CD Tag

I have been tagged by Nick of Nick's Flick Picks twice now, once for a book questionnaire that I avoided, and now for this CD questionnaire, which is much easier for me than the book one would have been.

1. Total Number of CDs/Albums I Own: Around 300 on my shelves, plus 50 or so sitting on spindles in my desk. I'm weird about CDs: I have to see them, or else I'm not going to listen to them. I ran out of space on my shelves, and now most of my new copies are languishing. I tried binders, thinking that it would eliminate my prejudicial privileging of encased CDs over uncased CDs, but that lasted about a week before I flipped out and replaced all the CDs in their cases, which I had presciently stored in a closet, thinking that this very thing would happen.

2. Last Album I Bought: Last album I acquired would be more accurate; that would be Basie at the Sands, Count Basie's landmark 1966 performance. Along with it, I got Frank Sinatra's At the Sands with Count Basie, which was recorded the same night. I've been getting into jazz more and more lately, and these are two great CDs. Before that, I picked up Destiny Street by Richard Hell and the Voidoids (I'm also going through a punk phase). The last CD I shelled out money for was Sinatra's Songs for Swingin' Lovers.

3. Last Album I Listened To: Since I did most of my CD listening in my now-departed car, I can't rightly remember. Oh, wait, I know. At my theater, while I'm building the prints for Saturday's show, I like to listen to something loud (so I can hear it over the clattering reels). Last night, I was pumping Mission of Burma's Vs.. "Learn How" and "That's How I Escaped My Certain Fate" are two of my favorites.

4. Currently Listening To: You mean right now? Nothing. I don't usually listen to music at work, because I'm an editor and I can't concentrate when someone's singing in my ear. Let's turn on iTunes and see what shuffle turns up... "You Win Again" by Hank Williams.

5. Lyrics or Beats?: Lyrics, lyrics, lyrics (if I had to choose). I'd choose music over lyrics, but "beats" is different than "music." I don't listen to much beat-driven music—not much R&B, not much funk, no dance music at all. To paraphrase the guy who inspired this post, I'm more likely to go for Tom Waits than Kylie Minogue.

6. First Album You Fell in Love With: Now you're asking potentially embarrassing questions. It was Billy Joel's Greatest Hits, Vols. 1 and 2. I was eight or nine, we had the double cassette, and I knew every single word of every single song. And I'd sing them, too, in "concerts" my sisters and I would put on for our own amusement (in between pretending to be superheroes).

The second and third albums I fell in love with are equally embarrassing. The second, which was the first cassette I bought, was Richard Marx's self-titled debut, and the third was Motley Crue's Theatre of Pain, a CD that defined my musical sphere of interest for several years, until I discovered...

7. Biggest Impact: R.E.M.'s Out of Time, which I think my friend Billy stole out of a car and gave to me. It was really eye- (and ear-) opening; I never really looked back. Before that album, all I listened to was hair metal, and it really opened up new musical vistas for me.

8. Favorite Album: This one is tough. I tend to get tired of albums quickly. Things I listened to constantly when I was younger sit unopened on my shelves. I guess Morphine's Cure for Pain is one of the few CDs that I've had a long time and can (and do) still listen to. It was the first CD I'd ever bought based solely on a review: John Popper of Blues Traveler said that it was like taking off his socks after a long, hot day at work. That was enough for me. Also, The Tragically Hip's Phantom Power is another one that I never get sick of.

Right now, my favorites are Stereo Total's Oh Ah!, which is weird and irresistable, and probably Richard Hell and the Voidoids' Blank Generation.

9. Most Listened To: Morphine's Cure for Pain, R.E.M.'s Reckoning, Wilco's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, Hedwig and the Angry Inch (the original cast recording, not the movie soundtrack), Elliott Smith's Figure 8, and The Tragically Hip's Phantom Power.

10. Sexiest Album: Define "sexiest." How about Hedwig and the Angry Inch? Is Marvin Gaye's Let's Get It On too obvious? I am fond of Massive Attack's Mezzanine, too. Oh, and I can't forget Dusty Springfield's Dusty in Memphis, especially "Just a Little Lovin'." And Roxy Music's Avalon, especially after Bill Murray's interpretation of "More than This" in Lost in Translation.

11. Biggest Disappointment: Hands down, it's R.E.M.'s Reveal. Although it's hard to believe I was still capable of being disappointed by them, after their steady decline after Monster. I suppose it was the biggest disappointment because it was the point where I gave up on what had once been my favorite band.

12. Five Albums That Mean the Most to You: They're scattered in here already. Morphine's Cure for Pain was the soundtrack to much of my time in college, and the lyrics of "I'm Free Now" still make me smile ("I got guilt I got fear I got regret, I'm just a panic stricken waste, I'm such a jerk"). The Hedwig soundtrack, for various reasons. Elliott Smith's Figure 8. Mercury Rev's Deserter's Songs. But #1 is The Tragically Hip's Phantom Power.