Whoa ...

... way to bring the vitriol, Dave! Wait ... are you talking to me??? Cuz I personally need EVERY PRECIOUS FUCKING WORD in the posts below to communicate how I feel about albums/bands people have long since formed their own opinions of. But I agree, for all you other bloggers out there, keep it short and sweet, OK?

In other news ... I am SUPEREXCITED because I have finally found the soundtrack to my nervous breakdown! It hasn't happened yet, but when I move to an abandoned house in rural Ohio and hole up with a bottle of whiskey and a shotgun, I know exactly what will be playing in the background: Neil Young's After the Gold Rush. Perfect! I can tell I'm well on the way to said breakdown because I am completely and totally obsessed with this album at the moment. It's pretty much all I've been listening to. Supposedly it is loosely based on a screenplay for a movie of the same name, written by Dean Stockwell (Al from Quantum Leap!). Well, actually, that piece of trivia really has no bearing on the experience of the album itself. Repeated listenings do reveal a loose theme of some kind (although that could just be the breakdown kicking in)--you know, loss blah blah leaving blah blah the end of modern civilization blah blah ... something like that. In any case, the title track is the most moving song about alien abduction featuring a french horn solo you'll ever hear, "Don't Let it Bring You Down" is much better without the visual accompaniment of Kevin Spacey trying to seduce a hot teen (if you remember its inclusion via Annie Lennox's cover on the American Beauty soundtrack), and "Tell Me Why" is totally about YOU, my rapidly-aging rock n roll friend: "Tell me why ... is it hard to make arrangements with yourself/When you're old enough to repay/but young enough to sell?"

Gotta go, the bottle's callin' ...