As I listen to Midnight Oil’s Redneck Wonderland album through (chosen to be the background music while I work on a software upgrade… yes, at 9:30pm…) I realize that back when I first picked up the CD, I didn’t actually like it very much. I thought it was too rough, too hard, too different from the Oils’ sound of the previous several albums.

Now, however, I think of it as among their strongest work. It’s still as musically dense as I like things, but it has more vim and vigor than the softer, twangier material they’d been putting out for a while there. Really, if Diesel and Dust is the only Midnight Oil album you own and you’re wondering what else to pick up, you could do far worse than RW. (Uh, avoid Capricornia, though. Subsequent listening sessions have not endeared that record to my ears.)

What other albums sound better now than when I first listened to them?

Duran Duran’s Astronaut, most assuredly. I wrote a pretentious, faint-praise lump of a review back when the album came out (and there’s a reason I don’t do those anymore), and after those initial few full-record sessions I determined that the first four tracks were all that was worthwhile, there.

Oh, how wrong! “Nice,” “Finest Hour,” “Taste the Summer.” I’d put those up against anything Duran Duran have done before or since, never mind those first four cuts (which I still love). Even “Chains” is a fairly decent little piece. Mind you, I’m still not overly fond of “Bedroom Toys” or “Still Breathing,” but to have written off the entire back two-thirds of the album? What the hell was I thinking? What was wrong with my head? Wow.

I only have the one album from Filter but somehow, some time over the last few years Title Of Record went from being “that record with ‘Take A Picture’ on it” to “this is one of the best rock albums I’ve ever heard.” No, I’m not kidding. I don’t love every song unreservedly, but there’s not a track on there that I’ll skip under any circumstances (random playlist action, playing the album through, whatever). “It’s Gonna Kill Me,” “I Will Lead You,” “Skinny,” the nearly eight minutes of “Welcome To The Fold” to start things off… yeah. Great damned album.

So, if anyone’s still with me after all this time: What albums started out “meh” and grew on you to the point of being all-time favorites now?

As I slowly work my way through tagging my digital music library with ratings marks to ease the process of making random playback of excellent music possible on any given PC, I’ve noticed that only two albums in my collection start with the word “red”, and they’re both by Midnight Oil: “Red Sails In The Sunset” and “Redneck Wonderland.”

It occurs to me, in fact, that these are among the Oils’ strongest records, leaving aside the landmark smash-hit “Diesel & Dust.” So… what do you think? Am I nuts, or am I right?

Fourteen. This is it. Summer is at a close, and so is this silly little project.

I didn’t save a particular artist for last, but I sort of like the way things ended up. For all of the mindless pap you find before, during and after your average bit of anime, sometimes you get lucky and hear something from Yuki Kajiura. Her style definitely isn’t for everyone. This project hasn’t been about what everyone likes, though, has it?

Since we’re wrapping this up, and because your typical soundtrack cut is shorter than most regular songs, I threw in an extra track. I hope you enjoy “Key of the Twilight,” “Liar You Lie,” “Nowhere” and “Melody (Salva Nos version).”

That’s all, folks.

You can blame a cheerleader for this one.

Back when I possessed even less of a clue about life and love than I do today, I met a girl and she introduced me to her favorite band. To be fair, she introduced me to several of her favorite bands but most of them didn’t grab my attention. She was my first love, and I fell like a lead brick. Our relationship spanned two states, crossed the mighty Columbia, and lasted a couple of months.

I was a complete wreck for twice that long afterward. As I said: Clueless. Also: Wholly unprepared. I was replaced by a local jock on Christmas day, so some of it was justified. Let’s say, oh, two or three days’ worth. The rest of it? A total waste of energy. (Sorry, Dad. You had to put up with me. No jury in the world would have convicted you, when you get right down to it.)

While it lasted, we traded mixtapes on the handful of occasions when we could meet. I sent her an assortment of stuff, mostly Pet Shop Boys if I remember correctly. (PSB comes to mind because their excellent album, Behaviour, formed most of the soundtrack during my terribly “emo” recovery period.) In return I received a significant portion of her Depeche Mode library. Violator was one of the biggest albums around at the time, but I also received a well-rounded ‘cheMode education covering all of their studio work and some live material and some videos and so on.

You shouldn’t be surprised to learn, knowing all of this, that Depeche Mode is the only band from which I have more singles than the Pet Shop Boys. I’ve only picked up a couple of their albums post-Violator and they’re decidedly hit-or-miss, but I don’t regret having them take up so much space on my shelf. They suit a particular kind of mood that I suppose most people use NIN for. Too bad I can’t really get into NIN, eh?

I didn’t actually set out to select songs whose titles all begin with the letter ‘S’, but here you go anyway. Please enjoy “Stories of Old” from Some Great Reward, an outtake from Violator called “Sea of Sin” and Playing The Angel‘s “Suffer Well.”

We’re almost done, folks! I wonder if any of you can guess who’ll be closing out this little series…

Well, what do you know? This one really does go to eleven! (It’ll go a few more beyond that, actually…)

I came across this week’s band thanks to a fan-made music video combining the film “Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind” with the song “Surefire.” (The video’s title? “Giant Armored Maggots.” Well, it does rather neatly sum up a significant element of the movie. Unfortunately I can’t find the video file anymore, which may be for the best considering it was a low-resolution RealMedia effort. One of these days I’m going to make my own rendition with high-quality footage…) Three CD purchases later and I’ve found that Econoline Crush neatly fills the need in my library for a particular kind of vaguely alternative-sounding harder-edged rock sound. There are other bands in the same realm among my collection, to be sure, but I figured most of you wouldn’t be as familiar with this one.

Let’s see what you think of their work. Please enjoy “Surefire,” “Blunt,” and “You Don’t Know What It’s Like.”

Next week we’ll check in with one of the iconic figures of rock ‘n’ roll. Join us, won’t you?

We’re on the home stretch, friends!

This week is just a silly throwback to those heady days of yore. Yes, the 1980s. For good old-fashioned pop/rock stylings with just the right amount of cheese, it’s hard to do better than Rick Springfield. Please enjoy Bop ‘Til You Drop, Dream In Color (from the album that ended his chart run in America, “Rock of Life”) and Stranger In The House (from my favorite album of his, “Tao”).

We’ll go with something rather more obscure and “alternative” next week…