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music

Shuffling the dishes

One of the things I sometimes do is put the iPod on random play shuffle while I do the dishes (that is, the dishes that can’t be efficiently washed in the dishwasher).

I find that because I can’t readily skip to the next track, I end up hearing stuff from my music collection that I’d forgotten about, and often enjoy more than I thought I would.

This week’s unexpected highlights:

Missy Higgins — Don’t Ever — a hopelessly romantic ditty, the opening line “Let’s take the train to anywhere” grabbed me because I occasionally ponder (like the obsessive that I am) the portrayal of sustainable transport in art, including music. I like the way her singing style is unashamedly Australian.

Deborah Conway — Under My Skin — excellent song, off String Of Pearls. Makes me want to play the whole album, in fact.

Billy Bragg — Sing Their Souls Back Home (band version) — Tony implied on Twitter recently that the album wasn’t doing much for him, but I do like this song, Billy’s call out to the soldiers serving overseas. Has a touch of the gospel about it.

Of course, it has its down side too. As I finished up the dishes last night, I had to listen almost all of Jimmy Little’s version of Quasimodo’s Dream, which I was totally not in the mood for.

By Daniel Bowen

Transport blogger / campaigner and spokesperson for the Public Transport Users Association / professional geek.
Bunurong land, Melbourne, Australia.
Opinions on this blog are all mine.

7 replies on “Shuffling the dishes”

I’ve tried a few times now with Mr Love and Justice, it’s just not Billy Bragg enough for me I guess. The latest albums from my two favourite male performers (Mr Bragg and Paul Kelly) have both disappointed me.

I found myself wondering for a moment why you couldn’t skip to the next track, but then I realised your hands are all sudsy.

Ipod/Iphone Random play is occasionally very spooky. You’ll think about a song you haven’t heard for ages and suddenly the next time you press “shuffle” it’s the first track you hear.

Am I the only one who wonders if Steve Jobs is trying to take over the world like the Cybermen with the bluetooth headsets, or like Atmos, or like the archangel network in “Sound of Drums/Last of the time Lords”? (anyone else notice a recurring scheme of evil gadgetry in Doctor Who?)

Mary, that Lucksmiths song is awesome, thanks! I’ll check out the Kluger one!

(Lyrics: The Sandringham Line)

Nathan, yeah maybe iPods have some kind mind-reading technology. Wouldn’t surprise me. In fact it might be two-way… Apple owners do seem to be brainwashed into thinking Jobs is God :-)

I very rarely have my iPod on anything but shuffle. Mostly it never gets boring except for when you get a string of songs from the same artist. I guess it likes to keep you guessing, and just goes to prove that shuffle really is random I guess.

I concur about the iPod mind reading ability, sometimes it is really creepy.

Another great Melbourne public transport related song is ‘Limited Express’ by the Guild League (they’re Lucksmiths’ lead singer Tali White’s spin-off band – transport’s a common theme with him, evidently!). The lyrics are here, though I can’t find an link to listen, unfortunately. I just read a review which described it as a “poignant homage to Melbourne’s public transport system”. :D

Love these lines:

“And the train horns and the tram bells are the language of this town
And my feet make conversation as I walk”

P.S. Whoops, a couple of annoying pop-ups when I visited that lyrics site through my feedreader. Sorry about that – don’t normally see them as I use Firefox!

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