Cassette Takes #001
13/06/2021
A while ago, my dad gave me his entire cassette collection, since I have a player and he does not; I also have some of my own. Until recently, I was just listening to my same few every once in a while casually; but now I've come to think, I should probably make some serious effort to catalogue these, huh? And so now I am writing this little featurette with the intent of it being a semi-regular fixture on the site. It'll just be my thoughts on every cassette I listen to on a given day, with no like... serious music criticism research review sort of stuff. Maybe eventually we'll get through the literal hundreds of tapes I have.
The Alan Parsons Project: Vulture Culture
Starting off with some tapes I've listened to a few times; I bought this one during my birthday trip to Eureka Springs, where they have a little music store- This one cost me $8. I've always loved The Alan Parsons Project; I have Ammonia Avenue and I, Robot on record. It's a really fabulous little bit, this one. While I was listening to it last night, one of my friends was like, you just live like this? Like in the eighties? Like, IDK man, I've never really thought of it that way. I'm just living my life and living as I naturally am. Anyway. This album is really solid and wonderful, hard recommend.
Depeche Mode: Violator
Another $8 tape from Eureka Springs. Has two of my favorite Depeche Mode songs, 'Personal Jesus' and 'Enjoy the Silence'. While listening to this one this morning, my partner said, you're quite a character aren't you? Once again under attack. But anyway. A really solid album and a classic. Quite a steal.
Kate Bush: The Sensual World
This one was $10, a bit of a step up, but hey, it's Kate Bush, and I had like literally way too much money to blow during that birthday trip. Not to sound bougie, but being poor and then getting more money than even God would know what to do with fucked with my brain chemicals. All I wanted was macarons and cassette tapes. Anyway my favorite Kate Bush album is Hounds of Love, which I get is the pedestrian choice, but this is a pretty good second best. My favorite song off of it is This Woman's Work. Kate Bush is so good at building up her little curtains of sound.
Bloodrock: D.O.A.
For some reason this tape was already wound to the B side? So I've ended up listening to it backwards. It's not the actual album DOA is off of, anyway, I have that one on vinyl; I have a few little cassettes like this that are general mixes of an artist's work, out of album order. As always, I enjoy Bloodrock, but DOA is such a massive star of a song, so completely different from what surrounds it, that it overshadows their other work. I've been entranced by it since I was a small child and I don't see that changing any time soon.
Eurhythmics: Greatest Hits
Another compilation tape with the A side already listened to. It's damaged, I think, and starts out muffled. The music is garbled, and Annie Lenox's voice trembles in, warped, before gaining strength and playing through normally. I wonder how much I can put through to the tape's condition and how much I can attribute to the music itself. It winds down again, hazy and trembling like it can no longer contain its own self. Brief snippets of her voice whisper out unharmed. It's a stark reminder that the things of the past decay. They decay, rot, set back in musty cabinets, as living things go on with their lives. It's a stark reminder that this is Vulture Culture. My cassettes are past their expiration date. They have died at the side of the road, unloved. What am I but a scavenger, gathering broken things in a time when the whole world is free, at my fingertips, bright and loud and candy-coloured. I took the tape out halfway through the fourth song and put it in the repair box.
The Talking Heads: Popular Favorites, Cassette Two: Sand in the Vaseline
Another 'Greatest Hits' tape, but this time it's rewound correctly. It's labeled 'cassette two', but I don't have any other from the set; it's just as well, I prefer listening to things in their actual intended album. I do like the Talking Heads quite a bit. Solid.
Return.