In Love With It All

Friday is about music. So there’s playlists. And links. Galore…

How do you listen to music these days? And how has that changed? Can you count the ways? I don’t just mean you were a tape-buyer, and then you went to CDs, dipped into vinyl, had folders filled with blank CDs that you’d ‘burn’ mixtapes and albums onto, and then streaming via various platforms…

Sure, there is that sort of story. And mine is a bit like that — although, technically, it was vinyl first, via the records my parents kept from their teenage years (sadly, not many).

But also, I’m wondering if you ever stop to think about the way you consume music (buying, borrowing, listening for free) and the way you process it — albums, singles, playlists, mixtapes, shuffle on an app, various moods on various days — and how this has morphed through your life.

I guess I’ve been documenting my listening, in some way or other, for a public audience, since at least 2007. That’s when I started blogging on Stuff.co.nz. Before that I was writing album reviews, and sometimes details of my listening and my life would also sneak into those reviews. And way before any of that, and I’m sure I’ve mentioned this elsewhere, but it won’t shock anyone here to know this, in the early 1990s I was a diarist. That was pre-internet blogging, basically. Although it was — and remains altogether more private. I kept a diary every day of every year from 1990-1995. I was meticulous. And it isn’t great reading — almost profoundly boring. I dipped in and out over the years, and then ultimately tossed the diaries a wee while back when I realised I was just holding onto stale memories for no real reason.

My one regret from turfing those books was the fact that I would keep lists of every album I was buying — as they were arriving into the house. I’d also, some years anyway, keep full listening diaries daily. So it might list, in 1991 say, that I played Jeff Beck’s Blow By Blow and Stevie Ray Vaughan’s In Step and George Benson’s Breezin’ and Joe Satriani’s Flying In A Blue Dream all in one day. (I was a Guitar World subscriber back then!) But there’d be some left-turns. Later that same day there might be Suzanne Vega’s Solitude Standing or The Beatles’ With The Beatles or Buddy Rich or Ella Fitzgerald or Oscar Peterson.

Riveting stuff, I know.

I imagine there was some Jesus Jones in there and some Big Audio Dynamite. Since no one is pure.

Part of the journey I’ve been on as a Substack newsletter writer is working out the purpose of writing about music — and writing for a public — since hitting burnout and redundancy with The Death of Music Journalism. For a few years there I did not listen to any new music, and really didn’t listen to albums — unless they were soundtracks (and mostly instrumental scores). I’ve always loved movie OSTs as you know if you’ve done any reading here, but a few years ago I completely overhauled my ‘collecting’ to embrace and reflect this. I sold many of my records and now mostly boast jazz records and movie scores. I still have all my Beatles and Bob Dylan and Beach Boys records, and likely won’t ever part with those. I still have some favourites from the 80s — like Tears For Fears and Paul Simon’s Graceland and One Trick Pony (technically also a soundtrack) but where I once owned every single Joni Mitchell album on vinyl, I’ve pared it back to that mid-70s trilogy; same with Neil Young…gone are the Re*ac*tors and Old Ways’ and even Live Rust. But staying forever are Tonight’s The Night and On The Beach. (And still on the possible vinyl Wishlist is Ragged Glory — though in truth I really think that album is more of a ‘CD’ eh…)

I’ve also documented the surprise return of the compact disc into my life. They snuck in as a way of collecting various scores and compilation albums that weren’t on vinyl, or because that format’s ludicrous price now makes them simply cost prohibitive.

But, the return of the CD is now threatening to take pride of place in my house.

I bought a John Cale album last weekend. I have re-purchased several favourite Dylan albums on CD (even though I have most of them still on vinyl). I’ve got CD box sets of Billie Holiday and Anita O’Day (because they’re in the starting five!) And I just got all three albums by Wellington instrumental duo Into Orbit on CD. (Again, I have the LPs, but…)

The Necks, Rhian Sheehan, Nine Inch Nails, Gorecki, Penguin Cafe Orchestra…all on compact disc. All sitting waiting ready for an early morning spin. To that list I’ve already added in my mind Nick Drake’s Pink Moon (which I’ve owned and parted with on both CD and vinyl) and various other must-have albums (in my mind) like Love’s Forever Changes, Patti Smith’s Horses, Tricky’s Maxinquaye — and I’m even ready (again) for Portishead’s Dummy. It’s a particular mood I’m after, so it’s not ‘everything’ and it’s not even a fraction of what I once owned.

Though there is a lot of re-purchasing, which would flip my father’s wig. It’s fiscally irresponsible. But we’re talking a dollar or two sometimes. I bought Elvis Costello and Burt Bacharach’s Painted From Memory just last week. It cost me $2 and it filled both me and the room with its melancholic joy. Instantly. (I love that album).

All of this is a spiritual comeback of sorts. I had to jettison, no longer watching those wheels spinning round, I just had to let them go. I had to rid the room(s) of the piles of music that were connected to unpaid writing, and a comments-section that told me I was ‘lucky’ and told others of the imaginary money I was getting down at the click-farm. And ahead of that I had to do a purge several times, for money, for sanity, for space — both physically and mentally.

And I don’t regret any of that at all.

But as much as this sounds like I’m ramping up the collecting — and I guess I am — I’m also listening to more music on YouTube and Bandcamp and Spotify. I’m listening to cassette tapes too. Sometimes…

There’s so much great music in this world. And this is just an appreciation post. I’m grateful for that. So much so that I wanted this week’s regular playlist in our weekly series to reflect that. So you’ll spot that as you listen:

I hope you all have a great weekend. And thanks for reading. Tell me how you’re listening these days. And how that has changed. And as always, I’m keen for your recommendations around what to listen to, what you’re listening to. Just yesterday I heard an album from 1972 for the first time ever. It blew my mind.

I also heard spent a lot of time with John Cale’s brand new album this week. And I love it:

I even went so far as to write an old-fashioned “record review”. How quaint:

You’ll find them here, now and then still, if you look. And remember, for the full archive — including fresh stuff I’m posting and just sharing to the site rather than mailing out, or mailing out only to paid subscribers, consider for $5 a month or the half-price investment of $30 a year, a premium subscription. If you really can’t afford that, but want to ‘buy in’ drop me a line. I’ll likely hook you up for a while, anyone that signs up for free gets gifted at least a month of premium subscription.

But anyway, this is just a music appreciation post for your Friday. I’m so thoroughly back in love with music that I’m listening to whole catalogues of The Velvet Underground and everything associated with them, and deep dives again into Eno and Beach Boys and Keith Jarrett and, well, all sorts…

So how about you? Share some of your current (or all-time) faves below. And thanks again for your time. As always.