Corona shutdown and music

There are certain things I have not dug into musically that I always thought I would catch up on someday, if I had the time. 

Suddenly, I have the time.

The list so far includes everything Lou Reed recorded after Ecstasy. I love that album; it's magnificent on headphones, has some really arresting lyrics, and it cares not at all about pandering to fans of Transformer or such. It helps, too, that I saw Lou in Tokyo touring it - one of those top concert experiences of mine, where Lou and Mike Rathke just dug into playing with each other and ignored Lou's hits until a fast, bored, let's-get-this-over-with encore. I didn't need the encore, and there were songs I would have liked to hear that I didn't ("The Blue Mask," say), but seeing Lou and Mike dig into playing with each other was pure pleasure.

But The Raven? I wasn't ready. Lulu with Metallica, appearing to a fanfare of boos? Nope, not at the time. But now I'm checking out both of them, listened to all of Lulu today, on headphones in bed with my eyes closed, and it's magnificent. Really ambitious. There's a lot of moments that I don't care for, places where Lars Ulrich seems to get a bit sloppy, or where Hetfield's voice takes on too much of a... James Hetfield quality; but it's definitely a Lou Reed project, and deserves a lot more love than it got. 

The other band I have been digging deeper into is the Screaming Trees; I have plenty of their albums around (tho' I am missing a few), but only recently started to really get into Sweet Oblivion and Invisible Lantern. ("Night Comes Creeping" is really crazily good, very fun and peppy!). A band I never saw; I caught Mark Lanegan solo once, opening for Nick Cave, but his solo stuff hasn't really hooked me.

There's a lot else I could explore... looking forward to having the time. Let's just hope that the crisis ends before I have time to catch up with Neil Young.