Pressure

Somehow I lost momentum. I had gotten to a point where even if I wasn't writing as often as I would have liked, it wasn't for a lack of ideas or inspiration. I found myself cursing the fact that I didn't have enough time to dedicate to it. But today, I've tried several times and keep losing steam. So I'm reverting to an old trick I learned back in my shitty teenage years of bad poetry and journals and I'm just going to go ahead and write whatever comes to mind.



At the moment I'm listening to Smashing Pumpkins Machina, which I didn't remember liking. It turns out I liked it a lot and for good reason. This is good. I had completely forgotten about this album when I reviewed Monuments to an Elegy. It's still no Mellon Collie and The Infinite Sadness though. (This is where I think I'm ready to go write a review for the 20th anniversary of that album).




So anyway, it’s not often that I’m genuinely, pleasantly, surprised by unpredictability in music. The morning last year I first heard My Brightest Diamond, I was floored. The song was “Pressure” and I never knew where it was going next and I was intrigued. At every turn something new would happen, from marching drums to electronica beats with ethereal vocals to a bass drop to Broadway style backing singers and more, but it was all still somehow cohesive. This was just the first song on their 2014 album, This is My Hand and it hooked me instantly. It reminded me of Bjork in a way, actually. And while it took a couple of listens to find out if I merely found it interesting or if I actually liked it, it eventually nearly made my top 10 albums of the year. So go listen to it.