title tracks

i've started to pay itunes a lot more attention lately.

and find myself inexplicably drawn to certain songs.

it makes me wonder if there is a formula for creating infinitely re-playable ones.

is it a combination of complexity, familiarity or just nostalgic association?

or is it just a matter of chance, a matter of luck/fate after leaving it up to the mysterious algorithm that silently governs the "shuffle songs" selector?

either way, i've enjoyed making these aural re-discoveries.

listening to the songs that got me through pre-dawn morning highway drives to a job i despised.

(untitled by interpol)

songs that remind me of lying on a beach with nothing better to do than daydream and develop vague evenings plans around eating. and drinking asian whiskey with mixers. in buckets. again.

(she drove me to daytime television by funeral for a friend)

songs that will always make me feel exactly the same sense of deep pit-of-stomach-excitement mixed with fear, sleepiness and disorientation that i did while waking up to sunrises on overnight buses somewhere in bolivia/peru.

(the entire boc maxima album by boards of canada)

it's music that i'll always associate with certain people, memories and less than well-considered decisions.

mostly because i think i've always felt this way about music. it's just not enough for me to be able to hear it a few times and feel a vague sense of enjoyment.

to me, the real value of music lies in the details, the complex arrangements of sounds, lyrics, and melodies that combine to create an incomprehensible and intriguing tightness.

it's the kind of music i don't find often, and a preference i don't share with many people i know.

but it's comforting to know it will be impossible to ever listen to it all. and thanks to the internet there is a lifetime of it waiting to be discovered, via both legitimate and underhand means.

and besides, i still have three have a nice life albums to get through.

albums which are definitely going to take several repeat listens to even vaguely comprehend.