(no subject)

Having lived in Oklahoma my whole life, I've despised country music for pretty much the first 26 years of it. I mean, absolutely loathed it, it made my stomach hurt to hear it. This, despite the fact that up till I was about 11, I didn't realize that there were radio stations that played anything but country, easy listening and religious talk radio. (Before that I assumed that if you wanted to listen to rock, you had to go down to the record store and buy it your own damn self. Shut up, I was a really naive kid.) The only country music I could tolerate was Patsy Cline, and she doesn't really count that much because she was considered one of country's first crossover artists. Not to mention that current country music is a pretty far cry from Patsy.

I think the first country album I actually bought was Heartbreaker by Ryan Adams. Considering it begins with an argument about Morrissey albums, I knew from the start that there finally was country music that wouldn't make me want to vomit.

I've been kind of lukewarm about his music since. He's kind of like the male Ani DiFranco, he has such a huge creative output that it's hard to keep up with all his albums and half his songs are really amazing and some of them are kind of lame. "To Be Young (is to be sad, is to be high)" is a great song. "Sylvia Plath", really not so much. (Although how many country singers would do a song about Sylvia Plath to begin with?) Love is Hell, Part 1 is an amazing combination of country and melancholic Brit-pop. Love is Hell, Part 2, kind of meh. (Maybe it just hasn't grown on me yet. Am willing to give it another try.)

Anyway, I bought Cold Roses yesterday and I've been listening to it ever since. It is fucking incredible. It is audial crack. Freaking gorgeous. Prolly one of the best albums I've listened to this year. Which, in my really longwinded way, is the whole point of this post.

Toby Keith still makes me cringe though.