19 April 2013

Music Day

(This is one of those 'awesomely eighties' songs. The usual warning -- if you don't like eighties music, go read a different blog post. Also, don't expect anything deep and soul-wrenching from today's song. Funny, yes. Genius, yes. Life-altering? Probably not.)

So remember a while back when I mentioned my Daniel Amos collection consisted of three tracks?

Yeah, well, it kind of grew since then. Seriously, Doppelgänger was like a drug. One hit and it dragged me down to the underworld. I now own like two dozen DA tracks and once I get paid later this month I'm buying another album (two if the budget allows it). (Yes, 'music' is a budget item here in my weird little world.)

(It's The Eighties, So Where's Our) Rocket Packs.

You just know a song is going to be good when it has a title like that.

Title pretty much says it all, actually. Sarcastic and eighties. I'm also pretty sure this title has the longest parenthetical aside ever in a song title. I'll see people refer to the song just as Rocket Packs (admittedly, it's faster to type), and there's always this moment where I have no clue what they're talking about.

Fair warning: this is heavy on the synth. Some would call it dated, and that it may be, but I happen to like it. (Awesomely eighties, people, awesomely eighties.) I also happen to quite like the synthesized vocals -- adds to the 'futuristic' charm of the song, as do the robotic-sounding synthesizer asides. (A little history lesson for all you hip, cool kids -- this was the precursor to autotune, only here the singer still had to be able to actually sing.)

In a weird way that I can't quite put my finger on, this song (indeed, most of the record) makes me think of ABBA -- what they might have sounded like had they continued into the eighties. I realise it might seem like a bit of a stretch (and the DA diehards will probably lynch me for that), but you listen to ABBA's The Visitors album; especially the title track and Two For The Price Of One... stylistically, this stuff isn't actually that far removed.

But that's enough rambling. Here's the song.

Title: (It's The Eighties, So Where's Our) Rocket Packs
Artist: Daniel Amos
Album: Vox Humana
Year: 1984
Label: Refuge Records
iTunes here; YouTube here.
Support the artist: Buy the CD on their website here (scroll down past the 'featured' section to the part labelled 'Daniel Amos').

Disregard the entire iTunes Store review. Bull crap, pure and simple. Can't the iTunes people ever say anything nice about the stuff they carry? Might help your sales if you didn't criticise everything you offer... just saying.

The only point from that review that's valid is no, this is definitely not Doppelgänger. While that's sad, because Doppelgänger is freaking brilliant, this is still a good record. Yes, it has synthesizers. No, that does not automatically make it horrible. Some of us like keyboards and synths and think that the whole idea of the obligatory guitar solo (except the ones on Doppelgänger and White Heart's Bye Bye Babylon) should just die already. If you don't like the synths, don't listen to the music. Go destroy your mind with dubstep or country or whatever it is you actually like (since it apparently isn't eighties music). Just shut your trap and let those of us who like synths enjoy them without having to justify ourselves all the time.

There. Rant made. Now you can go enjoy the song. And rest assured that you'll be seeing more from Vox Humana on Music Day in the future (I freaking love this album -- there were at least three other songs from there that nearly became today's feature). But next week, I'll give you a break from Dr. Edward Daniel Taylor... I promise.

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