The Grand Theory of Everything pt. 31

Last Friday, while being repeatedly blow away by the Decemberists at the Showbox, I started thinking about how unique and transcendent their music is. Which lead me to wonder what is it about certain kinds of music that makes me really flip for it. I think there are two basic classes of music that really excites me.

The first class is personified by artists like Robyn Hitchcock, The Decemberists, Neutral Milk Hotel, mid-period The Kinks, and late-period XTC. These artists manage to make music that is unlike anything every before. Sure they have their influences but they create songs that live in their own musical universe and operate under their own unique rules and expectations. A song may remind you of something else but it is unequivocally a Hitchcock song or a Neutral Milk Hotel song. There is also an unpredictable quality to the music. There is an inherent freshness to the work that makes it stand out even after the hundredth listen.

The second class of music less ambitious but still exciting; Guided By Voices, Teenage Fanclub, Ted Leo, early XTC, Early Elvis Costello, etc. There isn’t anything all that new brought to the table. There are no unheard sounds or song structures to be heard. The influences are worn on their sleeve. But what these artists do deliver is a perfect synthesis of their influence to create something special. I’ll mind myself enjoying both the song for its self and the way it intertwines the artists’ influences in equal measure.

Not all great music falls in these two classes but a fair about of my favorite stuff does. Things like later-period Costello and Franz Ferdinand are really enjoyable at first but there is some lacking and maybe too much formalism and formula and usually a few months down the line it seem comparatively stale.

Next Month: Why and how Elvis Costello lost his way.