blueprints for city friendships

Sounds like something that goes hand in hand with Simmel's views of city dwellers - you know, how they're heartless, think with their heads and not their hearts, value money more than anything and their tendency to be blase about everything - sort of self-help book regarding relationships in urban area. But, seeing as this post is from me, it quite so obviously isn't. It is in fact a clever combination of the titles of three Anberlin albums: Blueprints for the Black Market, Never Take Friendship Personal and Cities - the Anberlin Anthology that I picked up at JB Hi-Fi in Parramatta while I was there with Kass on her quest for silver chucks and a leopard print belt.

Kass and I had no clue that this awesome edition even existed - so of course we both had to have it. It completes my collection of Anberlin albums (however I will still purchase the Blueprints for the Black Market and Cities in their original editions because that's just how I am). The cover is just as clever as the title, integrating aspects from all three album covers in a new, sepia cover. To the left is the same bust on Never Take Friendship Personal taken from another angle. To the left is an inversion of the Cities cover, and at the bottom is a couple of rolled up blueprints to signify Blueprints for the Black Market.

The interior is the same sepia and black & white from the cover. I do miss the original artwork palettes, but this was still very pretty - classic and timeless. As with any physical album I purchase, I simply had to listen to it. There's something different about listening to music straight off the CD. Somehow it sounds fuller, better. Or maybe it's just me.

Blueprints for the Black Market

Listening to Blueprints brought me back to their early works, some of which have more significance to me. Such as Cadence (Track 10) - I adored this song when I first heard it, even more so when I heard it in its raw, acoustic form. It was the spark for one of the names for my future children, Cadence Rayne.

Never Take Friendship Personal

The title track for this album was the first song I'd ever heard from this awesome band almost five years ago. I was scanning the radio stations on a Saturday night. I had stumbled upon the Christian Rock station in its Top 40, and my, oh my it was wonderful - even with the horrendous static. It was the beginning of a very wonderful addiction to the sound of Anberlin.

Cities

Cities was the second album from which I heard a track on the radio. It was Dismantle. Repair. another brilliant song that I can't get enough of. The entire album brings me back to the times where I walked to school with music drowning out all surrounding noise (which is not something I'd advise. It is very harmful to your hearing and safety). It kind of makes me wish I was back in Highschool, when things were sort of simpler. But then again, I think about being there 9-3 every weekday and think again.

Despite not achieving our objectives for the day: to find silver chucks, a leopard print belt and a yellow belt for Kass, we did end adding to our Anberlin collections, and that of course can never be bad.