Peripheral Treatment

"Your father doesn't like me 'cause I'm not into sports" is the best emo line of the year. It's a/the fundamental linguistic construction of the emo kid's relationship to his (prospective) significant other, to that person's father, and to mainstream consumption. It's almost the "For Sale: Baby Shoes. Never Worn" of emo. It's emo in a nutshell. It's beautiful. But I, up until this post, could never remember in which song it appeared on the album.

Turnover's Peripheral Vision was released in May by Run For Cover. I had never heard or heard of them before. I think I saw the album listed on the "This Week" list of new released on RevHQ. I put the band's discography on Spotify (I have still yet to listen to their earlier albums), and said, "Play music, magical device that magically streams music into my (also pretty magical) ears!"

As the album unfolded, I thought, "Yeah. Yeah, for sure. This is something I'm into." The first track, "Cutting My Fingers Off," is twinkly emo goodness and the third track, "Humming," is that, too. The problem, though, is that I don't know how to describe the second song, because I don't remember what it sounds like. At all. Did I even hear a second song? It says I'm on the third track, but I'm not exactly sure when that first really cool thing ended and the third thing began (and also ended).

And that's kinda this album. The good songs are really good (maybe even great). The other songs are, if you really, like, sit there and listen, are also good, but they're also just... there (to the extent that the tracklist tells me that they're there, not that I actually remember their presence). Since May, I've probably gotten on and off (let's be honest - conducted and then abandoned) the Turnover Train about four times. Right now, I want to believe that the album is finally sticking. I've always enjoyed the album on the whole (I even sent it to Matthew via Spotify's share feature, so you know it's serious), but it never sticks for as long as I think it will.

Of course, none of this would really be that big of a problem if I owned a physical copy of the album. (I thought about buying the LP at the RFC tent at Wrecking Ball but then thought, "Nah.") If I owned the album, it'd be there. I'd have it - on some format. If I bought the CD, I'd have it in my car, where I'd almost never listen to it, because I've taken to listening to almost strictly classical music or Enya. If I had the vinyl or the cassette, I'd play it in my room while I sat on the floor and played 2048 or Zig Zag on my phone.

But how many times would I play it? If the album has strong spots and admitted weak spots, I'm certainly not going to take the energy to pick up the needle and place it in another groove or, god forbid, hit fast forward/rewind on my hanging-on-for-dear-life tape deck. So what do I do? Do I buy an album that I mostly really like, knowing that, if anything, I'll almost always listen to it more often digitally or possibly even stop listening to it (again)? What do you do with albums that you haven't purchased yet but about which you already have a well-formed and conflicted opinion?

You buy the cassette, because it's the cheapest option, and it gives you an opportunity to maybe order another cassette or two from a really, really dope label. And who doesn't like amassing a ridiculous collection of music on a clunky outdated format. Should that sentence read "on one of the clunky outdated formats"? Naaaaaaaaaaaah. Buy music. You always opt to buy the music.