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‘New Miserable Experience’ is the Amazing Album You Only Know for One Song
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My first response to merry prankster Buddy Gott’s latest writing prompt, “The Shed a Little Light Music Challenge,” was unsurprisingly about Bruce Springsteen: “Five Springsteen Songs You Don’t Know But Should.” In that piece, I said that my next entry in the challenge would be about the superb 10,000 Maniacs album In My Tribe, but a different album pushed it out of the way, insisting that it come next. If a hunk of vinyl talks to me when I’m stone-cold sober, I listen.
Thus, today I want to highlight a little-known album that, ironically, contains a song everyone knows: the incredible Gin Blossoms record from 1992, New Miserable Experience. If, like me, you still think 1992 was ten years ago, some quick math will shock you: this album turns 32 this year, making it older than both of my children. Time is a cruel master, but while time has taken a toll on me, the album has aged like fine wine.
You may not have ever heard of New Miserable Experience, but you have heard the mega-hit from the album: “Hey Jealousy.” I remember the first time I heard it like it was yesterday. I was at my Army roommate’s parents’ house in Atlanta in 1992, listening to the University of Georgia college radio station on the first Thanksgiving…
