James has been holding down the fort for months but Yancey’s post at the “unofficial” eMusic blog 17 dots has spurred me back into action. I have of course been listening to music all this time, just not writing about it.
One not so little project I’ve been working on lately is selecting choice tracks from the albums on my mp3 player and jettisoning the rest. That probably sounds like the obvious thing to do but for me it’s been a radical shift in thinking. I’ve been in full album listening mode for so long it took a conscious effort to break from that self-imposed constraint. I only recently came to the realization that, duh, there’s simply never going to be enough time to relisten to most of the thousands of albums I have. Might as well pick out the highlights.
I just finished whittling 3,900 tracks to about 800 and have moved on to the albums stored on my computer. From there I’ll comb through the couple of hundred backup mp3 discs I have plus my cd collection. It almost sounds like work but it’s been a lot of fun. The coolest part is hitting random and rocking out. Every song that comes on is my favorite! Can you imagine?
Yes, I am sort of an idiot and probably should have been doing this all along. I always thought of albums as complete works though, like novels. You don’t just read random chapters in a book, you take it as a sequential whole. But that analogy doesn’t even make sense since there have always been singles.
Then again, it’s not like I’m completely ditching albums. My approach will be to listen to new stuff until I get a feel for it, pick out my favorite songs to transfer, and then move on. I can always go back and listen to the whole thing if I get the urge, but in most cases the select few songs will probably be satisfying enough.
That makes sense, in some ways, but I don’t think I’ll be trying it.
You’re clearly much better than I at quickly assessing music. I find that I often don’t “get it” the first time I hear it, or maybe even the third time. I begin to think I just don’t like it. But then, one day, by chance, the right combination of mood, listening environment, and the context of my life might happen, and all of a sudden I say, “Oh! I see!”
For instance, I began thinking that the last third or so of Sufjan Stevens’ “Illinois” was just dull, and was a serious hit against the overall album’s quality. Then I listened more carefully one day and realized that while it might be quiet and reflective and even sad, it’s an appropriate counterbalance to the first part. It gives a broader vision of life–for me, anyway.
If I had deleted those tracks, I might never have discovered that.
Of course, random and albums are not mutually exclusive concepts. I still listen to albums most of the time but use random for various purposes/moods: I feel like listening to music from the 80s, I feel like getting a quick overview of 2007 albums or I just don’t feel like picking something to listen to. Of course, my listening on random experience will be a little less “hit laden” than yours but that’s fine with me…listening to “all favourites” seems a little tiring for me…I like the lulls from unfamiliar or less stellar song…but whatever works for you…
Dale- You’re absolutely right, I’m not giving most stuff much of a chance to grow on me. I’m still on music overload, stemming back from the unlimited eMu days. If something doesn’t stand out after a couple of listens then I probably won’t go back to it. I just don’t have enough time to give everything my full attention. I think with my new little system I’ll end up with a wider variety of artists though. More breadth, less depth or something.
Mike- It’s funny because occasionally a song will come on and I’ll draw a total blank. Usually it’s an artist I’m not as familiar with but the song stood out enough for me to include it. It might be something I heard on a mix or that someone recommended to me. So while there aren’t exactly any surprises, there’s plenty of great stuff that I don’t know note for note.
I found my way here from 17dots and this first post I read really talks to me. I’m the same. I think of music in terms of albums and I find it very hard, even with eMusic to not just download the whole album. Of course, I know I should do what you are now doing. I am managing to widdle through the last three years of SXSW sample mp3’s though, tagging songs I like to further research the artists, so I think once I’m done with that I’ll attempt to do what your doing and create a playlist of my “favorite” songs. My new 4GB Nano makes this a necessity (and I will in some ways miss carrying around my 40GB iPod because of this…).
thanks for the encouragement though, seeing others go through this definitely makes me feel like it can be done!
Ha! Holding down the fort? Only if you think holding down the fort equals absconding with the Candied Pop fortune and living a life of debauchery in Costa Rica!
Anyways, whittling collections down is hardcore. I’m completely of the lazy mindset that more space makes things better. Supersize my home storage and continue to shop for players with bigger and bigger capacities. I fully expect to carry a couple of TB in my pocket in the near future and play it on random…
[...] Truss yet, but the other songs selected are the same ones I would have chosen using my new myopic selection standards. Included are my two favorite songs by them, “Little Wet Head” and “You Were On [...]