Falling for Kings of Leon...

A weird thing happened yesterday. It wasn't that someone barged into my toilet cubicle because of a faulty lock, discovering me in the least dignified position known to man. It wasn't even that I screamed like a little baby girl and then proceeded to rip my trousers when, in panic, i grabbed the waistline and pulled them quickly over my "manhood". No, not that at all, though that was a little bit weird to be honest. It was actually last night while watching "chuckle fest" The Inbetweeners on E4. The ads were on and suddenly whilst watching one for Kings of Leon's six month old album, I felt this strange stirring within my loins. I suddenly wanted to buy this album. That in itself is probably not very strange or weird at all. However, it made me think that I haven't been won over by an act purely on the basis of singles for a long time. In fact I can't remember the last time. Let me explain why in hopefully comprehensive but brief terms!

In the 80s and 90s, buying a new cd album was almost a religious experience, an art if you will. Of course there were certain artists whose albums I would rush out and buy on day one, regardless of how much I had heard of it (Kylie, Debbie Gibson, Madonna, Pet Shop Boys, Erasure, Take That, anything S/A/W, Roxette et al). That's because I had fallen in love with these acts and desperately required more more more of the musical output. Other acts would have to win me over slowly with their singles. I was on a budget. CDs were pricey back then (from memory possibly even more expensive than they are now, 15-16 years later!). So sometimes I wouldn't buy an album until I had heard 3-4 singles from an act to ensure liking them wasn't a temporary thing or a one single occurrence. But oh, how I treasured those albums. I would spend ages going through the sleevenotes, reading the lyrics, playing them over and over again. Music back then was far less accessible than it is today. I mean, don't even get me started on buying soundtracks just for one song from an act i loved that was unavailable anywhere else.

Nowadays music is everywhere. It is incredibly rare that the first time you hear someone's new single in full is when you pick up a cd single in the store and rush to your car to play it. Even legally, you can hear music before it is released on youtube, homepages, myspace, streaming sites, giveaway cds with newspapers, etc. Demos are posted to satiate a hungry fan population months before they are released (take Heartbreak Make Me A Dancer for example). And while I don't mind at all being saturated in music, i do kind of miss the thrill of hearing a new single or being won over by a band slowly thanks to a slew of quality singles. I have albums from the day they came out that I have perhaps listened to once out of curiosity or only a couple of times because there is such a deluge of other stuff out there. So thanks KOL for reminding me that sometimes even in todays easy to get music marketplace, I can be won over by someone I didn't think I would like that much. Your sex is indeed on fire. But hopefully not in a burning piss STD sort of way :)