2007: My year in music
December 28th, 2007 by Andisheh Nouraee in Music newsDear Rodney-
I used to love making year-end, top 10 lists of the music I listen to, but this year I can’t.
Here’s a list of reasons why.
1. The iPod has destroyed my ability to listen patiently — When I listened to music on vinyl, cassettes and CDs, I used to listen to albums from beginning to end. Now I skip around like mad. Even if I’m enjoying a song, I’ll skip to the next one halfway through. I’m an impatient person and iPods enable my impatience. I listen to music constantly, but I don’t think I’ve listened to 10 albums from beginning to end this year.
2. A lot of musicians I adore put out lousy records this year — Since about 1973, Bryan Ferry has been peppering his solo albums with great Bob Dylan covers. This year, he put out an entire album of Dylan covers, and it sucked. Seriously fucking awful. Brett Anderson (formerly of Suede), Crowded House and Björk all disappointed me as well.
3. My sinuses have been bugging me — For the past six months, I’ve been fighting a war of attrition against a sinus infection. Being in smoky bars, the kind where music is often performed, makes it hard for me to breathe. I’m a civil libertarian and don’t think Atlanta should outlaw smoking in bars. If the city did, however, I’d certainly see more live shows.
4. My ears have been bugging me. I photographed Deerhunter at the Earl last summer for CL and forgot to bring earplugs. My right ear has been ringing ever since. The ringing gets worse if I’m exposed to loud noises for extended periods of time.
5. I live in a townhouse now — After six years of living in single-family, detached homes, my fiancee and I moved to a townhouse in Decatur. I’ve got a decent stereo, but I’m reluctant to play music too loudly because I don’t want to annoy my neighbors. The result is that a lot of the music I listen to lately is just background music.
6. I have a loud car — I own a 1973 Mercedes-Benz 220D. It’s a lovely car, but there are two things wrong with it. Thing 1: The transmission is stuck in third gear, which means I can’t drive it right now. Thing 2: When I can drive it, it’s so damn loud that music cannot be heard over the car’s tiny, single dashboard-mounted speaker.
7. Instrumental music — Since I started working at CL full-time in March, I’ve started listening to instrumental jazz and ambient music on my iPod. I can’t make a list of it, though, because I’m not really sure what I’m listening to. Without lyrics, I have trouble remembering names of songs.
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