on devotion

...And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead - The Century of Self (lala) I loved this album when I , former ace teen calligrapher, read about the obsessive ball point pen drawing on the cover, and love it even more now that I'm listening to it. The Trail of Dead purists I know have questioned my loving an album of theirs past Madonna but So Divided knocked my socks off when it came out, big and glorious, like Voltron wrestling She-Ra on the grid from Tron with the black lights on. This is scaled back and more insular and even better on this first of many listens. True devotion to an idea is carefully drawn in ballpoint pen - it is immediately at hand and yet you can never take it back.
Television - Adventure (lala) For the 100s of times I've listened to Marquee Moon, I think I've listened to this once. I found it on vinyl at a thrift store once and returned it hoping to garner the admiration of my Television worshiping compatriots and they universally dismissed its worth. Music people like to follow a script, man. Granted, its no Marquee Moon, but there is logical progression from it to Adventure and if I may explode this a little: if adventure if in your progression, you are on the right path.
Tommy Keene - Songs from the Film (lala) Remember this album? 1986? If you do, you likely cared a lot about it back then and a lot of other things like Psychedelic Furs and The Chameleons and the pins on your army jacket, and if you lived in a place when no one else cared about these things, you cared all the more, possibly with ridiculous exclusivity. It was devotion pure and true, and I just got an email from some PR person that Tommy Keene has a new album out today, so it looks like he's still devoted too.