Feeling: hopeful
Listening to: Christian Kane - L.A.
Reading/Watching: Mansfield Park

I both love and hate the experience of listening to a CD for the first time.

It's like watching an opera you've heard nothing about; you have no idea which melodies are important, and which phrases are meant to be the most powerful. And sometimes, a ten-second phrase will catch your attention the first time, but fade away in the wake of an entire song later on.

The best and worst is when it's a band you lovelovelove putting out a new album. You put it on, hoping it will live up to its predecessors, praying it hooks you the same way the others did, fearing that they'll either go for a disastrous "new sound" that you'll hate, or instead merely recycle the same ideas from before (and nobody likes leftovers).

I wish I could just skip to the third listen-through. By the third, I know what I like, I know what I want to keep hearing, and I know if the CD is going to be relegated to the pile on the bookshelf in my room (I practically never listen to music on my stereo, it's always in my car; isn't that sad?).

So far, Blue October's "Foiled" is making me nervous and hopeful at the same time. I am so emotionally invested in this band, just like I am with people like Vienna Teng, Sarah McLachlan, Lady Jane Grey, Vast, Tori Amos... their songs have meant so much to me in the past, I want them to keep moving me through my life, sticking flagpins in certain moments so that every time I hear those chords, I'm there again.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

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