As those who follow me on twitter may know, I’m making an effort this year to listen to more new music (new to me, not necessarily new releases). I have found my enjoyment from playing and listening to music has dropped since I left uni, where having access to 30+ other peoples CD collection provided an almost limitless supply of new material, and I’d find myself every month or two obsessively listening to an album I had found. Without this flow of new music I have got bored listening to what I have in my collection, large as it is.
So, this year I will endeavour to listen to at least one new album every fortnight. That is, as soon as I have some new music to listen.
Living in a small country town, its hard to find new music. Radio gets tedious, favourites are few and far between. For discovery I rely mainly on podcasts, such as NPRs All Songs Considdered, No Idle Frets, Coverville, and Brasscast.
With the nearest music shop (that sells anything outside top 20 pop) 50km away, music is hard to get hold of. Online stores have been little help over the years. Being a Linux user without an iPod, DRM-free mp3s are really the only option I will accept, and those options are still few. So for this year, I’m relying to having music mailed in.
I finally got an email informing me that JBHiFi are shipping part of the order I made at the start of this month, So I’ll be able to start in earnest soon. Just need to decide which album to start with:
- Krallice – Krallice (Still Waiting)
- Bon Iver – For Emma, forever Ago
- Death Cab For Cutie – Narrow Stairs
- Mgmt – Oracular Spectacular
- Sigur Ros – Med Sud I Eyrum Vid Spilum Endalaust
- Son Lux – At War With Walls & Mazes (Still Waiting)
- Fleet Foxes – Fleet Foxes
- Sparks – Exotic Creatures Of The Deep
- Saboteurs, the (The Raconteurs) – Consolers Of The Lonely
- Elbow – Seldom Seen Kid
- Jeff Hanson – Madam Owl (Still Waiting)
- James Galway – O’Reilly Street
I am keeping a spreadsheet of possible music to listen to, what I’ve ordered, and what i’ve listened to. Any suggestions of music to add, or what to listen to next will be much appreciated.
To keep the brain ticking over I will attempt to write a short review on each album as I listen to them, thought I’m not making any promises.
As for this month… On my first trip to Wagga for the year I dropped by my favourite music shop and picked three albums off the shelf. I have been listening to two of these, Cryptopsy – The Unspoken King, and Nevertherym – Rendezvous. I will review these soon.