posted 2007/09/23 at 18:21
A few years ago, back before we were in the last days of Media Play, it seemed like every Tuesday the store would be open at midnight to give customers the opportunity to purchase something as soon as they were legally able to do so. I recall it wasn't just confined to Media Play, though; for a while there I think Best Buy was doing the same thing. I'm guessing that this was a response to the sales that 24-hour megastores like Meijer and Wal*Mart Supercentre were generating since they can always bring items out from the shipping docks at the crack of midnight. In recent years it seems like this phenomenon has faded, although of course special midnight sales still happen for things like the release of Harry Potter books, and it seems to be picking up for releases of hot video game franchises like Madden and Halo.
Still, back in 1997, it was kind of rare for these midnight sales to occur, but one of them did happen on this date ten years ago today. The reason for the sale was because the recording of Elton John's reworking of "Candle in the Wind" he performed at the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales, was being released. The single quickly rose to the top of the Billboard Hot 100 and stayed there into the next year, eventually selling eleven million copies, the only certified Diamond single in this country's history. The single achieved similar success worldwide, and although some ambiguity exists as to whether this single or Bing Crosby's seminal "White Christmas" is the greatest-selling song of all time, the phenomenon of the single's release is yet another testament to the power that Lady Diana had across the world. Thus it was that I was in the Media Play store at midnight that night as most people lined up to buy copies of Elton John's single, with a couple of young men instead asking for the newest album from Boyz II Men that was also being released.
I had to wait until the very end of this blitz, but then I came forward, wearing the same Björk t-shirt I am wearing as I type this right now (which I bought from a mail-order company that used to advertise in the back of Rolling Stone back then), and asked for the album that she had just released at the same time, Homogenic. At the time I just thought that it would be another top-notch album, but after taking it home and listening to it just once, I realized that I had just bought quite possibly the greatest album ever. I had only heard "Joga" up to that point, but following that track on the CD is the greatest three-song sequence in recorded history, with the minimalistic melancholy of "Unravel" and the subdued ebullience of "All Neon Like" bordering the single greatest song in human history, "Bachelorette." Needless to say, if it were actually possible to wear out a CD from overplaying, I probably would have had to have bought several dozen copies of Homogenic by this point.
I will admit that the album isn't perfect; "Five Years" still grates on me with its odd instrumentation and sometimes-awkward lyrics, and I was slow to really latch on to the raw emotion of "Pluto" since it stands in such stark contrast to the rest of the album. In spite of that, though, there is little doubt in my mind that Homogenic is the best album ever released by anyone, and I strongly encourage all of you to buy your own copies if you haven't done so already. If nothing else, if you haven't heard the original album cut of "All is Full of Love," you should; it features the intimacy that was lacking out of the remix (and subsequently nearly everything else Björk has released since then).
copyright © 2008 Sean Shannon