August Listening List
I listen to music constantly. It’s what gets me through the day, and up at night. It soothes me and inspires me. It’s my drug, my lifeline. I have a CD player at home and one at work, and I’ve got music playing the entire time I’m at either place. Watching television, videos, or movies, playing online games or “chatting” with people? My interest in doing any of those activities is close to zero. Reading books is about the only other interest I have. And people wonder why I remain single after all these years!
I bought an MP4 player last year (it’s made by Philips, not one of those iThings), ostensibly for listening to music when I take trips to places like Cambodia, Myanmar, and Malaysia. But I’ve ended up using it when I’m home in Bangkok too, especially when taking walks, riding the skytrain, or trying to navigate those nonsensical mazes that pass for shopping centers over here. Whenever I purchase a new CD it goes into a regular rotation (either right away or sometimes several months later; I’ve bought so many CDs in the past year, that they are stacking up!) and is played several times each week. After about three months it drops back into my deep catalog archives and something else replaces it. I don’t “shuffle” or play just a few key tracks; I play the entire album from start to finish. That’s the purpose of albums, right? Here are the latest additions to my current rotation, in no particular order:
Raphael Saadiq – Stone Rollin’
Fountains of Wayne – Sky Full of Holes
Emmylou Harris – Hard Bargain
Duke Ellington – New Orleans Suite
Nada Surf – Weight is a Gift
Miike Snow – Miike Snow
Earth, Wind & Fire – Faces
Gillian Welch – The Harrow and the Harvest
Paul Simon – So Beautiful or So What
Kool & the Gang – Light of Worlds
Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit – Here We Rest
The Decemberists – The King is Dead
Jimmy Hughes – Something Extra Special
Dawes – Nothing is Wrong
Jackie McLean – Action
Amos Lee – Mission Bell
Les McCann – Layers
Ray LaMontagne – God Willin’ & the Creek Don’t Rise
Hank Crawford – More Soul
Lizz Wright – Salt
Various Artists – Opus De Funk: The Jazz Giants Play Horace Silver
Black Joe Lewis & the Honeybears – Scandalous
Various Artists – Conmemorativo: a Tribute to Gram Parsons
Death Cab for Cutie – Codes and Keys
Owl City – All Things Bright and Beautiful
Wayman Tisdale – The Fonk Record
Gnarls Barkley – St. Elsewhere
Roland Kirk with Jack McDuff – Kirk’s Work
Kim Weston – Motown Anthology
Steve Young – Renegade Picker/No Place to Fall
Sonny Stitt – Plays Bird
Mt. Desolation – Mt. Desolation
Pousette-Dart Band – The Best of
Teenage Fanclub – Shadows
Various Artists – My Mind Goes High: Psychedelic Pop Nuggets from the WEA Vaults
