I'll miss you Wendell

Andrew asked us to listen to the albums in the same way, which for me is easy. I listen to pretty much all of my music in the car on the way to work (three or four tracks at a time). On a ©Discman. With an adapter plugged into the tape deck. Whether or not that had any impact on the outcome, I’ll let you be the judge.

First up was New Order’s Substance. One of the first things that struck me about this was how many songs I immediately recognized once they started playing. It’s been years since I listened to any New Order album, but many of the tunes have stuck with me, at least subliminally. Some of it sounded too dated, while others could have been lifted from the latest Cutcopy album. There is a strong tension between rock and electronic music, and it’s no surprise that these tracks have been remixed frequently. The production is interesting, almost sloppy at times, and it’s hard to discern how intentional that was. Lyrically New Order can run toward the generic or vague, which works well at times (Bizarre Love Triangle) but not so much at others (State of Confusion). Overall, a fantastic album, with only a few misses which are more than made up for by the standout songs.

I listened to Reconstruction Site through twice. I enjoyed it more the second time, and much like Karl said of Nick Drake, I expect it will continue to impress me upon subsequent listens. I thought it really picked up in the second half, especially The Prescience of Dawn. The lyrics are intelligent without being too self-stylingly clever (although what the hell is a loonie, amiright Americans?). It’s a very personal album, but not overly indulgent. I would have liked to see a little more of the raucousness it threatened at times, but I guess that was not to be.

So basically it comes down to which criteria I decide to use. If it's the Which Album Is More Important In The Overall Scheme Of Music? then I would go with New Order. If it's the more cogent album, then it's Reconstruction Site. I actually re-wrote my final selection several times. I have lost sleep over this. But here it is: Substance. As Megan pointed out, the reviews above led her to believe that would be the album I chose (even when I had first chosen Reconstruction Site).

Two interesting notes:
1) In 2003, Substance was ranked number 361 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

2) Apparently one of the members of The Weakerthans used to play in Dig Circus, a band who I used to go and see often when I was in high school. Read the article below for the last paragraph, if nothing else.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dig_Circus

Also, I lied. It’s not even a ©Discman, it’s an AIWA.