The TCT Folio: ANTICIPATION

Colleen Matan is a PhD candidate at Georgetown University in Washington, DC. She thinks the blue Teletubby is extremely disturbing.

Also in this folio, essays by:

Matt Lucas
Marjorie Cardwell

In the old days, before I had Internet access, back when I didn't even know that the Crowded House fan club was still a living, breathing entity, I didn't really have much anticipation about Crowded House albums. I didn't buy the first one until years later because I was not completely happy with the way Split Enz sounded at the end. I picked up Temple of Low Men well after I'd fallen in love with "Better Be Home Soon." The only anticipation I had in conjunction with Woodface was when I made myself wait a day to listen to it (the better to begin my vacation with). Together Alone? I didn't even know it had been released until I heard "Locked Out" on the radio.

Once I entered fully into the Information Age, I wondered if my lackadaisical attitude towards a band I really, really, really liked would change. Now that I knew about new releases many months in advance, would I find myself lined up at the local record store to buy that CD at the first moment it was available?

The answer, I've come to find, is "no." How do I know this with so much assurance? Well there are advance copies of Try Whistling This floating about out there, and I've made no attempt whatsoever to acquire one for myself. And believe me, it wouldn't take that much work to do so either.

Why is my level of Finn enthusiasm so [seemingly] low? I'll tell you in a bit.

First, I will confess that I've read everything I could about the influences and help Neil has had with Try Whistling This. The three new songs on Recurring Dream were great disappointments to me. "Instinct" was the best of the lot, but it was far from Neil at his peak. "Everything Is Good For You" is a pallid remake of the soaring and stellar "Anyone Can Tell." And as for "Not the Girl," uh, well, let's just say I can't understand how anyone who likes it could then turn around and bash Hanson. In interviews following the band's breakup, Neil said he was afraid he was beginning to repeat himself. Based on these songs, I thought he should be so lucky as to do so.

But to hear that Neil is working with the guys from Soul Coughing, with Radiohead's producer, with people could shake him out of his musical complacency in ways the rest of the guys in Crowded House simply could not--mainly in a need to keep the delicate balance all complicated relationships require--made me very happy. Sometimes we all need a good kick in the pants.

In addition, I am happy to read these things because of Neil's interest in sound, which is pretty evident in the various records he's had a hand in producing outside of Crowded House. And since the people he is working with have the same interest, well, I'm having a great time imagining just what they will have concocted on this album.

And I can think about all these things with an open mind because I haven't yet heard the album. All I've heard are the two sound files of very raw songs--the luminous "Truth" and the extremely banal and disappointing "Try Whistling This." I very much like the fact that my opinions on these songs differ so widely because I can imagine, vaguely to be sure, how "Truth" will be further polished and how "Try Whistling This" will be beaten into shape. And I can continue to do so for as long as I like.

Which brings me back to my shocking lack of desire to lay my hands on some form of this promo CD. It's this simple. For me, the best part of anything is the anticipation of it. During this period you can turn over in your mind (or ears) any number of interesting, shocking, soothing, delicious, and all hypothetical scenarios. There is something extremely appealing about the period leading up to something. It's a time when the only limit is your imagination. A time of parentheses, if you will, a buffer between phases of reality.

I'll hear the album some time, and probably not too long, after it's released. And I'm going to do my best to avoid all spoilers until that time. I mean, half the fun of the journey is getting there, isn't it?