The Wind Cries Rory

I'm flattered. I'm pretty sure I've never had an album named after me before. Not counting the ones I made myself at any rate. This is clearly an album of firsts, and it continues to be such when I start to listen to it.

For the most part it's the first time I've ever heard—or even heard of—these artists. That's pretty much the point of this exchange. But I'll be honest that it was something that almost stopped me from participating. When it comes to music, I am not a neophile. In the end though, I shouldn't have worried. There's so much variety in this album that I'm sure anyone could have found something they like.

I have a confession to make. I didn't just listen to this album and decide if I liked it without knowing what was on it. I can't do that. I need to be able to give a song a name before I can properly decide if I like it. Anyone else get that? I used certain tools that shall remain Google to find out what these songs were. I managed to compile a listing for 13 of the 15 tracks. Since the other two proved undiscoverable I'll just have to pretend that they don't really exist.

So here's the track listing:

1. King Creosote—Cockle Shell


2. Lacrosse—You Can’t Say No Forever


3. Guillemots—Cockateels


4. Jay-Z—Change Clothes


5. Cansei de Ser Sexy—Let's Make Love and Listen to Death from Above


6. The Rapture—Whoo! Alright, Yeah... Uh Huh


7. Florence and the Machine—Kiss with a Fist


8. …


9. Alphabeat—Digital Love


10. Shout Out Louds—Tonight I Have to Leave It


11. Lykke Li—Dance, Dance, Dance


12. Operator Please—Other Song


13. …


14. Laura Marling—Failure


15. Leonard Cohen—Suzanne

Wikipedia tells me that there's a surprisingly Scandinavian tone there. A clue about the album's compiler? I have no idea. Frankly I couldn't begin to guess who this is from.

Ok, enough lead up. Let's get to what the review is meant to be about. Is it any good?

Well like I said, it's got something for everyone, so what's it got for me? I really like the cover of Digital Love. Maybe that's cheating, because I already know the song (though not this version) and this exchange is meant to be about new music.

So then I offer Kiss with a Fist. Brilliant song. I really like it. I even thought it was good before I knew anything about it beyond the name, "Track 7", and as I already noted that's not something I'm usually capable of. Best song about domestic violence all year. Did I imagine it or have I since heard this in a TV advert?

Those are the best two, but they're not the only good here. Tracks 2, 6, and 12 have also happily worked their ways onto my iPod.

After several straight-through listens (more than any other non-Pixies album this year, in fact) I find the rest of the album doesn't grab me quite as much. Some parts are quite lyric-focused, so I imagine whoever made this collection is the kind of person to pay a lot of attention to what's being said. I'm the opposite I'm sorry to say. I rarely know what the singer is saying when I listen to music.

Still, even the tracks that don't entirely hit the spot for me are perfectly listenable and will have a happy place in the big music rotation I call iTunes. With the exception of Leonard Cohen, who shall never know that honor. A single miss, and five hits. That's about as good as any album I've bought myself recently, so I'd say a it's a big success for an album crammed with entirely new (to me) music.

Thanks, mysterious stranger. :)