Like Being Twelve Years Old Again

I’m totally projecting, but this is great stuff from Peter Robinson, the last in the Guardian’s (somewhat up-and-down) ‘Favourite Albums’ series:

“Pop’s transience is a turn-off to some. For me, the idea of it being in a constant state of now is part of its thrill, and my own now started with Now 11. This album represents the time in my life when I first discovered music and chose to completely submerge myself in it. I was completely, deliriously indiscriminate, and the Now That’s What I Call Music albums indulged my desire to grab as much as possible in one go.

The point when you’re absorbing music with little or no sense of self-awareness or context is a special time, but that blissful ignorance soon passes once you start to make sense of what’s happening. It’s obvious to me now that, for instance, Billy Idol’s Hot in the City came from a different artistic place to, say, Kylie’s I Should Be So Lucky, or that Mel and Kim’s That’s the Way It Is was ripping off club sounds while Bomb the Bass were more like the real thing, but when I was listening to all this stuff for the first time the songs’ origins or authenticities didn’t matter. When I listen to it now I’m relieved to know that, unlike the Um Bongo advert, it’s all just as exciting and brilliant as it was over two decades ago.”

That Robinson is a fan of the pop shouldn’t come as any surprise – he’s editor of the utterly dayglo and barking popjustice.com, after all – but his roaring enthusiasm here stands out, making the effect and context of the music the star, not its technique or execution.

Plus, it made me feel like I was twelve again, which I’m always a sucker for.

My favourite album: Now That’s What I Call Music 11
Peter Robinson in The Guardian, 17 Oct ‘11