Rediscovered...

Happy Birthday to me. I'm trying to upload iTunes to the fab new iPod Nano Steve-O got me for the special day. I hate iTunes. Whenever a new product comes out, they force you to upload the latest version for compatibility purposes..blah blah blah. If you're anything like me, and your music collection is so vast that it has to be stored on an external terabyte server in the house, reloading music can be a biatch. And iTunes is so proprietary, it hates some of my music...i.e. wherethefuckdidyoudownloadthisfromyounaughtypirate. At any rate, as I have to manually configure all my songs and upload them bit by bit because there has not been an iPod yet invented that can hold the amount of music I own. So as I pick and choose some of the songs I want in my wheelhouse, to keep me from going postal at work, I find some little gems that I forgot I had. Sometimes you overlook an album that does not receive much critical acclaim or success. I try not to be so much of a music snob, but I like to read "Rolling Stone" and "Spin" magazines to keep abreast of what's going on in music, since I have found the land of musical banality here in the Tampa Bay Area. Sometimes I am forced to raid my own music collection for fear of Redneck Radio. Today I rediscovered the album "Underneath" by the Verve Pipe, which I have not listened to in quite some time. Though the song "Never Let You Down" peaked at number 20 on the Billboard Adult Top 40, the album did not reach much success or mass appeal. Maybe it's because it had the unfortunate release date of September 11, 2001, and was forever cursed. At any rate, some panned it as delivering sugary choruses that loop endlessly…well ok, I'll give them that, but that is not necessarily a bad thing when putting together a hit song. I think this album deserves a second look because it really plays to the bands strengths, which can be attributed to, in part, by the producer of the record, Adam Schlesinger, who you may know from Fountains of Wayne. There are many poignant melodies contained within this little gem, even if it is sandwiched between a more mainstream alternative sound, like the playful "I Want All of You," which has an almost Love & Rockets overtone to it, or "Miles Away," whose sugary choruses are pleasurable enough to give me cavities, but I don't care. My particular favorite, "Colorful" is a very simple, straightforward song that is a power ballad, that whenever I hear it, I cannot get the song out of my head for days. Some of you might remember this song is featured at the end of the movie, "Rock Star", with Mark Wahlberg and Jennifer Anniston, which is a sweet film, too. Do yourself a favor and check both out; you might be pleasantly surprised..