Matters Musical

One of the several joys of being in Melbourne at this time has been the relative lack of cheesy Xmas music in the air. Prowling the city today - a remarkably easy thing to do as all public transport was free - we heard hardly any such music despite spending at least a little time in those shops and hostelries which had remained open on the day in question. This is not to say that I dislike the proper music of the season: give me a Sally Army band playing carols, or Bach's Christmas Oratorio, and my eyes have been known to go a bit watery; and I still remember being taught to sing Hark the herald angels sing in junior school and thinking it the most joyous melody possible, an opinion that time has not severely altered - except when said melody is degraded into muzak. But let the bells ring out for Christmas in every store you visit in December (and November these days) and I rapidly suffer a sickening surfeit.

Another musically related pleasure of the trip has been taking note of Fifi's development of something approaching real taste in what she listens to. We found an excellent CD store on Elizabeth Road on our first full day here and I was more than pleased to buy for her Muse's The 2nd Law, having happily realised she'd been listening to them on the plane over to Tasmania. She was also keen on an album called Conditions by a  band called The Temper Trap. It turned out to be very listenable also - as well as having a rather nice connection to Melbourne, whence one of the  leading lights hails.

There was a refreshingly diverse range of CDs on offer in the store and I could have bought quite a few more than I did, but was cognisant of baggage restrictions and the need not to be unduly greedy. So I settled for: Dylan's Nashville Skyline (never owned a copy) and The Bootleg Series Volumes 1 - 3 (only got on a crappy cassette from Indonesia); The Duke by Joe Jackson (a purchase partly inspired by hearing Jackson's Is She Really Going Out With Him? in a shop in Tasmania and being reminded of what a great tune that was); Gentle Giant's live album Playing The Fool; The Who By Numbers (don't understand why I've never owned this); and Caravan's In the Land of Grey and Pink.

So we've had some groovy sounds playing in the apartment here, all told. Unfortunately, Fafa's taste in music remains understandably primitive, her CD of choice being from some chaps known as One Direction. Ahem.