This one kinda just popped up, I wasn’t planning on listening to it and I certainly wasn’t planning on giving it my full attention, an official listen, but I did. So, bonus, I guess. If nothing else, it was a great reminder to me of how important multiple listens is, and also how important intentional listening is. I think I get lazy about that; I really need to be in the habit of doing at least one active, focused listen, where I’m not distracted by other stuff. And I need to be in the habit of reading through all the words to songs at least once. Those things are important, I’ve repeatedly verbalized them—mindful listening and lyrics—as important to me in the past, and I continue to not do them.
I did them here because I was recommended Blurring Time by a friend and I was pretty sure this one would matter to me, and it did. On the one hand, it’s a super useful story to have available to me and it gives me a really useful way to think about and see stuff. On the other hand, it’s too close and I’m so tired of thinking about it. For me, at least. Seeing it in other peoples’ stories I think is pretty remarkable, I hold a huge admiration. I also do think I quite appreciate Bells just, as an artist. I very much like the… lyricism is the wrong word. I like his poetry. Songs are not always music to poetry, or poetry to music, but a lot of this very much is, and I like it, I like his poetry.
All of that to say, I am deeply appreciative of a lot going on here, I emotionally connected to a lot of it pretty strongly, and that’s maybe not going to reflect super well in the ranking. Those personal connections notwithstanding, to the very basic level question of “Hey, how do you like that music?”, I’d have to answer something like, “It’s not bad. A bit mellow for my taste, but it’s pretty alright.” My current dilemma, therefore, is whether this is more appropriate for a B or a C. I like the music an amount I think of as a B or so, but frankly I think in a lot of ways I hold more respect for some of the Cs. Bs I just didn’t like enough to make As. Not necessarily all Cs, but a lot of them are the artists that had some kernel of something that I felt, that I thought was great, despite what felt to me like some critical failing. Bells is tricky because he’s hitting what are typically, for me, conflicting boxes, which is usually shunted to be a C range thing, but I don’t want to give him a C.
Eh, what the hell, A-
Bells Larsen complete, as an unexpected bonus i guess
tunafruitsandwitch 