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The original column was published on November 15th, 2018 and can be found below.

It's silly, no? When a rocket ship explodes and everybody still wants to fly

But some say a man ain't happy unless a man truly dies

Oh why?

Time. Times.

I realized something recently. I don’t listen to music on accident. I’ve never really listened to the radio, not really as a kid and not now. Because of that, there’s a whole lot of music that everyone seems to know but me. But with the way I talk about music, and spit seemingly endless trivia, this always comes as a surprise to people. I have these huge gaps and I’ve been making a real effort to fill them lately. There are several reasons why I’m finally expanding my base, so let’s hit some of the big ones.

I’ll address the elephant mascot in the room real quick and just say, yeah, the world is absolutely terrible and the regular old escapism I’ve relied on for years just isn’t cutting it anymore. But that’s obvious and boring and stressful to talk about, so let’s get more micro here and forget the macro for a second.

I recently got married. My major source of stress/pride at the wedding was that, instead of a DJ or a band, I pre-mixed music that we chose ourselves. I’ve always loved pop, but my partner was much better versed in dance music and R & B than me. So when it came time to mix these playlists, there was a lot of music in there that had this vague familiarity, but was basically foreign to me. But, after listening to these songs over and over (and over), I started feelin’ it a bit. And seeing everyone on the dance floor really made me take a closer listen to what I was missing.

Right around the same time I was making this playlist, my partner gave me a bag of CDs for my birthday. Now, if anyone knows me, they know I don’t really let people just pick media for me. I do tons of research, make a plan on how best to immerse myself in the material, and dive DEEP into what makes whatever I’m into SO good. (Yeah, I know, the most sterile way to enjoy media organically, but what're you gonna do? I only get to listen to something for the first time once.) But this time, my almost-wife made a plan for me and pushed me to start filling two of my biggest gaps, Prince and David Bowie.

I’m sure you’ll hear more about Bowie in a later column, but I’m here to talk about Prince. I followed her plan and started with 1999. It was great! But it didn’t *really* speak to me yet. Yeah, "1999" and "Lady Cab Driver" ruled, but I didn’t really feel like I was missing out all these years. Then I went on to Parade. Ok, I was starting to get it. "Girls & Boys," "Under The Cherry Moon," and "Kiss" were some killer tracks. Then it ends with "Sometimes It Snows In April," and my god. I was really looking forward to the third album in her list.

This was the album I needed to get me through the weeks leading up to the wedding and the dreaded midterm elections. The opening title track is somehow both so 1987 and so relevant. I’ll let Prince speak for himself.

In France, a skinny man died of a big disease with a little name

By chance his girlfriend came across a needle and soon she did the same...

Hurricane Annie ripped the ceiling of a church and killed everyone inside

You turn on the telly and every other story is tellin' you somebody died

A sister killed her baby 'cause she couldn't afford to feed it

And yet we're sending people to the moon...

Baby make a speech, Star Wars fly

Neighbors just shine it on

But if a night falls and a bomb falls

Will anybody see the dawn?

Double albums tend to have a bunch of filler, but every song on this album is so damn good. Just when the first disc starts to wrap up, as