iTunes, my tunes

A question from a friend (“What are you listening to these days?”) got me thinking. For a guy who has 1,000+ albums stashed in the attic and half as many CDs on the active music shelf (after a major purge last year), I realize that I'm not exploring music as much as I once did. Oh, there are plenty of reasons, lame and legit: I am counting my pennies toward retirement (that’s a joke, but probably shouldn’t be); I don’t have as much free time to listen anymore; I don’t browse at music stores like I once did; rummaging through music pages at Amazon is a pain. Besides, after watching pretty nearly pop music trend cycle through and then recycle, I find it hard to be surprised anymore.

There are other reasons as well. First with CDs and now with iTunes, the tactile joy of holding and examining an album cover and liner is gone. Some designers have figured out how to make interesting CD covers and booklets, but mostly they've just taken the old album-cover concept and shrunk it by 75%. And if you shop on iTunes, the notion of a cover and liner notes is pretty much a nonstarter.

Then there’s that fact that using my iPod has broken with my old obsessive habit of listening to one album for days or weeks on end until I'd fully absorbed it. Shuffle mode is fine for casual background listening, but it runs completely counter to deep exploration – you lose track of everything in your library once you pass 20 gigs of storage. Same holds for playlists – unless your musical tastes are exceedingly eclectic (and mine are fairly diverse) – after 15 or 20 lists you start repeating songs and the lists turn to clutter.

On the upside, I do appreciate that at both Amazon and iTunes I can stockpile musicians and discs that interests me. These lengthy lists are a great way to quickly stash a reminder. Now, if only I can win the lottery so I can buy or download everything I’ve squirreled away...

All that said, I do what I can to keep my listening varied. Here is what’s in my car at the moment, in no particular order:

• Alejandro Escovedo’s “A Man Under the Influence” (until I get his new CD)
• Vince Gill – the rollicking disc from his great 4-CD set
• Aimee Mann’s "Whatever" (until I get her new CD)
• Albita (waiting for a new CD)
• Tinariwen (“Water for Life” is simply amazing)
• Paul Simon’s “Surprise” (I especially like the Eno bits)
• Jimmy Buffett (hey, it must be 5 o’clock somewhere)
• Pavarotti's last CD
• Muse (my son’s choice, but they’re actually OK)
• Bass Notables (my own compilation with Jack Bruce, Animal Logic, Steve Swallow/Carla Bley, and others)