10 years later: the benefits of ingorant stabs in the dark and the Apples in stereo’s Tone Soul Evolution
The other day, listening to the Apples in stereo’s Tone Soul Evolution for the first time in a while, I realized two things: a) the album is about 10 years old now and b) my music discovery and buying habits have chaned an enormous amount since in those 10 years. Okay, three things: c) Tone Souk Evolution is very nearly a perfect pop record.
For me there were two predecessors to Tone Soul Evolution. I got into Neutral Milk Hotel’s In the Airplane Over the Sea in the early part of 1998. Shortly thereafter I searched around the (pre-Napster, pre-music blog) internet and found there were a set of bands related to NMH, the Elephant 6 Collective. Through a more or less ignorant stab in the dark, I decided to get an Apples in stereo album and through a similarly ignorant stab, purchased Science Faire. It took me a while but I got into it and eventually made another (this time slightly less) uninformed purchase with Tone Soul Evolution.
I don’t make ignorant stabs in the dark these days with my music purchases. With myspace, access to hundreds of new CDs a week at KZSU, friends, music blogs, etc., I buy CDs with songs I like or I might even know that I like whole albums. I very occasionally buy CDs where I haven’t heard any of the tracks before, but I think the last time I did that was about two years ago—you just don’t have to do that any more; I just wouldn’t even think to buy an album I didn’t know I’d probably like. I don’t think I was the only one that was buying music “ignorantly” either. This, as has been noted in part elsewhere, is a fundamental shift in how music is being purchased.
Tone Soul Evolution itself is great. It’s a good album in that the whole is greater than the parts, but it’s made up of a lot of great parts as well. Robert Schneider really hit his stride here in both production and songwriting.
“Silvery Light of a Dream, Pt. 2″ has long been one of my favorites. It’s a great tune all along, but, for me, it’s the end that makes it great, the various separate parts that come back and all overlap and work really wonderfully together.
the Apples in stereo - Silvery Light of a Dream, Pt. 2 (mp3)
You can buy Tone Soul from insound.
