did I do? I added the album (and all the other W&L stuff on my computer) to my MP3 player and set them all to random.
And then I started, slowly, to fall in love. On my bus home after work, every time a song I didn't recognise came on I instantly paid attention. It was if the songs were slowly opening themselves up to me like a cautious kitten, making sure I was paying attention to them. After the first week of this, I put the CD on again and listened to it fully. It now made sense. The songs work fantastically by themselves, but come together as an album brilliantly. It's as if the songs are the Park Güell by flashlight and the album is the full view in the daytime. So basically, I'm saying that in the past year I've grown to love this album a lot. The other thing I've taken from this has been a deeper appreciation of the songs from the other albums. I've been noticing things I hadn't heard before in tracks I had heard hundreds of times. My epic Wendy * Lisa playlist has just underlined what amazing musicians they are. The first one I noticed was the percussion in Stones And Birth, but the underlying funkiness to Always In My Dreams, the superb bassline to Turn Me Inside Out, and I'm still trying to hear everything in Skeleton Key, which is one of the most incredible musical parties I've ever heard in one song. There's more going on in that song than most albums. But yeah, I'll stop rambling and let other people post what they've got to say here!
December 30th, 2009 at 7:00 am
WFOWC sounds fresh and new with every listen.
January 7th, 2010 at 1:43 pm
I had WFOWC in my car CD player up until this past November when I decided that I needed a little change. So, I put in Eroica. That lasted for about a month until I started to missing WFOWC! So, WFOWC is back in the car CD player and still sounds amazing. For some reason, I LOVE to hear 'Red Bike' on my way to work. I think it has to do with irony of hearing "I'm freeeeeee" and knowing very well that if I were actually 'free', I would not be on my way to work but would still be sleeping in bed :) Each song still sounds as great as it does since I first hear them over a year ago. "Sweet Suite" still gives me goosebumps each time I hear it! I don't anticipate that changing anytime soon :)
February 22nd, 2010 at 5:50 pm
To me, it's just like 'The Wall' by Pink Floyd. It'll be something that remains relevant and clean because of the muli-contextual themes, moods, ambience. It's prog-rock to the extreme yet accessible. One year, ten years, 30 years, it will still have place in my 'classics' playlist, right along with Queen, Joni and Tori Amos. Then again, I'm a fan :), perhaps a bit biased.
March 9th, 2010 at 7:33 pm
i can't tell you how good THAT makes me feel you guys!
I can't believe the record has been out this long already. it has been so fun and satisfying to have you all out there to listen to our music. It gives us purpose! We make this music in a little room by ourselves and.....???
we put it up and out and never know if anyone will hear it or care. you're the people we imagine in our heads when we write or sing into the blackness. . . .
THANK YOU. xo <3
March 9th, 2010 at 7:36 pm
Dear Colicub,
"It's as if the songs are the Park Güell by flashlight and the album is the full view in the daytime."
that is such beautiful poetry.
x
March 17th, 2010 at 7:02 pm
Dear Lisa,
Having a compliment like that from one of the artists I hold in the highest of regards means more to me than I can convey in words.
I can convey it in the stupefied grin on my face though. :D
Thank you so much!
¬C
April 2nd, 2010 at 9:34 pm
OK, it's 3:30 AM so prepare for some sleep-deprived lucidity, but....
I've been listening to the album a lot this week, and that analogy works in another way. If you study the songs individually, you notice all the little bits and pieces that you might have missed otherwise. That extra little flourish here, that harmony there. The little bits you might not see when you look at the big picture because you're trying to take everything in. However, you study a section in detail, and it shines in its larger context. You see how it fits together, little bits connecting here and there. Themes that follow on, from piece to piece. Noticing little touches in one bit focuses you to finding them in others. Like one of those postersof a main image made up of lots of smaller images.
Sorry ladies, I'll stop using your forum to prattle on incessantly! Honest!