Keeping It Fresh

For the last three and a half weeks or so I've felt something of a sense of staleness as far as listening to music is concerned. I don't mean that I haven't been able to listen at all, or that everything I've listened to has been disappointing and fallen flat, but it's hard to think of much that's had a real impact and I haven't been spinning disks or listening to stuff on YouTube with my usual enthusiasm. I suppose this started in hospital when I got hold of my phone and ear-buds and treated myself to a listen to RVW's 5th Symphony in a live performance (in the middle of the night, actually.) It was entrancing stuff but I only managed the first two movements. It wasn't that I fell asleep as I was so rested by doing nothing I didn't need sleep; rather, I just couldn't bring the necessary energy to my listening - I couldn't do justice to the music. And I've felt that way about so much I've tried to listen to since. Even things I've enjoyed - Dylan's Oh Mercy, for example, - have sort of eventually slipped into the background as pleasant aural wallpaper when I've been expecting them to take me to another place.

In case you're wondering, I've tried to listen to new stuff accessed on-line, but nothing has really tickled my fancy. It's as if I've recognised the vocabulary employed and felt a cozy, dullish familiarity. Very unfair, of course.

But today I made a bit of a breakthrough, courtesy of one of those usually silly lists in the Graun of the '20 greatest songs ranked', in this case of the mighty Steely Dan. First of all, it's a great list with no filler. Second of all, it's easy to immediately think of another 20 songs that could replace the 20 given. Third of all, there's an unusually full Comments segment (925, when I last looked) chock full of other suggestions, probably covering the full SD catalogue and straying into the territory of Fagen & Becker solo albums. And fourth, and most important of all, based on all the above I was inspired to spin Katy Lied twice today and each time I fell in love with the album like I was eighteen again.