neurological dryer lint

thought i'd start a series of sorts on the albums that stack highest in my collection, stuff i love to listen to over and over again. these aren't going to be in any particular order. i do highly recommend all of them with as many positive adjectives as i can dream up.

so here's one that i pulled out today.

rancid - life won't wait
when this disc came out in the summer of '98 i had already devoured let's go and another die hard favorite of mine, ...and out come the wolves. rancid's self-titled full length, their first, was listenable but still very raw and unproduced, which made someone like me uneasy inside. i knew that to claim to enjoy this genre required that i like black flag and the cramps and TSOL - but i just couldn't bring myself to enjoy the 'recorded in a garage' sound. made me feel like i was a traitor. but that's actually not what this is about.

i eagerly awaited this disc, naively sure that it would be just like wolves but better, with more ruby soho's and time bomb's. heh. i spent most of the week it dropped sort of shocked - knowing that i was supposed to like this disc because it was by this seminal force in the genre, but there was this reggae guy on it and lots of organ and steel drums... it wasn't pure, and didn't that mean i had to hate it? i'll admit some of the tracks were pretty catchy even though i'd never allowed myself to listen to dub or reggae.

it's now my favorite disc by the band. they explored their personal musical roots, unashamed... staying true to their traditional sound with stuff like the wolf and 1998 and leicester square, and touching on blues (who would've thought, rockabilly (lady liberty), you name it... hooligans and the title track sounded like someone broke a ska record and tried to play it, but those were the ones i skipped to the most. they had a beat that knawed at you, it was irresistable.

the most significant thing here was seeing that a band could evolve in a way that stayed true to what made them who they were; honor what influenced them; and innovate enough to stay interesting and grow and get a response from the audience - and do it on a good record that really worked and was cohesive. life is still a disc you can listen to front to back and have a good time with. it's difficult to not get energized by cash, culture and violence or black lung. i think it set a standard that i hold other albums to now. if there is a formula to avoiding being stagnant, these guys have figured it out.