Thursday, March 24, 2011

The First Album I Really Loved

1. Picked up our season passes to Trafalga, went there and played a round of mini golf and had a blast.
2. The glucose test didn't make my wife sick.
3. Started Arkham Asylum... super fun.

Okay, so let's take a trip down memory lane.  Do you remember the first album you REALLY loved.  I mean, the kind of album that you didn't skip a single song, and you listened to it so many times that friends and family eventually told you that if they heard a particular song again that week they would break the device that made it play?  Well, today's post is about that.

When I was ten, or eleven, or twelve (I'm sure my sister will know and chastise me in the comments) my parents bought me and my sister a boom box for Christmas.  Do you remember boom boxes?  Yeah, good times.  Anyway, my sister was a dancer, so her's was smaller than mine so it was more portable.  Mine was bigger and made more noise because I was a boy.  We had a lesson on the proper care of CD's, because that's what was used at the time, and we were given a disc or two to start with.  I started with one of the Jock Rock series (a conglomeration of songs by various artists that were often played at sporting events), and I think a TLC album... I liked one of their songs, so my parents bought the album.  This was not my first favorite though.  I remember loving that boom box.  My love affair with music had not started yet, so I don't think I loved it because it dispensed music.  Rather, I loved that it was a big person item that was mine.  My uncles owned boom boxes, and now I owned something they owned.

Shortly thereafter Matchbox 20 made it big.  I can hear the groans of you readers, reading this in the future and remembering Matchbox 20.  Yep, they were overplayed, and we all knew every word to 3AM whether we wanted to or not.  Like many of my peers, I loved Matchbox 20, and somehow, I acquired their album, "Yourself, or Someone Like You."  I assume I got it for Christmas or something, but that was my first loved album.  I knew every song by heart.  I often put it in my awesome boom box, played it, put it on repeat, and didn't change anything but the volume for hours.  I don't know why, but Rob Thomas's voice touched my soul, and I loved the music and the way it made me feel.  I also came to like the name of the album.  I still love it.  It was very clever and made sense. The whole album was about insecurity and sadness:  Things you feel, or someone like you feels.  I think it's one of the best album names ever.  You can disagree, but you'll be wrong. :)



There were some lines that just hit me right, like, "It's sittin' by the overcoat, the second shelf, the note she wrote, that I can't bring myself to throw away,"  "What we learn here is love tastes bitter when it's gone,"  and "She's said 'it's cold outside' and she hands me a raincoat.  She's always worried 'bout things like that."  I mean, they had one song NAMED Damn!  Damn!  It was named a cuss word.  What twelve or thirteen year old wouldn't be in love with that?  Somehow the whole album was just edgy enough for me to feel like a rebel listening to it, but not so edgy that my parents wouldn't let me listen to it.  Heck, my mom even liked it a lot.. still does.  Yeah I wrote heck on my blog, what are you gonna do about it?

Now, I didn't like Mad Season (their second album), it didn't have the same feeling.  I also came to love other bands more, and other albums, front to back, more than Yourself or Someone Like You, but that album will always hold a special place in my heart.  It doesn't even have many memories affixed to it, because I was too young.  It just has a feeling affixed to it that I'll never forget.

So, I really do want to know your first loved album.  Go ahead and put yours in the comments.  I'd hate to think I'm alone on this.

Have a nice day.

8 comments:

  1. That is a great album. Really great!!!

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  2. Proclaimers "Sunshine on Leith"
    Don't laugh.
    It's the best album ever. I still love it and heartily belt out the words to every song.
    Best song on the album.. "Teardrops"

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  3. Still one of the best all around rock albums of the last 20 years. Every song gets to me even to this day. Mad Season was not my favorite but their next one, More Than You Think You Are, was another straight out great rock record. I understand they'll be releasing their 4th full length album later this year so I'm looking forward to it. Glad Rob Thomas will be still be with them because there is no Matchbox without him!

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  4. When I was six - I got a cassette tape from my twin cousins of New Kids on the Block and I LOVED IT. I knew every word to every song and I dreamed of going to their concert one day. Of course living in the middle of no where with my family having no money meant I never got to see them live. It was a great cassette tape from what I remember (which is very little now haha).

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  5. Too Bad by Doug & the Slugs. I bet you weren't even born yet. I reminds me of my first crush.

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  6. Sugar Ray - Lemonade and Brownies.

    If you have ever seen their debut, it has a naked woman on the cover, and at 13, it was EXTREMELY hard to convince my parents to let me buy it. But they did, and I did, and it was/is awesome.

    Sure, since then they have mellowed out a lot and Mark McGrath is busy doing E! News, Celebrity Apprentice and finding other ways to be given paychecks, but that first album was glorious.

    Oh actually, now that I am thinking about it, Weezer's debut was actually the first album I listened to 24/7, but it belonged to my bro. Sugar Ray's was my first purchase.

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  7. Of course, that's if you don't count albums my Dad's albums that I listened to a lot growing up.

    I still remember singing Money for Nothing while playing with He-Mans.

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  8. @OT
    Thanks, I loved it. Still like it occasionally, but can't listen to it like I used to.

    @Sprite
    Glad you're still into it. I honestly don't know much about the proclaimers. May have to look them up.

    @An
    I really haven't listened to "more than you think you are." After the let down of mad season I kind of gave up. I'll have to give them another shot.

    @Shelb
    New Kids on the Block. Very nice. I haven't seen many of my fav bands live either. I'd like to. :) Who knows? Maybe NKONB will do a revival tour. ;)

    @dbs
    I'll have to give them a look. I don't know them at all, which makes me assume they were before my time. Thanks for sharing.

    @Kev.
    Sugar Ray huh? Cool enough. Yeah, I have a love for Def Leapord Pyromania, and Queen The Best Of, but Matchbox was my first purchase, which is what I meant. :)

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