Favorite Albums: 2000-2004
38. Luna, Romantica
Original position on my Stylus ballot: n/a
I could get into Galaxie 500’s sleepy wails and drones as a college student, but Luna felt arch and jazzy in an alienating way - when they played Penn State circa Days Of Our Nights, I just did not believe these guys were as cool as they thought they were. It was like someone had taken the sloppiness out of Pavement and why on earth would you have wanted to do that? “Galaxie 500 is Velvets, Luna is ’80s Lou Reed” I’d say.
It’s probably no coincidence that, the more I tack Urban and Professional onto my self-description, the more I like these guys - not to mention ’80s Lou Reed (Dean Wareham’s excellent memoir helped, too). This album has a little more theme than most of Luna’s, especially if you know that Wareham had just fallen for the new bass player despite having a small child back home. “Lovedust”, the opener, is so sweetly starstruck Leila and I had to make it our first dance. Soon after, regret slips into the romance, and, as exotic locations and meals whiz by, the questions include “Don’t you want to know how the sting will go?”, “Is it a timebomb I see in your eye?”, “Do you know what it means to make a wish?” and “Who has the answers?” Next stop: Steely Dan!
