Okay, so this has been something of a recurring theme for me lately, but…
Sometimes, there’s no experience quite like hearing a beloved old record for the first time in a really long time. Right now, I’m listening to “Big Plans for Everybody” by Let’s Active, a record I don’t think I’ve heard since approximately 1987 (i.e. a year or so after it came out). It’s not Let’s Active’s best record, but it has some amazing, heartbreaking songs on it, and hearing it again after all this time is sheer bliss.
I can understand people who say things like, “I hardly ever listen to new music anymore, I just listen to the old stuff.” Having just listened to a fine new record by the wonderful Canadian punk band the Constantines, I can’t say I share that attitude completely. But I do understand it—particularly right now, with this Let’s Active record tearing my heart to shreds in the best possible way.