I Miss Back When

(title from Tim McGraw - Back When - Live Like You Were Dying)

You know how everyone has one of those "you know you're getting old when" sayings?

I knew I was getting old when I could no longer name any one music genre as my favorite.

I maintain that if it doesn't have any solid guitar work, I'm not really interested, but I've expanded my taste from metal, punk, and rock & roll to country (oh, do I love country), bluegrass, jam bands, and all those moldy golden oldies our parents love to sing horribly in public to embarrass us. 

But then, there are a few artists whose work I get giddy over purely for the thump. I have a folder called "GOTS A BEAT" for them. I think it's right above "HIPPIE TUNES" in the tree. Really.

I think maybe it's the artists that grow up, too. Green Day, for example. I love the first few albums, but I'm more partial to the newer, older Green Day- the stuff after Dookie. I dunno, to me they just seem more orchestrated as the albums span- tighter, more focused- I'm a huge fan of American Idiot and I think that's the best example of their experience as a trio. 

And then you get into artists like Blink-182- I mean, Tom DeLonge? Holy cow, is that man a musical genius. You've got older Blink stuff that's loopy, fun, loud, and childish, but still pretty tight- I'll cite "Voyeur" and "A New Hope" from Dude Ranch, and you go search those lyrics- they're stupid, funny, immature, and yet the melodies and harmonies are pretty decent for a trio of punk rockers. But then you've got the stuff from their last album before the hiatus- the self-title- it totally blew me away, and even 5 years later, it still does. It's still on my iPod, it never came off, it never will. 

But it's DeLonge's most recent public project- Angels & Airwaves- that makes my heart do loop-the-loops. There's a postsecret.com postcard that says, "Angels & Airwaves makes me believe in love again," and I think that about summed up my feelings to a T. The "wall of sound" and synth-heavy background doesn't follow the lyrical melody, but complements it perfectly. DeLonge is clearly still influenced by the Cure (Robert Smith made an appearance on the self-title to sing lead vox for "All of This"), but the infusion of the 1980s-style synth and electronic drum does not feel outdated in either album. And that's what I love- this stuff is timeless, I can listen to it on my worst of days, and maybe two tracks later, all that ticked me off has floated away. That's important to me- that's what music should do.