As a consequence perusing online dating services in my somewhat younger and far more single days, I became aware of a band called Blue October. Seeing that numerous girls with cute profile pictures cited them as favorite bands, I did some reading on the ever-reliable Internet and learned they hailed from just up the road in Houston. So I downloaded some of their tracks and found they had a sound into which I could get, accompanying cute girl or no.
Fast-forward to 2006, and, in August of that year, the album Foiled was released. In short time, I heard the single "Hate Me" playing on one of the Internet radio stations I streamed regularly, so I headed to the now-defunct Borders to buy the album. I am so glad I did.
Earlier that same year I met this cute girl who turned out not to be into Blue October but was into triathlon. When we began dating in late-November, Foiled became increasingly popular on some mainstream radio stations (from what I could tell—I don't really listen to contemporary, commercial radio), and Blue October became more of a regular rotation on my playlists, including Foiled but older albums, as well, which contained those first tracks I nabbed. I found the words & music to be adequate contemporaries to my go-to band, The Cure.
Now, in 2014, 8+ years since its release, Foiled is again in regular—and frequent—rotation for albums to which I listen, and I continue to find new means of appreciating assorted aspects of the album. At present, it's the drum tracks on the first three songs; they strike me as subtly beautiful.
Lyrically, the bookends of the album, "You Make Me Smile" & "Eighteenth Floor Balcony" are nothing short of sublime. Both remind me of the early days of dating that cute triathlete, especially our first road trip together to see some friends in Dallas: Hearing Texas tunes tick by Texas miles, reaching out into the literal & figurative darkness to discover the other was doing the same. Holding hands. Falling in love. Getting married. Buying a house. Having a kid. And now a second.
Thank you, Blue October, for making Foiled, Foiled Again, and so many albums since. Though I have yet to see you in concert (something always seems to come up when the band is even remotely in the neighborhood—and Texas is a big neighborhood), I continue to enjoy your tunes, including the live tracks on Foiled Again & the acoustic awesomenesss of Ugly Side. My only real gripe is that every album contains at least one F-bomb on it, barring me from using it as background music throughout the instructional day. However, the language is but one technique used to get the raw emotion poured into every song—"like children to the playground"—and I wouldn't want it any other way.
And to you, fair reader, thanks for reading.
And to you, fair reader, thanks for reading.
