George Carlin once said — and I’m paraphrasing here — that he was a visionary, a man ahead of his time… but only about an hour-and-a-half hour ahead.
It’s a good joke, and one that’s wrapped around a kernel of truth.
Indie rocker Britt Daniel, best known as the front man for Spoon, has always seemed to carry a similar torch. Invariably I rush to purchase every new Spoon album, the anticipation of receiving fresh music from a favorite band building to a crescendo, only to feel underwhelmed. Sure, it sounds okay, but nothing really moves me.
I listen all the way through a few times, then put it aside. Oh well. They can’t all be winners.
But I’ll always drift back to it a few months later, and lo and behold: it’s a masterpiece! It’s always a masterpiece, or nearly so. Something has shifted in the time since its release, and I can never know for sure if what shifted was me, the entire musical landscape, or both. Perhaps their music just requires patience: time for the seeds to take root and develop into something digestible. (more…)
Sharpening Pencils 