your friends dont call and they dont even bother with offering excuses

have you listened to an album you've played over and over but realized you've never actually heard it until right then? thats how i felt last night about kevin devine's sophomore album, "make the clocks move."

i was given this album a few years ago by a friend, and i listened to it, but i didnt really pay attention to what i was listening to. i was just getting into kev's stuff, and was kind of bombarded, so i consumed as much as i could, but didnt actually absorb much of what i was taking in.

obviously, there are songs on the album that stood out to me right away, and those are the ones that i actually paid any mind to. ballgame, tapdance and the longer that im out here are the three big ones, for sure, as i believe to be the case with most of kevin's fans. but listening to the album last night, (i picked up the re-issue at the bad books show last night, and i wont lie, it was mostly to read the new liner notes by kevin and by jesse lacey) i picked up lines on that album that id never really noticed before, but that are so applicable to my little life seven years after they were written.

kevin says in the liner notes that its hard for him to remember going back that far. he says, "thinking back to then feels like trying on someone else's skin...it's hard to remember what it felt like being me." while it may be hard for him to think back on the person that wrote those lyrics, some of them hit home with me more today than they ever would have in 2003.

the song "youre my incentive" starts off with your bearings are shot and your car dont run like she used to/your friends dont call and they dont even bother with offering excuses/your tv is on but its always on so its useless/just the awful news and the sorry truth that were definitely sinking.

the whole album is full of lines that i feel like could have been written by me right now. there are, however, plenty of lyrics that im pretty sure will never pertain to my life, as kevin's lifestyle choices at that time and mine are fairly different.

anyway, i encourage you to pull out some stuff you havent listened to in a while and give it a spin again, this time with a fresh set of ears. you might find that you've overlooked something, too.