keep your ear to the ground

My brother emailed me a link to this review last night, reminding me that Lifted, Or the Story Is In The Soil, Keep Your Ear To The Ground was released August 13, 2002, ten years ago yesterday.

It made me cringe a bit to read that the person who wrote the review was in the 7th grade in 2002, yet it still brought me back to that year--my senior year--to that fall, when I first heard the album (and all of the subsequent years when I kept listening).

Did you know that the first time I heard it was in Elliott's van? I remember being drawn to it immediately, but I can't be sure if at the time I truly liked the music, or the person who owned the CD. Probably a bit of both.

I can't really say anything insightful about the album or the ten years. It's so tied up in distinct memories and specific feelings: late at night driving in St. Charles in my old Camry listening to "Lover I Don't Have to Love," late at night [again] on Route 412 in my Explorer and "Bowl of Oranges," walking the streets in Manhattan with "Laura Laurent" and "(To Love And To be Loved)," sitting at my desk or curled up in my bed in Herald Towers with "Nothing Gets Crossed Out."

Still, even with all of the memories, listening to the album now doesn't make me as sad as it probably should. It's so alive and full, I can't help but feel the same.