The subtitle of this review could be "in which our heroine discovers several key differences between herself and her husband".
After listening to Of Hardship and Harmony with me, John asked if he could suggest the other album that I review for the Critic badge and I agreed. His suggestion was OK Computer by Radiohead, a band which has had a strong influence upon him. (I referred to Radiohead as his favorite band and John bridled, so I am settling for this.) To say that John really likes music is an understatement. His undergraduate degree was in music theory and composition. He spends a great deal of time thinking about music. I try to listen to music more thoughtfully because of him, but it turns out that we are thinking about different things.
At the outset I should say that, had I communicated a small fact about myself earlier in our relationship, John probably would have selected a different album for me to listen to. Prior to this, I knew one Radiohead song (Creep) and could name one or two others. (If you are thinking that I should have a greater familiarity with this band given its profound influence on my spouse, you are not wrong.) Now, there is another band, Coldplay, whose music tends to be more prominently featured on the radio and, so, I have heard more of their songs. I do not care for Coldplay. And one of the reasons that I do not care for their music is that I don't like the sound of men singing in a high vocal range. (It may be that I don't like anyone singing in a high vocal range, regardless of gender. I haven't had time to explore this fully.) However, I had not really explained this to John. He thinks Coldplay is fine but isn't a fan or anything, so we haven't really had that many discussions about them. I just said I didn't really care for them and we left it at that. As I said, however, this small fact could have resulted in a different fate for our young lovers. Alas, though, the fact went unmentioned.
Here were my reactions to OK Computer:
1. Thom Yorke sings very high and I don't like it. (I'm not saying it's bad, mind you, just not to my taste.)
2. Coldplay wishes to sound like Radiohead.
3. I don't understand any of the lyrics. Okay, I did understand the computer voice on Fitter Happier (and recognize that it is the voice of a Macintosh computer) but otherwise I really struggled to even make out any words that were being said. I thought one of the songs was about salad but it turns out he was singing out silence. This may not seem that important but words are the way in which I orient myself in the world. I care deeply about song lyrics - they are the part of the song that I think about most. And once I know the lyrics, I can move beyond them to listen to the other parts of the song and think about its construction. I like to figure out how they make certain sounds and things like that. But I can only do that after I understand the lyrics. It's a weird thing and not really rational, but there it is. (When I am listening to audiobooks and encounter a new word, if I can't see the word in my mind, I can't continue with the book. I don't know if this is a related issue or not. Humans can't see bugs in their own software.)
John and I discussed my impressions of the album and he did realize that, given my dislike of high singing, Radiohead is probably not for me. He has suggested another album by a different band that I listen to, which I will do, but not for the Critic badge. That is now complete!
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