got some good ones but also meh ones, but they’re mostly consistent and good
RELISTEN1: there are a lot of songs that I’m familiar with that aren’t in my playlist. Which means that when I’d first listened through, I added them to my playlist and later took them off. I don’t remember when that was, I don’t have the record for it, but it would’ve been a while ago. Jonathan Coulton is one of the first artists I listened through for this project, over four years ago. Which means that these songs I remember would’ve been a significant portion of the music in my library for a good chunk of time, they would’ve gotten loads of listens. I vaguely remember at some point going back and checking them all and cutting loads out, I think because my tolerance for memey songs had gone down? Or maybe because I was just trying to cut out all the songs in my library I didn’t really love? I dunno, I could see it being either of those. I’ve been thinking about that recently, actually, considering pruning down my library. There’s just, there’s only so much time to listen to stuff, you know? Listening to new music doesn’t only cost the time it takes to listen to them in the moment, it costs the time it takes to listen to them again later.
Anyway, my main takeaway is that I feel about the same as I did before. The Thing a Weeks have a good sprinkling of stuff I really like, some stuff I don’t love, and a lot of stuff that I think is alright or almost alright, but doesn’t make the cut. The “normal” albums still hold onto some quirky themes and topics in the lyrics, but it’s toned down a lot and– well, that’s not even necessarily true, and that’s not why I like them more. It doesn’t feel like he shies away from what the quirkiness he’d done so wholeheartedly in the past, it just feels like he’s more thoughtful and more deliberate. Which makes sense, because he was, he had more than a week for the “normal albums”. Although, that’s an advantage both Artificial Heart and Solid State had, and I didn’t feel like Artificial Heart was the same jump up that Solid State was. I really was actually pretty impressed by Solid State this time around.
All that to say, Jonathan Coulton is pretty good, and I’m feeling pretty good keeping him where he is. I think I thought I had him lower than he deserved, but listening to everything I think I was right, a B makes sense with context. That’s another reason it’s important not to just cut out all but the best of everyone, it distorts my perception of the artist. I had cut out all but my favorite of Coulton’s songs, and so then a year or two later I was confused at why I’d rated someone so low whom has songs I like so much and no bad songs. It wasn’t because he doesn’t have songs I don’t like, it was just that I’d removed their visibility to me.
tunafruitsandwitch 