Wednesday, November 29, 2006

The Buyer's Remorse of a Music Lover

I think we all have those albums or songs in our music collections that you can't believe you bought or own {as sometimes you get music for other reasons).

Now I have two tragic faults when it comes to music... I can be swayed by price and I can't throw things away if they suck. So, here is just a few of the motley groaners amongst the hundreds of cds I own.

Jewel- Pieces of You: Yes, I own a Jewel CD *shame*. It was 5 bucks at a pawn shop, it was 1997, and I was a little young and naive... I know better now, but now the market is flooded with it, so I can't really get rid of it through commercial means, and I can't bear to just throw it out. It isn't bad, and I can honestly say I listened to it at most 3 times in the last 9 years, but seeing it on my shelf just doesn't give me any indie cred at all. In retrospect, it was perhaps one of the easiest things to pick on in my collection.

Alisha's Attic- Alisha Rules the World : Well, at least with this one I have an excuse. When I was in college I was an arts reviewer for the institution's paper and that was one of the CDs I had to review. The question is, why do I still have it. I mean, I should have gotten rid of it years ago. Now, in thinking of the album, I honestly couldn't remember a thing about it. I had to go to Youtube to actually refresh my memory about what the group sounded like. It was that long since I had experienced them.

The 20th Century Collection- The Best of ABBA: Now, no excuse can really justify this, though I will state that I had just gone through a breakup and "The Winner Takes it All" was a pretty accurate assessment of my feelings at the time. And it was 10 bucks at a drug store, so it was slightly cheaper than making homemade Prozac. But now... shudder. I can't believe I own it.

The entire Letters to Cleo discography
: Back in 1994, Letters to Cleo had a minor hit with the song Here and Now, and at the time, I got really into the band. Being the favorite band of the heroine of 10 Things I Hate About You was strike one, Kay Hanley was the stunt singer(I love that term though) for Rachael Leigh Cook in Josie and the Pussycats was strike 2. Then Generation O! was when they were out and I really started to question my earlier love for the band. There are still moments that I like them, but as I approach 30, I feel like I've grown up and past their work now. Sad but true.

Jan Hammer- Escape from Television: Buoyed by the success of Miami Vice, Jan Hammer, the man who wrote the music for that series decided to capitalize his newly-found fame and release an album of tracks from the series. While the tunes do work as incidental music for the show, as an album... it is brutal. Yes, the Miami Vice theme song and "Crockett's Theme" are quality stand alone pieces of music, but wow, as a whole it will burn your soul... and not in a good way. My only consolation is I bought it from a bin for 3 bucks at a boxing day sale, so at least I didn't burn my soul and my wallet at the same time.

So tell me, what cds do you own that you aren't too proud of. We're all friends here after all. I've shown you some of mine, now I want to see some of yours.

10 comments:

Jody said...

You both are very brave.

I'm going to take a look and be back later.

poppedculture said...

I too must defend ABBA - everyone should have at least one of their collections. M

Much of what I don't like has been sold at a used CD place, the rest I blame on my wife.

Back in my cassette days, my indie killer would be Huey Lewis and the News - Sports. And I loved that album. And Billy Joel's Glass Houses. Damn I was geeky.

MC said...

OK, now about the ABBA... I had a friend about a decade ago that had everything they ever recorded... and some stuff happened between us and we aren't friends now and it sort of... well, it soured me to the whole ABBA experience as a hip thing, so take that condemnation for what it's worth. That being said...

Fab: I had a couple of Debbie Gibson tapes, so I have to bear that cross now too. And Samantha Fox... there may be an exemption in there somewhere. *remembers a certain Expose tape in his own past*

Jody: I want to see what you've got. :)

Jeremy: Yeah, Huey Lewis just sort of disappeared off the face of the earth, aside from his stints as a theme park helicopter pilot and a karaoke singer. But we all were geeky dude, we all were geeky.

Anonymous said...

I have ABBA in my collection as well but it's my wife's so I didn't include it on my list. Besides, and it's hard for me to say this, but it's a classic. I don't think there is any shame, Fernando.

Anyway, my list is up. It's a little different because there isn't much that I'm that embarrassed about in my collection...

MC said...

Well, Hootie and the Blowfish does qualify in my book.

Mel said...

Well, let's see. I have so many weird random styles of music that it's hard to say which ones are my indie-cred killers.
Um... Enya? Shepherd Moons, awesome CD; Caribbean Blue the best song on it.
How about Madonna? My brother the idiot sent me a goodie box from El Paso in which he packed a Jayzee CD and tha Madonna CD that has that Ray of Light song on it. Ugh. Gave away the Jayzee, but can't pay anybody to take that damn Madonna CD.

Greg said...

Brilliant post. I own three of Jewel's CDs. And I like them. Eek. I have quite a few "can't believe I bought that one"s hidden away in my closet. Jessica Simpson, Paula Cole, LFO! But I'm with Mel, Madonna's "Ray of Light" may be embarrassing, but it's totally worth it. One of my favorites of all time.

MC said...

Melanie: I should state that my list was the tip of the iceberg. I could have gone on.

greg: If you like it and you are out there in liking it, then you aren't embarrassed about liking it, and that is totally cool. I think she is saying that she doesn't like that CD and no one she knows will take it off her hands. ;)

Greg said...

Holy crap, you're right. I've been blinded by the "Light."

I better go lie down.

MC said...

But that's ok. :)