I was PISSED!! I have been super bitter for the past two weeks.
We looked in every flipping corner of the store and guess what? NO GUYS CLOTHES TO BE FOUND! I was in complete disbelief, so I went and asked one of the girls that works there who told me that the closest store is somewhere I don't even know how to get to. they must have moved it back up on the second floor." Deanna and I ran up to check. So we walked in and I ran towards the guys' section and found that it wasn't there anymore. What I always loved about Forever XXi is that they had daily sales which meant you pretty much stole clothes. Forever XXI is known for its totally affordable clothes and mix and match of styles. First we decided to hit up Forever XXI on Yonge and Dundas in Toronto. I agree that it is a great one.Last week, my friend Deanna and I, went for a healthy back to school shopping spree. Other than Nashville, this is the other album from Rouse with which I am familiar.
Still, the great songwriters seem to rise to the challenge again and again, year after year, decade after decade. As Amy has pointed out, it is really a remarkable accomplishment to create something unique when, in music, there are only so many notes and chords…in art, there are only so many colors and subject to depict….in writing, there are only so many words and stories to be told. Of course, the difference between songwriting (or any other creative exercise) and other jobs is that the songwriter must constantly work toward making something original–something new and different, both from anything else he or she has done and anything anyone else in the entire world has done. I do think that great songwriters should and often do get better over time, just as anyone arguably should get better at doing their job over the years. Does practice make perfect? Does success breed confidence, which leads to risk-taking? Why do some artists just keep getting better? In that sense he reminds me of Aimee Mann, whose songwriting prowess you can watch bloom over the course of her early albums. Looking back at Rouse’s conventional beginnings, it’s interesting to surmise on what led him to the creative energy he displays on 1972. Toward the end, the song opens up and the horn section kicks in and the song achieves metaphorical liftoff on the final verse. I’m going with ‘Flight Attendant,’ a minimalist number that makes perfect use of delicate piano, bass, drums and acoustic guitar to weave a cabaret-style sound tapestry over which Rouse sings about a gay airline steward (that’s gotta be a first). But that’s a problem I’ll have tomorrow and Monday as well. No matter what song I pick, I’m kicking myself for leaving the other nine under wraps. I could do a theme week on this album alone. He even finds room for a mournful acoustic track that makes the best use of gospel backup singers this side of Lyle Lovett. It’s certainly his most fun and musically adventurous… he packs strings, horns, flutes and eclectic percussion into every song and gives his falsetto a workout on tracks both sensual and surreal. The album was named after the year Rouse was born (and the year I was born, incidentally) and the music and packaging were designed to evoke that era.ġ972 is a definite candidate for Rouse’s best album.
A year after Under Cold Blue Stars, in 2003, Josh Rouse released another semi-concept album, 1972.