Grandaddy "The Sophtware Slump

Grandaddy "The Sophtware Slump"

Someone on a message board somewhere was recently hyping this album, and it made me think of it for the first time in a long time. So I revisited it last night and it was sounding better to me than maybe it ever had before (And I'd always thought pretty highly of it before anyways). It's weird in that it's as conceptual of a concept album as there is, all about technology and the modern man. But, as nuch as it's about that, The Sophtware Slump is an album I always associate with loss. Much of that could be my discovering Grandaddy in the winter of 00 when there was a whole lotta losin' goin' on in my personal life. In fact, I had a hard time getting into this album until one its tracks, the sublimely short and sweet "Under The Weeping Willow" somehow oddly wormed its way into my head and repeated itself endlessly in my head on a flight out for my grandfather's funeral. What's odd about it worming its way in is that I had no idea what the song was for the entire length of the flight. When I finally had some time to myself, that night, I went through the few CDs I'd thought to bring before I hopped on the plane, and found it was, indeed, a song off of the album. I can't tell you how much those lines meant to me that night:

"I wanna sleep

underneath the weeping willow

as it cries all night quietly

its tears all around me

until I'm allowed finally

to wake and be happy again"

I hadn't intended to get all livejournalish here, but here we are. Sometimes, not always, I find it interesting to hear why certain albums attain certain status for some people. I've probably heard better albums about loss (Then again, listening to this again, maybe not) but I'll never be able to divorce this album from my own personal experiences, and I wouldn't want to either. It's why, as much as I enjoy reading and contributing to polls about Best Albums or Songs, it's ultimately futile as you no matter how much I recommend something that has had a personal affectation on my life, I cannot ever recommend it in the same way. Because when your grandfather dies, and you have to rush out on a plane trip to his funeral, you're going to have your own musical accompaniment, and that's yours, and it belongs only to you, and you really can't share it with anyone else.



Anyways, this album is really good. I have no idea how you'd classify it. I guess it almost treads in the power or fuzzpop territory. Maybe I can sway you by saying that it had such an effect on actor Jason Lee (of My Name Is Earl, Mallrats and Chasing Amy fame) that he named his son Pilot after the first track of the album. I know it's cliche to say it, but this is definitely a headphones album, I couldn't believe the difference in listening to this album on the stereo, and listening to it on the headphones last night. Thrilling.