I’ve never been able to listen to either audio books or podcasts. Reading physical copies of books has been a fundamental part of my life for so long that digesting them in a different way still seems wrong to me. On top of that, any time I have a chance to be listening to music and I’m not feels like a wasted opportunity. So while I love reading and taking in new information more generally, it’s hard for me to give up potential music time for anything else.
That all changed with Dissect. I had completely missed out on this podcast – and all others – until earlier this year, when it became affiliated with Spotify and started popping up on my recommendations. I had never bothered to even look into the world of podcasts available to me before, but the promise of detailed analysis of Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp A Butterfly proved to be too much of a temptation to pass up.
And thank god for that, because listening to Dissect quite literally changed the way I engage with content on the internet. I mean, this thing was so good that I was finding every excuse I could to keep listening – going for extra walks by myself, listening between patients in the office, playing it on my waterproof Bluetooth speaker in the shower. I could not get enough. The fact that the first two seasons had passed me by completely unnoticed proved to be incredibly fortuitous, as I was able to binge my way through hours of musical analysis over the course of a few weeks.
The lyrical breakdown of To Pimp A Butterfly elevated the album from one I appreciated in a broad sense to the singular piece of genius it clearly is. There were so many levels to every aspect of the presentation – from the wordplay to the samples to the overarching narrative – that I had only grazed the surface of in my many previous listens. I would routinely listen to an episode of the podcast, then work my way through the album again, ears at attention for all the details Cole Cuchna, the podcast’s tireless author, had broken down, as if I was studying for a test. It really was that profound.
After the revelation of this first season, I was skeptical that the analysis of Kanye West’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy could reach such heights, largely because I was already fully committed to this album as a work of musical mastery. While I had always held TPAB in high regard, I revered MBDTF and felt I already had a good grasp on all the elements that made it a classic. I was wrong. Mr. Cuchna introduced me to so much more detail than I had any inkling of, from historically infamous chord progressions to the album’s many musical through-lines. Dissect had helped me love my favorite music even more, and I was completely unprepared for this.
I am happy to report that, most of the way through the third season’s trek through Frank Ocean’s catalog, I am equally invested in the dissection of another favorite artist. Ocean’s Blonde has gone platinum, two years after its original release, since the podcast began its in-depth analysis, and this is clearly no coincidence. Listening to the podcast virtually guarantees that you will revisit the music it discusses again and again, increasing your level of appreciation of the music each and every time. As someone who already credited music with keeping them alive through the darkest of times, I can’t speak highly enough of the impact this podcast has had on me. It has opened up my world to the wealth of other excellent podcasts out there, but, more importantly, it has made me an even bigger music fan. A year ago, I wouldn’t have believed that possible, but I stand here a convert. From one music nerd to another, thank you, Mr. Cuchna. Because great art does indeed deserve more than a swipe.
