Achtung, My Baby.

As I spend more and more time these days counting my gray hairs and the others that simply refuse to stay on my head, it should come as no surprise that the sands of time are sifting past me. Still, I simply cannot wrap my head around the fact that it has already been twenty years almost to the day since U2 released their incredible, career changing Achtung Baby. All I keep thinking when reading reviews of reissues and listening to some of the outstanding covers on the tribute album, AHK-toong BAY-bi Covered, is what album will be covered and lauded 20 years from now. Far from being one to decry the state of music today - I actually think that we live in a time of incredible creativity and innovation in the arts - I have trouble putting my finger on the albums that are shaking the earth enough to make a 20 year mark.

I may have lost interest for U2, but I can't ignore the indelible mark that their music has left on my life. As I begin to compile my favourite music of 2011, it makes me pay extra attention to albums that will stand the test of time. With many claiming the death of the album, bodies of music become more of a chain of singles than an artist-curated entity. Nothing new but more and more, the listener continues to define how he consumes the release of music. I know that I used to sit and stare at a wall or ceiling while listening to albums back-to-back, over and over. Gone are those days. But enough of your father's old man rant. Time to pick you up from daycare and decide whether to play you Mozart or Morello, Brahms or Bon Iver. So watch out, my baby. There is only one solid truth; the classics never get old.