Brilliant Unappreciated Album II: Change

Band: The Dismemberment Plan

Album: Change

Year: 2001

Year Discovered: 2007

All I can really say in a dying Annakin Skywalker voice is "You were right, Nat. You were right." In 2002, Nat Foster and I would go to the local record shop on Bayswater which had the greatest business model for a used CD store and had the greatest selection of CDs I've ever seen. All CDs were used, but the price for each CD declined every two weeks or so. So, CDs no one wanted were about 2 pounds, while more popular CDs would sell for about 10 pounds. I loved gambling that no one would buy the CD I wanted for another couple of weeks to see if the price would drop just one more pound. Anyway, Nat found a ton of American Indie stuff and I remember him buying the very distintively titled "Dismemberment Plan." I think he bought !. I should have listened to him. I was so busy buying up British Indie, that I missed out on a great learning opportunity. So some time last year, I stumbled across the DP and found out you could listen to their albums online. I did. I was intrigued. I bought Change off of emusic along with a bunch of other things. After a couple of months, I decided to give Change a try while riding on the bus to work. As I was listening, I had this weird anticipatory feeling..."Some day, boy, you will love this. Maybe not today, but some day...."

Today I love this album. I can't describe why. It's the coolest album, as in, it's one of those albums that you feel like if someone said, "Hey, what are you listening to on your iPod? Can I listen?" that you know that your stock would rise with them because Change was playing. (I don't have many of those albums). Everything about the music seems unpredictable and fresh. The beats are different, the lyrics are different (I'm an old testament kind of guy/I like my coffee black/and my parole denied), the melodies are different. Every time I listen I think, "How did they come up with that??" That's the sign of a great album to me. When I look at a painting or a sculpture, I think that there's no way I could pull that off. When I hear a great album, I think the same thing. Other albums, I think, "Wow, if I spent a summer learning the guitar and bought ProTools, I could be Train." All I can think is that it makes perfect sense that the band is from DC. A NYC or a Western band could not have made this album. It's a real DC/MD type album. And when I listen to it, I feel like I'm understanding the natives.