Thoughts about music...

It's December. Which means it's approaching the time of year when I acknowledge that Christmas is not too far off (as opposed to the middle of September when supermarkets and shops start shoving it down your throat)... Therefore it's time to start drawing up the playlist for my (now) annual Christmas mix cd. Fear not - it's not a cd of Christmas songs (no no no no!), instead it's a mix cd of all the good music I've discovered over the last year... It doesn't have to be a new artist - just one that's new to me. This is a new tradition that I only started last year, mainly cos I'm not a Christmas card person, and I don't tend to give presents to friends at Christmas - so it seemed like a good alternative. Plus I love mix cds so it was lots of fun to put together and do the cover for...

So I've got a list of artists, and a short list of tracks for most of them. Now I just need to narrow it down and get the ordering right...

Out of interest, I've been listening to last years cd to see how much my tastes have changed/developed... here's the listing from last year:

1) Hundred Reasons - I'll find you
2) Mutemath - Noticed
3) Reel Big Fish - What are friends for
4) Five Iron Frenzy - Dandelions
5) Gorky's Zygotic Mynci - Fresher than the sweetness in water
6) Eels - Last stop: this town
7) Dave Matthews Band - Crush
8) Incubus - Drive
9) Newton Faulkner - All I got
10) Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova - When your minds made up
11) Show of Hands - Suntrap
12) Nick Drake - One of these things first
13) The Wraiths - Silent Grove
14) Mono - A thousand paper cranes
15) Portishead - Glory box
16) Rose Kemp - Morning music
17) Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan - Deus ibi est
18) Regina Spektor - Hotel Song
19) Bizali - Shiny Things
20) [spunge] - Roots

The first thing that struck me is that I haven't listened to a lot of it in a while... Some of the stuff I still love (Hundred Reasons, Mutemath, Incubus and Dave Matthews Band continue to bring me a lot of joy), some I love even more (Nick Drake), some I still going to see when possible (Bizali), some I revisit from time to time (Portishead, Regina Spektor) but a lot of them just aren't part of my regular listening any longer.

It's partly a change of taste - I've seem to have definately moved away from ska music in a bit way. But I guess a lot of it is just that I've found things I like more - why listen to Show of Hands when I can listen to The Mountain Goats? Nothing against Show of Hands - I just prefer The Mountain Goats...

I'm not going to give too much away about this years cd - partly cos I haven't picked everything yet. But there's a definite move towards folk rock/modern folk and electro indie in my taste... It's probably a result of further exploration on my part, but also coming into contact with people with a different music taste to mine...

Hmmmmmmm.