Music I liked Last Week – Meshuggah, Led Zeppelin

Last week I was pretty swamped with parental obligations and didn’t get to listen to as much music as usual. But I saw Meshuggah at the Showbox, (post pending), so you can probably guess some of what I was listening to.

Meshuggah

I store purchased albums on Google Play, which also has lots of music available for streaming. (In fact, one of the things I don’t like about it is that it’s hard to keep track of what music I actually own.) Anyway, with the Meshuggah concert coming up, I noticed that they had the album Nothing available for streaming. That one predates my interest in the band, and I didn’t remember seeing it on Play before, so I listened to a lot of Nothing.

Then of course I had to listen to Violent Sleep of Reason some more. Even though I’m a word girl, I rarely listen to the lyrics in metal. Maybe that’s why I didn’t make the connection before. But last week, listening to Violent Sleep of Reason, I was first reminded of this poster that hangs in my office.

This exhibit poster features Goya’s “The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters.” Goya had a moment in 2016; I saw his work in the Graphic Masters exhibit at Seattle Art Museum. That same year, my husband saw an exhibit on Goya in Austin. Meshuggah’s album came out in late 2016. Were they inspired by Goya? This piece in particular seemed relevant in 2016, the year when Reason’s violent monsters first appeared to most of us.

Led Zeppelin

I don’t even remember the conversation, or the quote. But in conversation last week, someone quoted a line from a song on 4. That quote, almost immediately forgotten, led to many repeat listens of my favorite Zeppelin albums, three and four.

And here’s the song that almost got my daughter named for citrus. It’s worth listening through the chatter at the beginning.