Autumn Analog
By Mark Szakonyi
This compilation isn’t analog, but it is about autumn. The only season that matters. Spring can be all what the poets write, but it also can be quite annoying. We’re doing it again. The whole life thing is happening again. You know how this ends. The ground itself feels the urges of growth and is exhausted from the predictability, John Updike wrote. Summer makes the mind a bit fuzzier, and that’s not necessarily a negative, but it surely isn’t a merit. Yes, autumn is dependent on winter, but it is still more than its successor. It is the twilight that separates both the intensities of summer and winter, and not full of regular spawning like spring. It is the most gloriously sensible time of the year. In autumn, everything is sharper, yet warmer. It’s analog in a way.
The first volume is straightforward. It’s a modernization of the dust bowl vastness during the trying times of the 1930s. But sometimes even great depressions can be snarky. The second compilation is autumn in Chicago when I’m there. There is a quickening to it.
Volume I: This is the autumn of our content.
1. How Can I Love You If You Won’t Lie Down- Silver Jews
2. Grave Architecture- Pavement
3. I Wanna Be Your Dog- Uncle Tupelo
4. You Thew A Spark- Crooked Fingers
5. Modern Guilt- Beck
6. Jockey Full of Bourbon- Tom Waits
7. A Long Shadow- Joe Strummer
8. Beautiful Car- M. Ward.
9. A Damn Good Disguise- The Mendoza Line
10. Bad Reputation- Freddy Johnston
11. Seas Too Far To Reach- Okkervil River
12. Bells Aloud- The Castanets
13. Cemetery Row- Colin Meloy
14. Omaha- Tapes n’ Tapes
15. Viva Ultra- Palace Music
16. Hung My Head- Johnny Cash
17. What I Don’t Believe- The Minus 5
18. Sea of Teeth- Sparklehorse
19. Colors And The Kids- Cat Power
29. This Is Not What You Had Planned- The Wrens.
Volume II: Made glorious by the warmth of hi-fi in winter
1. Temporary Thing- Lou Reed
2. Pan- The Veils
3. Disorder- Joy Division
4. Cocaine Socialism- Pulp
5. Can’t Stand Me Now-The Libertines
6. The Union Forever- The White Stripes
7. Believing Is An Art- Spoon
8. Tell The Girls I’m Not Coming Out- Sleepy Jackson
9. Fear of Drowning- British Sea Power
10. The 80’s Life- The Good, The Bad & The Queen
11. What New York Used to Be- The Kills
12. We’ve Been Had- The Walkmen
13. This Heart’s On Fire- Wolf Parade
14. Changes Are No Good- The Stills
15. Night Of The Lotus Easters- Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
16. Nylon Smile- Portishead
17. The Eraser- Thom Yorke
18. All My Friends- LCD Soundsystem