Everything But The Girl – Walking Wounded (1996)

Everything ‘Bout the Logo by Sarca @ caughtmegaming

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[Album 510/1001]

A tremendous quote, from an excellent scene, in the tremendously excellent 2014 film, The Imitation Game:

“Of course machines can’t think as people do. A machine is different from a person. Hence, they think differently. The interesting question is, just because something, uh… thinks differently from you, does that mean it’s not thinking? Well, we allow for humans to have such divergences from one another. You like strawberries, I hate ice-skating, you cry at sad films, I am allergic to pollen. What is the point of… different tastes, different… preferences, if not, to say that our brains work differently, that we think differently? And if we can say that about one another, then why can’t we say the same thing for brains… built of copper and wire, steel?”

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A 2017 attempt at the review of Walking Wounded, a mid-90s electronica album by Everything But the Girl, that modifies the above quote:

Of course machines can’t play music as people do.

A machine is different from a person. Hence, they make music differently.

The interesting question is, just because something, uh… makes music differently from you, does that mean it’s not making music?

Well, we allow for humans to have such divergences from one another.

You like black metal, I hate when it sounds like a singer is ‘doing’ a voice, you cry at power ballads, I am allergic to ill-advised remixes.

What is the point of… different tastes, different… preferences, if not, to say that our brains work differently, that we appreciate musical artists differently?

And if we can say that about artists playing physical instruments, then why can‘t we say the same thing for artists making music on a machine…built of copper and wire, steel?”

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All of which is to say:

1. My wonderful, and very human, wife instantly enjoyed this electronica album, an album largely produced by machines.

2. I’ll happily acknowledge that this digitally-created music is in fact, music, but I’m still on the path to full enjoyment. Which, compared to my less than enlightened attitude towards this group as a teen, can be considered modest progress.

3. I’m currently reading a book, The Power of Off, which had a great line:

“If we understand that another person’s differing information and opinions can coexist with our information and opinions, without either of our personhoods being destroyed by the contradiction, then we can genuinely listen to and relax with what another knows and believes.”

Which is good to know we can coexist, despite not sharing identical levels of enthusiasm for mid-90s electronica.

4. We both love The Imitation Game, which I imagine can only help our chances of coexistence.

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Verbalize the Positive

I appreciate my aforementioned & awfully wonderful wife!