Songs I'm Currently Sucking the Life Out Of

Do you suck the life out of your music?

I know you do. OK, I don't know that at all. I do, however, know that I do. And I do, big time! There are those songs, albums even, that I can't even listen to anymore I've so bled them dry. (Pink Floyd's "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" comes to mind.) Like rolling up that toothpaste tube so spiral tight you know there ain't an atom's worth of Crest coming out that thing.

I do the exact same thing with movies, with books, with burger shops. I revisit things. I am a revisiter. I have said this before here. I don't mean to bore. Only to explain. To entertain. To not be lame. What I want to say is that for those things I love I want to go back, again and again. What divides music from the other arts for me, though, is a matter of confidence.

Because I don't care if you're Roger Ebert or The New Yorker's movie reviewer Anthony Lane (who I thoroughly enjoy reading but rarely understand or even agree with). Heck, even my usually beloved A.O. Scott over at the NY Times sometimes gets it wrong (see Scott's glowing review of Somewhere, one of the biggest pieces of crap I saw last year). And I can say that about a NY Times movie reviewer, about him getting it wrong, cause that's how much I know what I like when it comes to things book and movie.  

Like a good burger. I know what I like. I know that Creemore is my favourite beer. I know that Haruki Murakami

is the world's best living writer. What I don't know about is music. Or rather, what I'm not so confident about. Like coffee. While I like to think I know a damned good cup of coffee when I have one (Toronto's L'Espresso for instance, or the coffee they serve at the breakfast buffet at the Ritz-Carlton in Osaka), I'm also rather partial to the franchise (ie.Tim's) stuff so long as it has plenty of cream and sugar.


I like cream and sugar. I like pop music is what I'm trying to say. That's the confession. Bands hate-hate-hated by the music magazine reading crowd are often beloved by me (eg. Counting Crows, Dave Matthews Band) or at least were and still hold important places of nostalgia. And isn't that 50%+ of what makes us love the music we love? 

And you know, I just don't get it with Arcade Fire. They don't do it for me. I don't know why they won the Grammy. I am damned proud they are from Montreal, from Canada, but I they certainly don't get regular play on my iPod. 

With music I am rather simple. It took me three decades to even begin to understand Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen and Neil Young. I can now truly say I have a passion for all three, a kind of love, a definite admiration. None of the three, however, have go-to songs on my minty green nano machine. 


All this in defence of my less than sophisticated music choices. Also, just felt like sharing three songs that do get much play on my nano machine. Too much play. 


So here, or rather there, on The Jukebox (left!) three songs I am currently sucking the life out of but haven't killed quite yet. Not sure they're all poppy exactly but there is pop in there for sure. Apologies to my legions of fans in Germany (a regular David Hasslehoff, I am) that the songs won't be available to you or anyone else outside of N. America. If curious I've listed the songs in the comments section below.