Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
Published 2009
Take a walk.
Take a walk and a new album.
Don't worry about where you are going, or where you're coming from. Make the fun be going a new way. If the way is the same as the ones you have done before, you won't find the new thing there. If you are looking for something new, going the way that you always go won't work.
The new album is going to need to inspire you to walk a certain way. It's something that is going to carry you, either up or down, fast or slow, or to the next place to stop, and look. It will either make you upbeat, bulletproof in the worst areas, ready to move on to the next thing, moving with constant, steady strides, or it could make you fear the shadow around the next corner, adding paranoia to your day.
Take a walk, a new album, and make it dark.
The dark is essential. You need to be able to make it feel like you are actually getting lost, and nothing helps getting lost like the night time. If you are sure of where you are, it's just like following the path that you've already followed. Just another groove in the record. The dark will also make you concentrate on the sound of the album more.
Take a walk, a new album, make it dark, and get lost.
If you don't know where you're going, it's easy to get lost. If you've never gone the way that you've gone, it's easy to get lost. Use celestial navigation. Try to find your way without looking at maps. Make your mind be your map. Look around and connect it with the sound of the album. Mark the time with the songs, mark the distance with the tracks.
Take a walk, a new album, the dark, get lost, and discover something.
Find a park, at the top of a hill, that looks down over a river. Find a stream of melt water, running down the side of mountain, in the gutter. Find a new neighborhood, a new street, a new place.
Take a walk, a new album, the dark, get lost, discover something, and marvel at the things around you.
When the darkest song on the album comes on, look around. Make connections. Make the album have meaning against the backdrop of the world around. Move with the beat. See a sky without stars, and the stars under your feet, where ice has frozen. See something that you've only seen one way, from a new one, like a river from a bridge. Take the long way home, and try to fit more in. Try to make it all make sense.
Postscript:
I know that this is very different from my other posts, and I'm considering rewriting this Album again, already, but this was my experience tonight. I walked home, from one side of the Han River to the other, and tried to have an experience with the album. I came upon the Korean War Memorial just as Love like a Sunset came on. I walked over the Han River to Lasso. I experienced this album exactly as I described it above. This album is really really really good, but I think that the experience is what is making me listen to it again right now. More TAP to come.
