Musak Blues

I’ve had trouble as of late getting into new music.  At the very same time, I’m having trouble enjoying my own collection of music.  I WANT new music, but none of it is making me happy.  I’ve been using iTunes for my music since late 2003 and have purchased 875 pieces of music from them.  Here’s how that breaks down by year:

2003 – 8 (My first purchase was November 24^th of that year!), 2004 – 87, 2005 – 125, 2006 – 104, 2007 – 102, 2008 – 65, 2009 – 47, 2010 – 56, 2011 – 42, 2012 – 60, 2013 – 57, 2014 – 36, 2015 – 37, 2016 – 31

2017 – 16

Obviously the first few years I went a little crazy on purchasing music.  And simply by the numbers, this year is on track to be average for the last few years.  But here’s the rub.  This year PI purchased one song in January, one song in February, 11 songs on May 25^th, and 3 songs in the past couple days.  Most years I have a steady stream of new music.  I might go a month or two without something new, but not this long.  And that big burst of new music in May?  8 of them were from artists that I already knew and was simply exploring their back catalog. 

I’m not sure what’s stopping me.  Seriously.   I get a lot of my music from television and movies (including my most recent purchase), and I still watch plenty of that, but I’m just not getting interested in the new music.  I should add that back in November of last year I got Google Play Music for 3 months free with my new phone.  I keep paying for it and still have access to it, but honestly it’s only because it includes access to YouTube Red (advertisement free youtube FTW!).  I COULD start listening to Google Play Music, but I think the biggest stumbling block is the new way most programs or apps work.  I’m used to loading up iTunes and having it as a program running in the background.  It’s minimized into the toolbar but could just as easily be on the taskbar.  With many modern apps, they’re focused on the mobile experience.  So to use them on my desktop I have to use a web page.  That is… inconvenient for me.  I want a quick flick of my fingers on Alt and Tab to bring the program up.  I want to be able to close down my Google Chrome without closing out programs I’m running.  I mean, my music is NOT my web browsing and shouldn’t be treated the same!

Maybe I’m just getting to that age where I’m not comfortable with change.  Maybe it’s just that the few times I’ve tried Google Play Music, I’ve found it’s selection of music to be crap.  Seriously.  It’s good at finding Genre music.  If I’m in a hip hop mood, it gives me a good selection of hip hop.  If I want to rock out, it gives me a good selection of rock.  But most of the time I want my genres to do 180s between songs.  I want Classical followed by NIN, followed by 80s Bass Rap, followed by 90s Grunge, followed by the Lumineers, followed by Norah Jones, followed by the Beastie Boys, followed by some sweet Jazz, followed by some New Orleans Jazz. 

Yeah… even Google doesn’t get my music mix right. 

Anywho, I wanted to share a few songs with you.  Here they are in order of purchase this year:

Some Day Soon by Alexi Murdoch.  Yea, I heard this on a TV show and purchased it minutes later.  I’ve only let it play all the way through 5 times so far as I don’t like it. 

I Wish I Knew How it Would Feel to Be Free by Nina Simone.  This was used in a Ford ad during the Superbowl.  I already like Nina and this song just soothes the soul.

Simple Man by Sierra Eagleson.  My brother shared this on Facebook and I think it’s just a really great and wonderful take on a classic rock song. 

There were three classical songs I got, which to be hoenst I’m just not going to share here.  I always find it problematic to find the right version of the song as different artists play the same song in completely different ways and Youtube is not great at finding something like “Sonata for Viola da Gamba No. 3 in G Minor, BWV 1029 (Arr. for Mandolin, Cello, and Double Bass)” composed by Johann Sebastian Bach and performed by Chris Thile, Edgar Meyer & Yo-Yo Ma on the album Bach Trios.  Anywho… three classical songs that were all OK.  Not great, not bad… just OK.

Here’s where I started up on some back catalogs.  Great songs that I already loved but for whatever reason didn’t have.  

Trippin' On a Hole in a Paper Heart by Stone Temple Pilots, Burden in My Hand by Soundgarden, Outshined by Soundgarden, Creepin’ In and Carry On by Norah Jones.

Chris Cornell’s death had a lot to do with this retrospective.  I already have a lot of his music, but this was a new thing that I found.  It’s put out by XM, but don’t let the corporate sponsorship bother you… it’s Chris Cornell singing a Prince Song.  Talk about getting hit in the Feels.  Nothing Compares 2 U.

And finally, this morning I got these two songs.  I saw the new Black Panther advertisement and really loved the music used in it, so I found out it was Legend Has It by Run The Jewels.  And then I’ve had Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats songs stuck in my head for a day or so and wanted to find a new piece by them.  The only one I could really get behind was I’ve Been Failing… and it’s really good so far!

I hope you enjoy this musical interlude.  Talk to ya later!