Mystery Music

I was sifting through the music on my work computer today, looking for something to listen to that I hadn't heard in a while. Came across a series of "Unknown Artist" folders. Opened them up, gave all of the opening tracks a brief listen until I knew who it was, but then came upon one album that was not only really captivating, but also completely unknown to me as to who it was.

I listened to the entire album, thinking, Who is this? I must know! I had almost gotten through the album twice when I decided to do a bit of investigating. The file properties didn't tell me anything but there was the date -- I presume the date on which the album was ripped to my computer. I thought back -- back to March of 2006. Did that help? No, not at all. So, I mentioned it to a coworker and then had her give it a listen.

"Oh, that's Cloud Cult," she says. "I think the name of the album is Happy Hippopotamus."

Well, whattaya know. My mystery album is a happy happy hippo.

(I looked up the album online and found that it's actually called Advice from the Happy Hippopotamus.)

The snobs at Pitchfork seem to have loved it. They gave it a 8.3 rating, a score very few albums receive no matter how good they are. From Pitchfork:

There's a state of mind in which infancy and mortality meet. Death, its inexorability, and our fear of it render us as helpless as when we were toddlers. Many of us fill the resulting tremulous mental gap with religion ("our Father..."); others with work, love, or grown-up childishness like golf; and you and I, perhaps, with pop music. Cloud Cult bandleader Craig Minowa is obsessed with this space-- with infancy, mortality, and, alas, infant mortality-- and his grandiose fourth album, Advice from the Happy Hippopotamus, occupies it with messy, expansive, computer-ok indie rock.