The Classic Album series seems to serve excellently as a way to help me warm to certain albums. A somewhat strange statement to make, but I think it has worked its wonders yet again. Or am I just under its spell temporarily? At one point, I thought Dark Side Of The Moon to be utterly overrated, and saw nothing that could possibly explain its status. Much later on, spurred by the gut feeling that I was missing out on something, I saw the Classic Albums program on the album. I think I realized I was missing something when they started going over "The Great Gig In The Sky" - the sea crashing against the rocks, that voice..at that point I said to myself "There's something there", and that even if the album was indeed gruesomely overrated, there was some magic here that I hadn't spotted before. I think I listened to the album again that very night, and wouldn't you know, it started making sense. I didn't become one of the people proclaiming it to the be the best album ever (such a thing doesn't exist!), mind you, but I quietly wondered, as I've often done, why I didn't hear anything (special) before.

I've never understood Who's Next either, so I thought I'd chance fate and see whether the mini-documentary would set me straight. As luck would have it, once again the program revealed to me that I like some of the material more than I thought I did (as they began a clip of "My Wife", I said to myself "Hey, I recognize this melody..it's sort of catchy, isn't it?") And, in the customary coincidence, I realized that the melody I was thinking about at the start of the day was none other than the one from "Getting In Tune". Slowly, but surely, I seemed to realize that I liked more of the material on the album than I'd led myself to believe. And, "Going Mobile", which for some reason I despised, seemed to make much more sense, and fit in with the mood I got from the two numbers here I've always adored ("Baba O' Reilly" and "Won't Get Fooled Again"), what with "When I'm drivin' free, the world's my home". It was starting to make conceptual sense as a whole, and the pieces of Lifehouse seemed to fit in my head.

I don't want to give the impression that it was the melodies that helped me change my mind though; no, no, no, they're important and all, but that isn't the biggest reason for my change of heart. I think it was the energy, the layering of sound that I saw/heard - I don't know precisely what it is, maybe it was just seeing Townshend on stage frantically belting out chords with such passion, and hearing him say what some of the songs meant to him. It all just made me feel more respect for the album, and feel as though I was being unfair in dismissing it. I tried listening a lot closer, and started finding things I didn't notice before. It also made me wonder what it is about The Who's particular brand of music that makes me shut off so easily. Quadrophenia was a tough cookie, but I eventually cracked off the outer shell and saw some brilliance in there (I don't think I've fully absorbed the whole thing just as yet!)

There are quite a few other acclaimed albums that I seem to have no problem "getting", indeed a few of them rank among my personal favourites. It made me realize that I seem to be a far more passive listener than I would've thought; in that I all too easily dissociate with the music and make it float into the background. It just happens that the sort of music in Who's Next (or Quadrophenia, for that matter) pushes whatever internal snooze button exists in my head. Reading some of the reviews of said albums helped me understand why. The Capn gives Who's Next the thumbs up because "the total effect that this album has on me, each and every time I listen to it, is so strong as to be undeniably deserving of an A+". Yes, the holistic approach to reviewing that I mentioned in the last post. But hang on, didn't I say that I tried to do that? Well, yes, but with certain albums, I think the way I listen to them makes me miss out in terms of a clear overall impression. It's easy as heck for me to hear or The Boatman's Call for that matter even Unknown Pleasures and magically "understand" what the appeal is. But in some cases, it's truly difficult, and it is what inspires some puzzling abonormalities in my taste.

Why is this the case? I think it's because I haven't yet developed a sophisticated enough palette to pick up the quality of certain music. To some extent, if the lyrics don't do anything for me, and the melody (vocal or instrumental) isn't all that catchy, and the song goes on for more than a few minutes, and there isn't this element of intangible magic (which can redeem anything), I seem to shut off. On writing this, I start to say "Hey, that seems a fair enough criteria". But it isn't entirely fair, for it is what made me once call "Won't Get Fooled Again" boring (shock! horror!), while happily sitting through the whole of "No Time To Think" with no qualms whatsoever; "No Time" just goes on and on, but Dylan's lyrics are enough to keep me entertained. See, the problem* with such a set of criterion, is that it doesn't account for unrestrained spirit, or soul, or whatever you want to call it, and just sheer power of sound. Which (I think anyway) is the magic you can find in something like "Won't Get Fooled Again", which makes it anything but boring. It's all a bit up in the air, this; but I think that's what I initially got out of Quadrophenia, what made me go from "Oh lord this is boring" to "Amazing..that..feel is just incredible!". There's more, obviously, but I do dislike trying to categorize such things. Put it down to the belief that they don't form an acceptable metric as the sum of the parts anyway.

I don't think it's time to despair as yet, though, for the palette can be refined, only it takes time. I mentioned in my review of Strange Days that I saw absolutely nothing in the album when I first heard it. "Hah! That Starostin has no idea what he's talking about!", I smugly said to myself (darn, "Love Me Two Times", "People Are Strange" and "When The Music's Over" all passed me by..I still can't believe it!), and later blurted out to someone that I positively hated the Doors. I think my reason was "they're so bluesy" or something equally cryptic (ehh this was probably after I'd heard L.A. Woman, which, surprise surprise, I also didn't like, and where for some reason both the title track and "Riders On The Storm" passed me by completely). The remedy as I see it is gently easing into different styles, in the hopes that they will bring one closer to style one seeks to enjoy. One of my broader goals, actually, is to someday understand jazz, which I have enormous respect for, but at the moment seems beyond my reach. A bit too intellectual for the current me, I sometimes say! But again, it's no doubt also because I haven't developed the palette required to stomach such things, and as such end up trying to listen to them like I might Stranded - not a good idea!

Don't be fooled (heh), though, for I still think Who's Next is overrated, but no longer do I think it's overrated and uninteresting. No, it's definitely interesting, and now I seem to be getting to the level-headed stage where I can say "I like it, but best album ever it is not". A step in the right direction! But this change of heart doesn't hide the fact that both Who's Next and Quadrophenia give me headaches by the end! I suspect it's because I play them loud, in an attempt to take in those bass lines and screaming solos. Ah, but no pain, no gain, do they not say? I don't think I've quite "got" the album yet, though I think I've convinced myself that there is some value in it, and that perhaps a few more careful listens can take me closer to pronouncing some sort of final judgement on it.

Since I've touched on Quadrophenia a couple of times, I may as well try to go a bit further with what I think about it at this stage. The sound is dense, and a few listens have made me realize that the first disc is near perfect - the problem, though, is the story is very hard for me to pick up. I still have no idea what "The Punk And The Godfather" is about, and as such end up listening to the music. "Isn't that what you should do anyway?", you ask. Well, it depends. The story is clear enough on "The Real Me" (a powerful rocker, and just the right length), but it seems a bit vague in other places, and as such I end up with a somewhat disjointed picture. The parts you do pick up are mostly quite good, and lyrically I think Pete is pretty on the money - I guess we're meant to relate with at least one of the four personalities, perhaps even all of them! However, the music makes up for this, because most of it is top-notch. Townshend certainly fell in love with synths by this point, and he uses them quite tastefully, complementing the guitar quite nicely. The song quality does ebb and flow a little, but most of it is of a surpisingly high quality - approaching this album with a slightly different mindset can produce quite a few benefits!

* Problematic only in the sense that if you apply it, you might miss out on something. Then again, maybe not, and maybe you'll filter out lots of garbage. Good going!