Let's turn the clock back to 2003. I've just gotten to Oberlin, a nice, moderately hipster liberal arts college, and everything about my persona and taste is acclimatizing. My clothes are still a little bit on the baggy, clueless side, and my hair is just trying to grow out at all costs. This music thing, however, I think I am starting to get the hang of. I read Pitchfork Media sometimes to try to find more cool bands to like, and occasionally I just start browsing through their archived reviews (sorted only by first letter), trying to happen across something obscure but worthwhile. One day, browsing through the letter D, I come across their review for an album called Hate by The Delgados. This happens to be my (one and only, at the time) ex-girlfriend's last name, so I arbitrarily click on it. As I read through the review, my intrigue only grows. An 8.1 is one of the highest ratings I'd seen on this particularly snobby website, and the writer pitches over and over again how epic and yet bleak the album was. I play a hunch and order Hate from Amazon, and a few days later it shows up.
At this point, I'm going to skip ahead. Over the remainder of my freshman year, Hate spent more time in my combo CD-player and tape deck stereo system than any other album, excepting OK Computer (only my favorite album of all time). I played it falling asleep, doing homework, on other people's laptops in dorm lounges and in the background of heart-to-heart talks about love, life and other deathly serious matters. When they came on tour through Cleveland, I went to a girl who had stolen my heart and slid the CD under her dorm room door with a sticky note telling her to listen to tracks 5, 8, 9 and 10. Two weeks later we rode into the city together and saw a kick-ass show at the Grog Shop. Disclaimer: Despite this excellent opportunity, I failed to capitalize and never got anywhere with said girl. In related news, I was still a pretty big dork with no moves to speak of. The Delgados, on the other hand, have a couple of really good moves. Notably, these include male-female vocals much like the modern-day phenoms The XX, swooning orchestration lifted from Brit-poppers such as The Verve, and a rhythm section that gallops along like a steel-shod war charger. For your listening pleasure, here are the aforementioned tracks 5, 8, 9 and 10...
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Moderately hipster? Sir, you are too kind.
ReplyDeleteSeriously though - I've actually never listened to this album. I'm excited - you've just introduced me to something really really awesome. Thanks :)