Today, a package came in the mail. It was one I was expecting today — Beady Eye’s debut album, Different Gear, Still Speeding.
A part of me wants to say, of course, that DG,SS is anything but a debut album; Beady Eye is, after all, the final line-up of Oasis minus Noel Gallagher, so they’re really not a new band at all. Oasis 2.0, basically.
My most recent album, then. Until my next one, probably in less than a week — I need to pick up Eisley’s The Valley, which drops tomorrow. And then, of course, Elbow’s Build a Rocket, Boys! will be along shortly as well.
Suffice it to say, I have a lot of albums. Well, CDs, really. But where did it all begin…?
1985. Starship. Knee Deep in the Hoopla.
I owned records before that. I have fond memories of a Mickey Mouse record of patriotic songs that, if I remember correctly, had Molly Ringwald as one of the singers. And I had the album Michael Jackson made for E.T. But I didn’t buy any of those; they were given to me.
Knee Deep in the Hoopla was the first album I bought. I bought it from Recordland.
“We Built This City” was in heavy radio play at the time. I thought it was pretty snazzy, and I wanted the whole album, and so, one Saturday, my mom took me to the mall and I bought it. A cassette.
I was twelve.
“We Built This City” goes in for a lot of abuse these days. Too artificial, too over-produced. I don’t know the last time I heard the song — it’s been a few years, surely — but it doesn’t bother me the way it seems to bother others.
There are worse songs. 😉
My second album was Mr. Mister’s Welcome to the Real World. I bought it for “Broken Wings” and “Kyrie.” The first was, at least for me, when I was twelve, one of the most romantic songs I’d ever heard. The latter… well, I don’t quite know why I loved it, but I did.
To be honest, I think that whole album is quite awesome.
I truly don’t know what the next album after that was. I can tell you, though, that it was probably six or seven years until my next. It wasn’t until I had a CD player that I started buying albums occasionally.
Those two albums I bought back in 1985. I don’t know if I still have the cassettes anywhere any more. I probably don’t. I’ve never upgraded either to CD, though I do have Mr. Mister’s greatest hits album of about ten years ago. They got me started.
I had that same Mister Mister cassette. I probably didn’t buy it myself, since I’m just a bit younger than you. I think I was 8 when that came out. But I remember totally grooving on it. Even now, if I catch “Kyrie” on the radio I’ll turn it up and sing, and I dunno why I like it, either.