Over the years there have been many albums that have really hit home. Many bands really hit certain things right on the money and some dance certain subjects.
Goldfinger for me has always been one of those bands who pretty much spell out have I am feeling about the things I go through in my life. No record may have
accomplished this more than
Goldfinger's 1997 release "Hang-Ups". From the first lick of music I was forever bonded to this record.
"Hang-Ups" is a vast array of what seems like happy music with some real sad but enlightening lyrics. Its starts off with the brilliant ska song "Superman" about a person who pushes themselves beyond their limits. I have always been that person to go the extra mile and work an extra 6 hours a day for example just because it seems like the right thing to do. However as the song says one can only pretend to be a superman as we are really just human beings who eventually run out of steam. The next several songs "My Head","If Only" and "This Lonely Place" are tales of lost love and depression which really struck a chord with me and some of the things I was going through in those areas at that time. Two of the next several songs are "Question" and Disorder". These are two unbelievably kick ass songs that just couldn't speak to me more. "Question" is all about not knowing where you are going in life and thinking that you will never be able to get through it and yet you may not realize how you actually have it much better than others in this world who have much worse problems. The song goes on to show that YOUR life is all YOU have and in the end you either have memories of how you made the most out of your time here or you did nothing but waste time. "Disorder" is again about how life can not always turn out to be how you planned. It also speaks about the need to tell someone about how badly they have wronged you and how they are just making things harder by doing so. In the end the song leaves you knowing that you must keeping pushing through because no one wants to be a quitter.
This is one of those records as I have said about many other records just doesn't have a bad song on it. Some of my other favorite tracks are "The Last Time","Chris Cayton", "Carlita" and "I Need to Know"
This has by far been my most favorite album to write about as it is one of my most favorite albums of all time. It came out in my first semester of college when it seems like almost everything its speaks about was happening to me. I had many issues with school, friends, parents and figuring out just what the hell life was really about, how the hell I was going to get through it and what exactly I wanted to do with my life. I am almost thirty years old and I know there are kids going through the same things as I was when I was in my late teens and all I can say is listen to this album. It one necessarily solve all your problems but it will make you feel a little better about them and it just might lead you in the right direction. The only thing that was better than buying this record was going to see Goldfinger on their tour for this album at Irving Plaza in NY City in the fall of 1997. Watching them perform these songs was a great release for me and a night I will never forget. Truly a moment and an album from my youth that will stay with me forever.
Album Quote:
"You don't know what pain is, you haven't suffered one iota so just stop your whining"
This months review is of a very different and cool record called "OK Computer" by the band Radiohead. Radiohead was a band whom the only other band I at least could compare them to is Pink Floyd. "OK Computer" was released in 1997. The first single "Paranoid Android" hit MTV with an animated music video very perplexed and deep. The album quickly became yet another hit for this band of the grunge era who weren't grunge at all. It really has alot of mellowed out songs great for chilling out to or falling asleep to. I always liked songs like "Let Down", "No Suprises", "Subterranean Homesick Alien", "Lucky" and even what became a hit single "Karma Police".
