Today's album: Billboard Top Modern Rock Tracks 1990 (Various)
Length: 41 minutes
Activity: Treadmill walk
What listening to this album made me think of: Where the fuck was I in 1990, because I only know three songs on this album.
Oh yeah—I was in Buffalo in 1990, getting over a breakup with my first love back home after several years together, immersing myself in Buffalonian and Canadian music like the Goo Goo Dolls and Barenaked Ladies and moe. (mostly via osmosis because Rob and Chuck of moe. lived two rooms down from me in my dorm and I hung out in their room a lot and didn't give a shit whether they stylized moe. with a period or not, just if they had enough Labatt Blue for everyone, and by "everyone" I mean "me").
What I'm saying is I obviously didn't listen to too much of what was on the radio that year while ensconced in my Buffalo bubble.
Review: I can only adequately and fully speak to three songs on this compilation album:
• "Suicide Blonde," INXS: I can speak to this song, but there's not much to say, because I don't care much for it. Early INXS was best, peaking with Kick, which is one of my favorite albums of all time. I don't know if that's because it came out the year I graduated high school and therefore is entwined with all of that idyllic perfection one attributes to one's senior year of high school after much time has passed and selective middle-aged amnesia has taken hold. It's probably just a really excellent album.
• "Birdhouse in Your Soul," They Might Be Giants: This is before Malcolm in the Middle appropriated "Boss of Me," when TMBG was still quirky and so college, and I was so completely enamored that I blew my first pathetic Apple Bank paychecks to check them out at Irving Plaza and Roseland when I came back to the Island from Buffalo for good. It was fun to hear them again; it's been awhile.
• "Here's Where the Story Ends," The Sundays: I know it, but it makes me feel nothing. I thought of nothing. I was nothing.
How I felt after: Not as nostalgic as I'd hoped I'd feel.
Random fact I learned about this artist/album: I learned nothing.
Why I'm doing this: See Day 1.
Tweets and treats at @jenngidman.
