Sometimes when you’re engaged in a life-altering maelstrom, as I was a quarter-century ago, little bits and pieces of the soundtrack slip through the cracks.
So it has been with the band Cousteau’s debut album, which was popular in the USA circa 2001. I just listened to it for the first time since the Noughties, and BOOM, the songs came back, springing right into place, as though I’d heard it only yesterday.
Cousteau’s influences included Burt Bacharach, Roxy Music and Scott Walker; no slouches there. I have picked one song to offer as showcase, and it was difficult.
Cousteau was especially prevalent on the Public House playlist during the forays abroad documented here.
40 Years in Beer (Book III), Part 87: Travel 2001 with English John, Le Tour ― and a gutting personal loss.
Slightly less so with these:
40 Years in Beer (Book III), Part 88: From Tokaj to Żywiec, and Achouffe to Poperinge (Travel 2002).
40 Years in Beer (Book III), Part 89: A millennial upsurge with Cumberland Brews, Browning’s, BBC Brewing Co. (2000 – 2003).
It isn’t that Cousteau conjures bad memories. Far from it; music from this period evokes extreme positivity. It’s just that my retention is scattershot. Following are thirteen albums I’m sure I purchased in 2001, listed somewhat chronologically by release date.
I’m quite sure these were played regularly at the pub. Yet only three, maybe four of them might come rushing back to me if given today’s “Cousteau” treatment. Maybe I’ll try it and see.
Given that it’s all a haze in retrospect, I’ve no choice except to conclude that (a) my level of distraction at the time was supreme, and (b) this probably meant I was listening to lots of 90s-era music, and jazz, and classical.
- Neil Finn … One Nil
- The Black Crowes … Lions
- R.E.M. … Reveal
- Weezer … “Green Album”
- Radiohead … Amnesiac
- Travis … The Invisible Band
- Joe Strummer & the Mescaleros … Global a Go-Go
- The Strokes … Is This It
- New Order … Get Ready
- Bob Dylan … “Love and Theft”
- Ben Folds … Rockin’ the Suburbs
- Elton John … Songs from the West Coast
- Neil Finn & Friends … Seven Worlds Collide
Once I began blogging at NA Confidential in 2004, yearly musical lists eventually became standard operating procedure. Memories always will account for a lot, though there are times when your brain plays tricks; that’s when lists come in handy.
