2003 : 18-19 Two songs by the New Pornographers

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Track One: "From Blown Speakers" So can you tell me why in every version of the events shown here, there's another season that crawls by like years, from blown speakers clear? It came out magical. The New Pornographers album Electric Version is one of those albums that just grabbed me and would not let go. The first time I heard it I went, "Wow, who are these guys?" I downloaded it from eMusic just because of the name of the band. My breath was taken away by how much I liked it. Within a few weeks all my music fan friends were listening to this album. "From Blown Speakers" is a great example of the songs on this album. It has this sound that has the feeling of retro mod 60s rock without being buried by that sound. It has the cruchy sound, but is still cleanly produced. I love the idea of a song being better coming out from a blown speaker. It says something about how I view the world. Often your mistakes are more rewarding. It sounds very much like this decade to me. Track Two: "Testament To Youth in Verse" I was getting ready for my first National Novel Writing Month in October of 2003 and I was listening to this song. The people I was with suggested writing a story to loosen myself up. I heard this song and the story came right to me. It was the story of a guy having a dream about dancing in the street like it was some kind of musical and "Testament To Youth in Verse" was the song they were dancing to. "Testament to Youth in Verse" is one of those songs that makes me feel like I have been sitting too long and makes me want to dance. It is a song that I want to sing along to. It makes me want to be dramatic and loud. It has a wonderful bridge that would make it amazing in a jukebox musical. The song is both joyful and sad at the same time. It really touches something in me that can only be touched by music. It is that part of me that wants to dance like my life is a musical. None of my friends liked the story I wrote. None of them knew of the song at the time so they did not think it worked that well. I never went back to edit the story, but I think of it every time I hear the song. —Rich Thomas Listen: The New Pornographers >> "From Blown Speakers" | "Testament To Youth In Verse"