There are some albums (we each have our list) that are so burned into our beings that we shelve them at some point and go a long while without listening to them. I still love to listen to these albums but I always have a bit of regret about not being able to hear them with the fresh ears I had for them the first few listens.

Triage is one of those. I have two copies. My original copy's artwork disappeared at some point and several months ago I found another copy in a used CD store (one of the few outlets left in Seattle). It was in great shape and I snapped it up.

Yesterday I lent one of the copies to a friend, very knowledgeable about music, who had seen the Triage CD but had never listened to it. Perhaps because I knew she'd give it a fair listen, I stuck my other copy in my car's CD player and tried to imagine hearing it for the first time as I spent the day driving around for work.

I had some moments of recapturing the magic of hearing Triage again for the first time. It is really a great work of songwriting and production and it has held up well I think- musically, certainly- but also because of the themes David was writing about at the time.

It's a great thing to appreciate something as a valued bit of your own history, but it's a great gift to have one of those moments when the crust falls away and you are experiencing art once again with fresh eyes and open ears.

Still in my top ten.