As I was mowing the lawn today, and, as usual, struggling with what mix of songs to play on the mp3 player, I was reminded of Brendan's recent journal entry about songs he listens to while running.
When I exercise, I'm not very picky about what I listen to. As long as it has a decent tempo and a melody or rhythm I can get into, I'm fine. But mowing is a different story. For some reason, the only thing that can propel me to keep pushing that godforsaken machine over all of our exposed roots is an upbeat theme album, straight through. I say "theme album" rather than "concept album" because it's not quite so strict. As long as the songs on the album are loosely connected by a story, mood, or whatever, it will qualify. It was this way even as a kid mowing our yard in Fulton. Then it was Nine Inch Nails' The Downward Spiral. Now, it's either American Idiot or System of a Down's Mesmerize. I'm not extolling the virtues of Nine Inch Nails or Green day as great pieces of art or anything, but they make mowing more fun. (System of a Down, by any metric, though, is a very good band.)
Even albums I otherwise love can't keep me mowing if they're too disjointed, spacy, or mellow. I might try Brian Wilson's Smile, since it seems to fit all the criteria, but I can't hink of anything else to use.
Any suggestions?
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