Keep The Customers Satisfied

Incidentally, after yesterday's brief rant about tone, I find this quote from Davey Von Bohlen:

"Right now, there are only three perfect records that I know of: Slayer's Reign in Blood, Prince's Purple Rain, and Bruce Springsteen's Born in the USA. Those records are completely perfect in tone, you know? Each one of those records can describe one color, just like everything on Purple Rain is purple. And Reign in Blood, that record is fucking red. It's so great, because there's nothing to deviate from what they were trying to get at, and I don't think our record does that... But I'm not expecting to accomplish that anytime soon. If Simon & Garfunkel couldn't do it, I'm expecting the worst."

But I have to disagree with Davey here. The Promise Ring's Nothing Feels Good does have a consistent tone, and is one of my favourite records from the 90s. And I'm also not sure that Born in the USA could be described as a singular colour. Sure, it's a great collection of songs, but when you hold up Darlington County next to I'm On Fire, they don't really look like they're even in the same colour wheel. The songs Springsteen wrote in the Nebraska sessions stick out like sore thumbs, which is perhaps why Nebraska is one of those perfect records and Born in the USA is not.