I have to admit that when I look over my CD collection I get a bit depressed. Frankly, there just aren’t all that many CDs that I come back to again and again. Some of that’s age — I just don’t get “into” music the same way I did as a teen. But, still, there has to be some more good music out there.
So, post your top 5 “still listen to frequently even though I’ve had them for years” CDs. Two categories: a broadly defined “rock” category and a “not entirely obvious” classical music category.
I find myself looking through mine and thinking there aren’t many I really have to have. Part of this is the re-evaluation that comes with the iPod: how much of this do I really want to carry around with me? If I shuffle through my collection, am I likely to be bored? Embarrassed? As someone else learned recently about the privacy of email, what if your iPod was able to broadcast what you were listening to for a radius of a few feet? Would you really listen to KC and Sunshine Band if people knew you were?
There still is a lot of great music being made, almost too much: I don’t have time to enjoy it as much as I would like to. It’s been my habit to really listen to a given artist or recording, repeatedly and exclusively. If you listen to KEXP, you learn about lots of artists that are worth listening to, but if I were to buy their recordings, I’d listen to the recordings and miss out on other artists.
So I listen to stuff I know I like, I experiment with whatever KEXP is playing if I’m driving around. So much of it is temporal, of a time and place: not to paraphrase Sturgeon’s Law, but not everything that grabs your ear keeps it’s grip (viz, the 24 year-old chestnut listed below. At the time it came out, it was amazing stuff to hear, like lightning in a groove. Perhaps it’s a factor of being of an age where something can keep its hold for 20+ years: I don’t hear anything that has that effect on me now.). Of course, I didn’t listen to classical music at all then, nor even the small amount of jazz I can get my mind around. And a steel guitar was enough to make me leave the room (70’s pop/country was not a great experience for one’s formative years). I’ve traded depth for breadth, but less of it, based on the constraints of time.
So stop by and tell Atrios what he’s missing from your collection.
Now playing:I’m Not Down by The Clash from the album “London Calling” | Buy it