Back to CDs…I think

The builders are in, and so a load of junk is out.  (How do we accumulate this stuff?  Where does it come from?  Why did I ever think that there was any point in hanging on to a broken hand-mixer?)

Anyway, stuck at the back of a cupboard, Mrs W and I came across our old CDs in a huge box.

The rule is: if you don’t use it, why keep it?  Years ago, I uploaded all the CDs we had to iTunes.  Then we got a Sonos player and Spotify Premium and the CDs were stacked away with a couple of old boxes of vinyl records and that was that.

Prime candidates, then, for being chucked out.

Except…

I think I’m going to reinstate the old records.  Probably not the vinyl, but several tall racks of CDs, oh yeah!  Why?

Because I miss them.  Spotify especially, but also iTunes, is completely rubbish at helping you to decide what you want to listen to.  Having the CD covers on display is a huge visual memory-jog, when you go, “Oh yeah!  Haven’t heard that for a while, let’s put that on!”

Spotify requires you to know what you want to listen to,and is brilliant for that.  Having access, at a very low cost, to virtually every song you’re ever likely to want to hear is the most phenomenal privilege (and one that’s utterly lost on our resident offspring) but I’m convinced I listen to less music now rather than more.  And certainly a narrower band of artists and albums: it’s the ones that I remember I like that get played on Spotify.  On top of the CD box was  an old Scouting For Girls CD which I haven’t heard for ages, simply because I’d forgotten I liked them.  Barenaked Ladies the same.

It’s like I’m stuck with my very own, personalised Now That’s What I Call Music double CD and nothing else gets played.

Mrs W is worse.  The only thing she can remember she likes is some weird 90s Swedish rapper called Petter and an (admittedly excellent) soul compilation by Tower Of Power.

CD covers, like the vinyl album covers that came before them, also have added value – not only in terms of the artwork, but additional information about the musicians, composers, lyrics and so on.  I know some of this is available online but it’s a right old fag to find it compared with reading it off a cover.

So back they come, row upon row of CDs, plus those stupid plastic boxes that always break, and box-less CDs littering the floor and getting scratched…What joy!