A few weeks back I stumbled on a track called “Nothing More to Say” by a band called The Frightnrs.  One of my favourite DJs added it to his essential listening list and it immediately caught my attention.  If you regularly read these rambling Discuss pieces I do, you’ve probably already predicted what I did next; dear reader, having never heard of them, I looked them up.

The story of The Frightnrs is a sad one.  I read this NPR article with their album on in the background.  As I read, the music touched me more.  It is undoubtedly an accomplished piece of work; lyrically, musically and vocally.  It’s reminiscent of classic smooth 70s reggae – straight out of New York.  Even the album artwork has the style of that era.  I listened to the album a few times and although it’s by no means a classic, it’s certainly lovely.

However – and here’s the “discuss” bit – I wonder whether I’d think of it as fondly had it been produced in straightforward and in more happy circumstances.  The story makes is a remarkable and poignant piece of work, without it, the album is good and would have held my attention for a while, but perhaps no more than that.  Does this make me a bit of a hypocrite?

Yet again ‘Spillers I come to you to discuss this issue.  What doe you know about all of this? Are average albums made better because of a sad back story, or does the back story make the album a much better piece of work?

While you think about it, here’s my favourite song from The Frightnrs album.

Till Then.