from the ‘personal jesus 2011’ remix EP due out next week. full 3 disc album of depeche mode remixes due out june 7. you can’t wait. -d

“this is the story of how we begin to remember.”
“but you love ladysmith black mambazo!”

i’m generally pretty in touch w/ the music that influenced me as a kid. i still like most of the saturday morning records my parents played as we did our chores. whether that’s out of a subconscious sense of nostalgia or because my parents had genuinely good taste in music doesn’t really matter, b/c i like what i like (though at the risk of flattering all of us, i tend to think it’s the latter). paul simon always figured heavily into that weekend rotation, though in my mind garfunkel was always with him. but last night, i was going through my itunes on a wedding music mission for a friend, and i stumbled upon ‘Crazy Love Vol. 2’ from graceland. (which incidentally isn’t that good of a wedding video song. apparently the story of fat charlie the archangel ‘doesn’t set the right tone’.) but as i started to listen to the rest of the album, i was surprised to find i knew every single song, almost word for word. i mean, obviously i knew of the album, but i had no idea that i knew the album. aside from sargeant pepper and james taylor’s greatest hits, there aren’t too many albums i can sing all the way through start to finish. to have completely forgotten about one seems like kind of a big deal, right? and an african-ish soft pop album written by a new york poet? i can’t even begin to imagine the effect this has had on my tastes (other than explaining my love of ‘mean girls’, obviously). i’ve got some real thinking to do. -d