What I listened to five years ago. This soundtrack of a day thing is very dangerous, read me, very dangerous. In the process of doing one of my very tedious jobs that I bounced around in five years ago I did much the same thing. However, as it was a job which required me to be in a room, alone for two hour stetches I also included the songs which – almost unprompted – came into my head.
But what counts as unprompted? This was a list which was purely personal, though in the back of my mind I knew that somewhere along the line I was going to show the list to someone. So whilst the songs were generally unprompted, the type of song wasn’t. Indie hits of the day jostled with a ubiquitous annoying pop song (for proof of annoyance value), plus a smattering of the esoteric – for which read the works of Rodgers and Hammerstein. I soon realised that I was not being honest with myself, missing out bland, brief tracks because I already had too much Blur, or forgot I was doing this whole program. Oddly its these last songs which I think count more.
Mark me, doing this kind of thing is akin to quantum mechanics. As soon as you look at it the waveform breaks down. Of course it does not make these lists any less interesting, but I don’t think they are what you think they are. But Sundar, the tracks you heard in the pub that you did not recognise – these are what I want to hear you criticize. We all know that Siamese Dream is anthemic, some of us might argue about exciting and dramatic – and I for one laugh at the word poignant. But then I own every Dodgy record.