Against Pollution by Mountain Goats

The Great Unheard consists of 400 songs from 40 participants. The oldest contributor was born in 1937, the youngest in 2001. Twenty-six men and 14 women. Designers, salesmen, finance types, journalists, housewives, teachers, marketers, lawyahs, technologists, government workers. Gays and straights, left-brainers and creatives, marrieds and solos, Goths and folkies, lefties and Reaganites, globetrotters and den-sitters, hotties and notties—all with one thing in common: a discriminating ear for music.

This collection was born of the idea that we all have access to more music than we can process. Digitalization makes songs instantly available and almost infinitely portable, but it also makes them more anonymous, less tactile. It’s awesome, of course, but it’s also a bit paralyzing. What should I listen to next? Why should I listen to it? How long should I give a song before trying something else?

The issue is one of context, and this is where discriminating ears come into play. Your selecting 10 songs for this collection was the first step in fleshing out their back-stories. This booklet attempts to build on that, by highlighting various aspects of the tunes and by categorizing them in a way that might add something to your listening.

Having spent 45 days with the songs on this DVD, I can say that they are best when approached from different angles. Try placing the whole collection on shuffle one day. The next day, play all the instrumentals. Then maybe play a person’s set list in the order it appears in the liner notes [over half the 40 participants asked questions about sequencing the songs, which tells you something about the care people took in assembling their CDs.] Each one of these approaches casts new light on the music. And as you listen and read and look at the self-portraits, the collection will grow on you. You will start to feel how the songs hang together as a group, and you’ll start to hear greatness in songs you didn’t like at first.

This project has exceeded my expectations it in every way, and I thank you all for your effort and enthusiasm. I hope you love the end result as much as I do.