72 lines
4.3 KiB
HTML
72 lines
4.3 KiB
HTML
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<title>gome — 2008</title>
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<a href='..'>back to gomepage</a>—<a href='.'>journal</a>
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<article>
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<h1 id='title'>I’m looking for the <i>Hats</i> of 2008</h1>
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<time datetime='Tue, 26 Mar 2024 21:30:00 CDT'>26 Mar 2024, 9:30 PM</time>
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<p>
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<a href="https://album.link/s/4pLVvQiysxBwbUuSB3ceQv"><i>Hats</i></a> by The Blue Nile is a perfect album, in some ways.
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The description “mournful city soundscape” only sounds generic until you hear how well it fits the bill.
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Every track immerses you in this atmospheric world of twilight blue, city lights, and melancholy.
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</p><p>
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The album was released in 1989, and the clean, atmospheric sound palette is a flawless retrospective distillation of the decade’s synthy pop aesthetic.
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It’s a prime example of <a href="dialogue.html">genre decadence</a>, sitting at the end of an era, where the expressive tools of the medium have been dialectically honed to a mirror sheen.
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</p>
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<img src='img/hats.webp' width='400' height='400'
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alt='Album art for Hats by The Blue Nile'
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/>
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<p>
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It’s more of a gut feeling, but I also think <i>Hats</i> is pointing forward to the 90s in some ways.
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For some reason, I would the urban theming of it feels more of the 90s than the 80s.
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The drum machine and production also feel more early 90s to me.
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</p><p>
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In any case, I like to think about the unique vibes of particular years or spans of time like this,
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and the main perfection of <i>Hats</i> to me is how well it captures this edge of decades between the 80s and 90s.
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</p><p>
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Recently, I’ve been feeling like there is a late 2000s vibe on the wind.
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I somehow have the feeling that this summer will have a lot in common with the summer of 2007, maybe 2008, maybe 2009 (still narrowing it down).
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I happened to recently stumble across a haiku by Kyoshi Takahama, a Shōwa era poet, which I think perfectly describes the feeling:*
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</p><blockquote>
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去年今年貫く棒の如きもの<br>
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<i>Something like a stick<br>
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That goes through<br>
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Last year and this year</i>
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</blockquote><p>
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I think there’s something like a stick poking through the late 2000s and the current/coming moment.
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</p><p>
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I’ve been going back through old Pitchfork reviews from 2007 and 2008 and listening to the most highly recommended music, trying to hone in on that feeling.
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It’s been a lot of fun, discovering new music at an even faster rate than I normally do, probably closer to <a href="listening.html">my brother’s pace</a>.
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</p><p>
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Throughout this process, it finally dawned on me: I think what I want to find is the <i>Hats</i> of 2008.
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An album that perfectly captures the feeling of the time.
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It doesn’t need to be mournful and atmospheric, necessarily,
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but I do get the feeling it should have an urban theme, perhaps.
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</p><p>
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So consider this me officially putting out a bounty.
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If you know anything that came out in the period of 2007–09 that seems like it does a perfect job capturing the vibe of the times,
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<b>please</b> send me a lead!
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There’s not actually a reward, but I’ll really appreciate the gesture, and probably follow up with a shoutout thanking you.
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As always, I can be reached at my Ctrl-C email: <code>gome<span style='user-select: none;'> ​</span>@<span style='user-select: none;'> ​</span>ctrl-c.club</code>.
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</p><p class='footnote'>
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* <a href="https://koara.lib.keio.ac.jp/xoonips/modules/xoonips/download.php/AN10030060-20071215-0085.pdf?file_id=14444">English translation</a> by Katsuya Hiromoto
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</p>
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</article>
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