And One - Bodypop
Genre: EBM
Year: 2006
Year I discovered it: 2009
And One provided the soundtrack to my 20s. A band that
started in the early 90s and had their most recent release in 2014, they
provided me years of new-to-me music after I discovered them in 2009. I chose Bodypop
because it was the album that the first songs from this band that I heard came
from, but much like other bands on this top 10 list I'm hard pressed to choose
a favorite album of theirs. Their sound is versatile, and although they are
mainly known for one or two songs in goth circles they have so many great songs
that no one talks about. One of their most overplayed songs at the goth clubs
is on this album in fact.
What this album
in particular and my discovery of And One in general really marked was the
final step in my shift from getting new music in record stores to finding new music
online. I discovered And One through YouTube, during a time where I was pretty
much hopping from band to band, getting into them for a couple months, and then
moving onto the next one. I guess I’m kind of doing that now too, but it’s more
centralized within a set of closely-related genres, in part thanks to And One’s
influence, while between the years 2007-2009, it almost felt like I couldn’t
settle on what I wanted to listen to. I was in a major transitional point in my
life, that perhaps I’ll write more about later. A lot of my favorite bands as a
teen in high school had either taken a turn for the worse with their musical
style or just disappeared by that time, and I just didn’t have the anger in me
anymore that led me to listen to black metal. I wasn’t being imprisoned in a
horrible high school anymore, and college was actually kind of nice. Some of
the best years of my life were my late teens to early 20’s. So, I was searching
for a new sound. A new laidback kind of darkness, rather than the high energy, angry
darkness of metal. Then along comes And One, and I found that they had a vast
discography dating back to 1991 and I liked almost every song. It ushered in a
new era for me, and this became the music of my 20’s (I still feel sad talking about my 20's in the past tense…). This album in particular always brings me back to
2009 when I listen to it, when I was at California State University, Monterey Bay (CSUMB).
The middle of my Monterey years. When I listen to songs from this album,
particularly the tracks “Love You to the End” and “Stand the Pain”, sometimes I’ll
catch a whiff of that fragrant sea air, feel the cool rush of fog and the spray
of the sea, have a taste of fresh clam chowder in a sourdough bread bowl and
have visions of standing up on a sand dune watching the Pacific Ocean crashing
in waves against the shore below.
I didn’t really
consume Bodypop as a single work like I did the other albums I’ve talked
about, or like I later would with And One’s albums released after I discovered
the band. I listened to it one song at a time, in no particular order, mixed with songs on other And
One albums. I think that’s how a lot of people end up listening to albums these
days, on either YouTube, Pandora, Spotify or whatever else people use. The art
of constructing one album with songs that fit together and share a common theme
throughout seems to be a dying art. One that does not transfer well from physical
media to modern streaming. It’s a tragic loss in some ways. I think back to an
older band like Kraftwerk. All their albums had a theme of some kind, not a lot
of their songs would have worked on their own. They either would have sounded
completely different if streaming had existed back then, or would never have risen
to “sort-of popularity in certain circles” in the first place. Pink Floyd would
be another good example. We’re not getting another album that compares to Dark
Side of the Moon this century, I don’t think. If we do it’s going to be
really underground, obscure, and never get popular. Everything that gains
notoriety these days has to be tailor-made for modern musical consumption. I
probably sound like that “Old Man Yells At Cloud” screencap from The Simpsons
right now, but I’m not saying streaming’s a bad thing. It’s how I discover new
music these days. I wouldn’t find half of the stuff I listen to these days in a
record store. That’s the beauty of streaming. All of those obscure bands from
the 80’s I’m discovering? Impossible without streaming. Would I have ever
discovered And One without it? Probably not. But to gain all of this, we paid a
price.
Yeah, that's the screencap. "Damn you streaming!"
Anyway, let’s
talk about some of the songs, shall we?
After a short instrumental piece
called “Mein Anfang”, we get to “Military Fashion Show”, apparently the only
And One song that DJ’s at The Castle and most other goth dance clubs have ever
heard, besides maybe “Panzermensch”. There are so many other good And One songs
they could be playing. There’s nothing wrong with those two songs, I like them,
but there’s just so many others that the DJs ignore. Anyway. Back in 2009 when
I first heard this, it didn’t really speak to me too deeply, it was just a
catchy song that I was into for a month or two. Lines like “Girlfriend,
girlfriend, never could be mine” spoke to my bitterness at the time because I’d
had a painful breakup the year before, and besides a brief one week fling back
in 2006, that was essentially the extent of my entire love life up to that
point, at age 23. But I’m married now, so I’m all better. There was a happy
ending to the tragic tale of my love life before age 26.
The next song “Enjoy the Unknown”
isn’t a song that I gave a whole lot of attention to back then, but after listening
to it again for this blog, I really underrated this song. It has a smooth,
symphonic and sentimental quality to it. It would make a good emotional
end-credits song for a movie soundtrack. I overlooked it before, but perhaps it’s
time for that to change. I don’t know why I overlook some songs on occasion, I
guess it got overshadowed at the time I was into this album. It sounds a lot
like a Depeche Mode song, which is pretty common with And One by the way, they’re
really like the German Depeche Mode. The next song is “So Klingt Liebe” (“So
sounds love”). This song’s a bit naughty I must forewarn. I did include it on
the first CD mix I made for my wife when we began dating, and I think it went
over well despite her not knowing German.
“The Sound of Believer” has a sound
somewhat similar to the earlier “Enjoy the Unknown” in a way, but different
enough. This is one of those songs that brings me back to a time and place,
mainly exploring the abandoned, decaying buildings around CSUMB on a cold, foggy
Monterey day. I don’t really know what the lyrics are about to this day, it’s a
song I just feel. The next song, “Body Company”, is a catchy one that easily
could be played in dance clubs but usually isn’t. I don’t have too much to say
about it, but it is catchy and a nice listen. Next up is “Traumfrau” (“Dream
girl”), which is a song I was never that into really. I don’t dislike it, but
there are other songs on the album that sound a bit similar but are better.
“Stand the Pain” is another good
one, full of underlying anger and resentment but still catchy. It’s a bit like
Ministry’s “Revenge” in tone. The subject of the song is being bitter about
having caught ones lover cheating on them, but like I said that breakup from
the year before was still pretty fresh in my mind when I heard this song, so
that’s how I related to it. It brings me back to Monterey too. Ah, doomed
romances of yore. I’m over it now. The next track, “Sexkeit”, is actually one I
remember listening to a lot more a couple years later in 2011. I didn’t hear
this one at first. It’s slow and a bit creepy. It reminds me of lonely winter
days alone in my bedroom when I lived in Martinez, California, watching the
rain fall through my window, without much to do as this was after college but
before graduate school for me. The lyric “I am waiting for you” reminds me of
waiting for my soul mate, who I didn’t know yet and hadn’t met. The ending of
the song kind of decays away, reminding me of abandonment, loneliness.
“Love You to the End” reminds me of
love not for a person, but a place. Monterey. I said this album made me think
of Monterey a lot. I loved it there. Why did I ever leave? Oh, right. Because I
graduated and didn’t have a job, so I went back to Martinez to live with my
parents. Then I thought it would be a good idea to go into debt for a useless
master’s degree. How fun. Graduating sucks. I would happily have stayed a
college student for the rest of my life, never having to deal with loan sharks
sending scary letters in the mail every few months and taking awful jobs to get
by. I really would have. The only time graduating didn’t suck was at the end of
high school. I love Monterey. It’s the only place I love almost as much as
Armenia. I love the beaches, the water, the sea. The ocean isn’t the same in
Florida. I live near the ocean now, but you’d never be able to tell. There’s no
fog. Rarely much wind. It’s hot and humid. It doesn’t smell like the sea here
in Rockledge, Florida. I don’t know why it’s so different. “Since the old club
fell into the past”. My Monterey days are falling into the past, as one of the
lyrics in this song says. It’s been almost ten years since I left. Only music
can really conjure those memories up for me again.
There are two more songs, “The Dream”
and “Dein Ende”. They’re both okay. Didn’t really impact me too much. “The
Dream” is kind of slow and relaxing, “Dein Ende” (“Your End”) is just an
instrumental. I guess that works because the first song is an instrumental. The
best of the album is over by the time these two songs come on. I was still
listening to And One religiously throughout the rest of my 20’s. They released
three albums in one year in 2014, which took me a while to get through, but
they’ve been quiet ever since. I do hope it’s not going to become another Das
Ich/The Kovenant/Kraftwerk situation where I’m waiting decades for the next
album. But when you release three albums in one year, I guess you deserve a bit
of a break. I’ve had to look for other music to listen to in the meantime. And I
haven’t had trouble in that regard, thanks to streaming.
