My October 2019 Music Playlist

Do you ever have the experience of hearing a piece of music and immediately recalling a time, place or a person from the past? For me – and I suspect most people – music, like the sense of smell or taste can trigger memories very vividly. It is surprising to me, given the ease with which one can create a digital journal of listening habits that I didn’t hit upon this idea myself but I have nevertheless embraced the it wholeheartedly since reading the following blog post by designer and writer Frank Chimero:

https://frankchimero.com/blog/2018/mvp-soundsystem

It is a short, simple post about his current method of using Spotify to create playlists that capture and organize music, new and old, by month and year resulting in historical snapshot of his listening that can be referenced in the same way one can use a written journal to recall important past events.

I have been doing this for quite some time but it didn’t occur to me until now to share my playlists. I do so now not to impress or press upon anyone my ideas of what is good music but simply to make public what I sometimes keep to myself – for music is precious to me and sharing it at once feels like a necessity and a vulnerability.

Here then is October’s list – heavily laden with John Cale (week 27 of last year’s music blog) which just happens from time to time because I find him to be that great – I also just bought the vinyl versions of a few of these albums… There are a few new things in there including the wonderful new Elbow record. Of course unless you are an Apple Music subscriber and you log in or copy the playlist link you will only hear 30 or so seconds of each song but at lease for the purposes of this post that is as much a start as one might need. The choice of how, when, where or if you listen to any of this is yours. I hope that if you do take a listen you will find something new or remembered. Musically yours,

Darren