"Please give me an album that I love straight away, that I don't have to grow into, after constant play"

"See I buy alot of records, but take most of them back, cause I feel they dissapoint me, after just one track"

So sang Jamie Lenman on "Crushed Under The Weight Of The Enormous Bullshit"*

I've been feeling somewhat similar over the past few years - though in not quite such jaded terms as there have been plenty of albums that I've become obsessed by recently* - but it's only really on downloading and listening to the reissued "Understanding Music" by AC Acoustics*** other day and giving it a proper solid listen in the sunshine, and putting it on again just now, that has made me realise why: digital music has made me impatient and fickle in my musical habits.

In the days when I listened to minidisks, or cassettes, I'd have 2 -5 albums on me at any one time, so when walking to uni, driving to work, catching a train, I would have a finite amount of music to listen to; I'd listen to the same album dozens of times in a week. Now I have 32Gb of storage space, and access to a subscription download service where I can legally pluck any album out of the ether at will, listen to it at, and then move onto the next one.

I find myself doing just that - endlessly gorging at an all-you-can-eat buffet, not noticing that I'm getting fat, unfit, and undernourished as I search for an ever greater quantity, and an ever newer flavour, not stopping to savour and thoroughly digest, suffering the ensuing heartburn that such behaviour inevitably incites.****

So I've come to a conclusion: though I will still download***** new albums by the dozen, I'll be more methodical in my listening habits...maybe choosing 3 or 4 albums that I'll listen to per week, repeating on a loop until I've really got something out of them other than the instant gratification from boredom that this musical snacking has provided.



In that spirit then, this week's listening will mainly feature:

AC Acoustics - Understanding Music
Mclusky - Mclusky Do Dallas
Oceansize - Everyone Into Position


Rock on



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* ironically enough considering the reception that album received (especially from someone like me who sorta skim-listened to it, choosing my favourite songs and generally skipping through the rest without much more thought).

**Johnny Foreigner - Waited Up Til It Was Light, Future of the Left - Curses, Alestorm - Black Sails At Sunset (silly I know, but incredible), to name but a few.

***Sorry for all these bits - have been reading Stewart Lee's "How I Escaped My Certain Fate" which possibly contains more footnotes than actual text.

****Part of me wants to take the gastronomic metaphor further to include the other end of the process.......but it's nearly lunchtime and I don't want to put myself off my lunch with talk of the musical equivalent of excreting waste products. Damn, just did.

*****Legally, of course. Or is that taken as read now? It still feels slightly like stealing, even though it's all completely above board.