Recently in Music Category

Exhibit A

My husband, on his musical "taste":

"If you can't tell whether the CD is skipping, I probably think that's a good song."

Exhibit B

My husband, while helping me with a tricky web design issue:

"Sure, we can figure this out. But first we need to turn up whatever this is playing on Pandora."

AND IT WAS GOLDFRAPP!!!!!!

I am so not kidding.

Dear Pandora Radio,

When I went to college, I met a ton of new people all at once, from all over the country. This was awesome in many ways, not the least of which was the sudden explosion of new music in my life. Since then, it's been tough to regularly find new music to try out. Even when I have a lead on a band I might like, listening to a snippet of a song on ITunes is rarely enough to tell me whether I like something enough to buy it.

So I went looking for a way to hear new music, and I found you. Overall, I am quite happy with your service. You've helped me find quite a few new songs that I love. Sure, the phrase "Music Genome Project" seems a little overblown for your efforts to put songs together that sound similar. ( I also roll my eyes every time you describe music with phrases such as "extensive vamping." What the heck does that mean, anyway?) However, that's a small price to pay for an internet jukebox that I can nudge towards playing more of what I like and less of what I don't. Paying $36 for a year of not hearing any ads is also lovely.

We have to talk about Goldfrapp, though.

Don't get me wrong, I really appreciate the opportunity you've given me to develop an informed perspective on Goldfrapp. I do agree with you that Goldfrapp sounds a lot like many of the bands I enjoy, so I am not upset that you suggested it to me in the first place. I don't have anything against Goldfrapp as people, and for anyone that likes Goldfrapp, I am happy for them to have more Goldfrapp in their lives. But at this point, I need you to accept that I just do not like Goldfrapp. Any Goldfrapp. There is no Goldfrapp song in existence that I want to hear. I have told you that I do not like Goldfrapp, and I need you to respect my decision.

I realize this may be disappointing for you, since you seem to have more Goldfrapp in your database THAN ANY OTHER BAND IN THE HISTORY OF MUSIC, but I think we can work together to find a peaceful solution.

Thanks,
The Princess

I don't know who Robyn is or what "Cobrastyle" means, but yay.

Video:

I'm not great at describing why I like songs. I'm not great at describing why I dislike them either. This causes C-Man no end of frustration as he would love to construct a Grand Unified Theory of my music preferences. What he would do with this construct, I have no idea.

Somehow, though, I have figured this one out.

It's the non-reliance on any specific rhyme scheme, a-b-a-b or otherwise. It's not predictable. It's clusters of words with rhymes and similarities, rewarding your brain with jolts of recognition as you link them. It still sounds fresh 20 years after it was recorded.

I suspect the neurons that like this are near the ones that prefer 7/8 as a time signature above all others.

One of the benefits of having our computer get all virus-laden a while back is that when you wipe the Windows partition and start from scratch, everything is really squeaky clean. Last time this happened, I tried to import my ITunes ratings and playlists from the external hard drive for about two weeks, and finally mostly succeeded. This time, I just don't have the energy. Blank slate, baby, just a bunch of music with no organization whatsoever.

So I am now also deleting from ITunes any track that I can't remember what it is when I see the title, and also if I've only been keeping it because:

• I liked it in junior high.
• I think I should like it because its quality is indisputable.
• I think it makes me a more interesting person to have it in my library.
• I have the rest of the album.
• It was a piece of my life soundtrack at an earlier stage of development that now seems far away, foreign, and vaguely embarrassing to recall. (I'm sorry, Bang Tango and most of the Dar Williams oeuvre, it's just time for me to move on.)
• C-Man likes it.

Just kidding about that last one. He's not a bad person, he just makes bad choices sometimes.

Question the first: What is it about listening to loud music in the car that helps me let go of some of this constant twitchy stressed out feeling?

Question the second: Why can't I get even a little bit of that relief to last?

The video's nothing to speak of, but the song is so pretty and the lyrics are so sad.

The part that goes "doom dap doom dap doom"? That was him.