i do. iPods are great (when they work and don’t break, like my 4th gen that only works if you bang the living daylights out of it against a table and then needs rebanging 15 minutes later), but i feel like something is lost in not having a physical collection to look through and hoard and admire. i have such fabulous memories of back in the day when i used to buy new CDs (or, um, tapes in the 80s) and rip off the plastic and admire the album art and play it 50 times until i knew all the words. but now, this almost never happens. most of the time, i just end up shuffling from my saved-to-computer library out of habit, and this makes me spend very little time thinking about any individual artist. it’s also enough instant variety to keep me from yearning for new material, which is rather sad. furthermore, the cheapo iPod shuffle that i use these days is even more crippling when it comes to music appreciation because i can’t even check to see what is playing, and i’m getting more and more out of touch with new music and even the older things in my collection that i never really got to know well.
anyway, i’m tired of this shuffling stuff. i think i’m ready to reignite my interest in new music, and start paying attention to it again. i think i will try to buy at least one (physical or downloaded) album every month and actually get to know it by playing it in order and not just throwing it into the mix. um, any suggestions? to give you a sense of what i like, i would say my top 10 favorite artists/bands are:
in no significant order:
1. death cab for cutie
2. regina spektor
3. the shins
4. aimee mann
5. ben folds
6. the beatles
7. radiohead
8. fiona apple
9. the arcade fire
10. wilco
making that list made me feel old and not very cool. oh well.
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