Who needs new music?

Well not really! This evening has been magically transformed by sitting with the fantastic new Leonard Cohen album released just today, and in full high res majesty too. Not to say that I don't have fun with old forgotten favourites but new music is really what lights my fire. My wife and I picked a few old Cohen tracks to finish off but really just wanted to hear the new one all over again. So we did.

The new Agnes Obel will have to wait along with the new Hiss Golden Messenger for another evening. 

Have fun.

Bruce

Thanks for this Bruce - I didn't know there was a new Leonard Cohen album out - will have to put this on my ever expanding Xmas list

Allan

I know what you mean. But at the same time....., new music is so tempting....

Who needs new music ?  Not old farts.    

Allan Milne posted:

 

Thanks for this Bruce - I didn't know there was a new Leonard Cohen album out - will have to put this on my ever expanding Xmas list

Allan

 

It is magnificent too. Heck, get it for Halloween.

Apparently people on average who live longer are the ones who are in tune to present developments (not the ones who say we had it better in our days - its all been done before in music and present music is disintegrating). I work in an environment where the chefs have arguments over which radio station to have in the kitchen either radio 1 or Heart radio.  I hear 'dance music' with a lot of (i forgot the phrase) old melodies thrown in.  A lot of it is just passable rubbish but there some minority songs which are quite good and I really like it - when no one is in sight I do dance to the music! At my age....!

Allan Milne posted:

 

Who needs new music when you have old stuff you have forgotten !

 I was going through my vinyl wondering what to play and passed over a box that seperates my blues/jazz from acoustic/folk ...

... hey wait a minute, I never play that box ...

How many times do we always skip over the same album or bits of our collection, almost without thinking.

It made me realise that there are a few other bits of my collection I keep skipping over by habit and I shall now make sure I listen to. ... and that is in a collection of only a couple of hundred albums, I don't know how you lot with more albums get on

 I wonder if any of you are in the same state?

 Big grin,

Allan

 

 

Hi Allan,

I did post a few weeks back about a mate of mine, (wisnae me, honest!), who, faced with a wall full of vinyl, and yes, the titles on the spines are impossible to read, adopted the following strategy.

He had a pack of playing cards, face up, next to his turntable...............next card up, red meant that number to the right of the album last played, whilst black meant that number left.

Sounds mad, but at least he avoided just what you're talking about.

These days, life is so much easier with iPad browsing.

Just to clarify ... I was not meaning new music in the cultural sense but rather new music to me, not necessarily new artists or genres just new albums that I don't have or haven't heard.

I realise the post title may have been misleading, the point was that I was just wondering how many of us never actually play some of our collection, for whatever reason.

David - on reflection, I think I hate the iPhone/iPad -I find that it is even easier to miss stuff because you don't browse through every entry but go to a genre, artist or whatever directly;

also I find myself playing something and then clicking on to play something else before the last album, or even track, has finished - and that's just not right

Thinking about it, it is rarely that I actually listen to an album all the way through when it is played through my UnitiServ, whereas the vinyl is always played at least to the end of the side at least!

Using the NServ app is too easy, there should be effort involved in playing the music; getting it out the sleeve, brushin, anti-static'ing, avoiding damage, etc ... that's the way it should be ... and then also you can't fall asleep in the chair because you have to get up to swap sides.

... and getting back to the OP, vinyl (or a CD collection) requires physical effort in getting over to your collection and browsing which is where I came in - that mistake of always jumping over the same album when browsing.

I now have a rule that I must play whatever my hand goes too, even  if it is Cliff Richard I suppose this is easy for me since I can't see the album spine and rely on reading the Braille labels which is a pain anyway!

SWMBO has just informed me she is going to her sisters to watch Strictly Dancing tonight so I'll be able to get back that boxed blues set I mentioned in the OP and go through the remaining vinyls - happy days

Allan

Turn it up !

I did ))

Allan Milne posted:

 

I did ))

 

If the neighbours have not complained its still too quiet 

I agree there is a lot more good old music that I have yet to discover than stuff recorded in the last few months.

I just struggle to find time to get through my existing collection    

I find streaming both aids and dissuades from listening to all you have - it is easier to run across something neglected while browsing down the list. OTOH, as Allan points out I find myself less often listening to an entire album...although that is often a function of time available for listening.

I keep telling myself to stop buying CDs, and they just keep arriving in the mail...I can't understand why.

I've got enough rock/pop music recorded from 1955-1985 to sate me to my death and if I want to discover something 'new' it's often undiscovered music from that same era. I sample recent recordings and the few I'm inclined to buy are typically old rockers or newer artists inspired by that same era, Beyond that I do hold a soft-spot for 90's grunge and alternative which I find refreshing.

As a physical media holder I want to play albums rather than collect them. Why let unlistened to albums collect dust and take space on the shelf?

Easier to collect and virtually hold new music with a hard drive I suppose, but how much of that really inspires you or would you play if you had to insert or flip an album?

All my old unplayed music is on vinyl, maybe I should buy another Rega Planar 1 turntable and resurrect the music - David Bowie, Nazareth, Deep Purple, Blackfoot, Pink Floyd, T Rex, Wagner albums etc...

The concept of listening to a 'whole' album did exist for me but definitely not every album.  Albums such as Dark Side of the Moon and Alan Parson's Project (Edgar Allan Poe's) sort of invited for me to listen to entire album or live 'on Stage' Album by Rainbow.  However with most other albums (during my Vinyl days) I could not listen devoutly to the whole album simply because not every song/music from the Artist was good, which is normal with most artists.  I always had my favourite songs from Albums which I played often and as far as I am aware my friends were identical in the way they listened to albums (on turntables in those days).

Now I listen to my hard disk (burned Cds) and I can flick with my remote from Rock to Classical to Jazz to whatever genre.  Very rarely I listen to an entire album because simply not all Artists have 100%  at least good material on the whole album.  Also one would need a lot of tolerance and patience to do that. There are of course exceptions such as Leonard Cohen, Muse (Origin of Symmetry) maybe a Pink Floyd album.  I also notice that often the best material with a lot of artists were usually found near the early stages of their career ( which is sort of logical since they are trying to get established and prove themselves )  However I have met people who have religiously listened to entire albums, I just wish I had their ability to do so, to immerse themselves completely (I cannot do that if I feel the music is not interesting in any way).          

That's what I like about music servers. You let the music server serve up random tunes. You get a mix of old forgotten tunes along with new undiscovered ones. All taken from a tightly curated repertoire.

One minute it's ''wow what a great tune, had completely forgotten about that one'' next it's ''hmmm what's that song? I don't recognize it...oh yeah it's that new album I just bought last week and only had a quick listen...not bad''

Plus for a number of reasons, opinions about a particular cut can change over time, or after an extended period of not hearing a tune you suddenly lock in to some aspect that you hadn't noticed, and what was a "throw away" tune becomes a piece you really like.

I'm definitely a 'whole album' listener.

G

I play music pretty much all day (hey, I'm retired) so have plenty of time to play stuff. There's not much old stuff to discover (huge, hubristic claim!) though always on the lookout (especially if I convert to a new genre), but I live for new music.

I reckon there's more very good music being made these days than ever before, BUT there's way less exceptional music being made (e.g. Beatles, Stones, Who, Zappa, Grateful Dead, Miles Davis level).

Oh, I get the OP's point - when I digitised my CDs there was a ton of rediscoveries, including a few "why did I buy this???" moments.

Also, I'm an album player, though as I digitised over 1,000 of my old singles I do have regular evenings of those. I miss singles.