Don’t rob yourself of a good thing

Back when I was a teenager, I was super into punk, grunge and metal (I still am to be fair). With that, I had a natural tendency to reject the mainstream completely—especially with music. This rejection tendency lasted well into my early 20s too.

The reason I’m talking about this is because this attitude made me reject Biffy Clyro when they “sold out” (they didn’t). For context, Biffy Clyro are one of my favourite bands. Infinity Land is in my top 10 albums of all time! When Puzzle came out in 2007, they had signed to a major label, which I of course, detested. This is unwarranted, though, because as Chris Reynolds wrote in 2010, they had earned that right from over a decade of relentless touring and graft.

Puzzle was actually a pretty decent album and it does make me a bit sad that I initially rejected it. The real kicker, though, is I also rejected Only Revolutions, which came out in 2010. It’s a banger and I feel like I have missed out on—at this point—years of joy from listening to it. Now though—mainly thanks to my small child who spotted the cover on Spotify in the car and asking me to play “superhero and grass music”—I am making up for it big time and thoroughly enjoying it.

The irony is that when Biffy Clyro released their latest album, A Celebration Of Endings, I was—and still am—a superfan. I played the vinyl until it was pretty much see-through!

The flip-side: I was hugely into Nirvana when I was a younger teen, but then rejected them as cringe as I got older. It was only after reading Dave Grohl’s book, The Storyteller, I remember how incredible they were as a band and subsequently, listened the heck out of them.

The lesson? Don’t let your teenage (and adult) angst spoil a good thing for the present you. Check out the music that made you cringe then (and now), because heck, you might love it. Life is frankly, too short not to.