reformed collector

Rod Liddle once wrote a piece for The Times opining how singers and bands really have only one great album in them; precious few have two, and only the rarest of geniuses could produce three.

Phil Spector said, a decade or two earlier, why he didn't like albums. To him they too often comprised two hit singles and ten bits of crap.

These days I listen to a lot of internet radio shows, down at the ''serious'' end of the spectrum. Really without exception they still push the latest album releases and yet, like any other show, will only feature repeat plays of one or occasionally two songs from any album. For a long time I thought this was down to legal obligations born out of business prudence, but now I'm not buying it. Also it seems odd that the greatly hailed albums of January are only good until the end of February by which time we've moved on and another record joins our expanding unplayed collections. Rod and Phil are probably right. Record collecting is beginning to look like nothing more than a good example of mindless consumerism.

Getting back to the internet radio, there is more music than it is possible to hear in one lifetime. Combine this with the delights found on youtube, lastfm, myspace etc., I find my life overwhelmed with fabulous music. So who still thinks rooms clad in dusty, yellowing plastic is right? Not me.