No Ukes (For Me)

A few weeks ago, Robin and Lindsey were talking about Eddie Vedder’s Ukulele Music while they gave my woefully underworked leg and arm muscles their weekly once-over.

They went on and on about the music so much that the first I did when I got home — after a quick visit to the toilet — was to get on the Eye Gaze and listen to it for myself.

My first stop was to Spotify. Spotify is a lot like Pandora except that you are able to search for and play specific songs — and even entire albums — by practically every recording artist in the world.

I typed Eddie Vedder’s name into the search box and there it was, Ukulele Music in its entirety. Switching from the keyboard screen to the desktop moves screen, I activated the left double mouse click button and blinked on the first track.

Nothing. Except for an error message telling me that these files are unavailable at this time.

To quote Vezzini from The Princess Bride, “Inconceivable!”

I tried again and got the same result.

Annoyed but otherwise undeterred, I maneuvered myself to NPR’s website because at one point during their conversation, Robin had mentioned that she had originally heard about the record on NPR’s airwaves.

It took about ten minutes of digging around but I was able to find not only an article about the album but they also had it set up so that you could give the whole record a listen.

Not needing to be asked twice, I clicked on the First Listen link and waited… Patiently, at first, for it to start playing… Then frantically, as I waited in vain for the volume of the music coming out of the speakers to lower to the level that I had commanded it to onscreen… And finally, desperately, as I was forced to close the window in order to turn off the completely unresponsive audio player.

At this point, I decided to temporarily abandon my ukulele dreams for a couple of days, and instead, went to Amazon and ordered it with a gift card I’d received for my birthday. Thanks, Beusch.

After three consecutive listens in a row upon receiving it in the mail Monday evening, I am not ashamed to admit that I really like this record. Being a huge fan of melody as an integral part of the art form, every one of the sixteen tracks delivers musical sweetness to my ears.

If you are in the market for something new to get into this summer, let me be just one of many who would be suggesting that you purchase Ukulele Music for yourself. You will not be disappointed.

* As I was writing this piece, I went to Spotify in order to get the actual wording of that error message, but a funny thing happened when I double left clicked the first tune, it actually played. Truth be told, I listened to the entire disc two more times while writing this post.

** I also discovered that the audio component on NPR’s  Eddie Vedder page had been removed.

Irony or conspiracy? Discuss.

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