The Long And Winding Digital Road

Trying to listen to everything in one's iTunes is quite the nerd quest

That horrible, annoying and overrated Crystal Castles record is genuinely affecting my personal life.

I can't get through it. And the bewitching hold it's had on so many of you Vice demo kids is entirely confusing to me. Maybe it's because I've lived through this sort of music the first time around when it was more interesting and innovative (perhaps their song "1991" is an homage to those days?). Whatever.

All I'm saying is that when I'm confronted with a song like, say, "Knights," it reminds me of New Order — who are better. So therefore I immediately click the stop button and listen to "Love Vigilantes" instead.

The problem this presents is that one of my ongoing, and admittedly slightly Rain Man, life goals is to listen to every song on my iTunes at least once. At this moment, I'm as close as I've ever been since I bought my latest computer. All I have left is about half of AC/DC's Back In Black — an album I've come
to loathe over the years, but felt compelled to load into iTunes because it came packaged as part of the Bon Scott-celebrating Bonfire box set. There's also some unplayed bits from The Clash's Clash On Broadway box set that I just haven't gotten to. And then the aforementioned Castles.

I've got around 7,000 songs in there right now, which seems kinda modest in the illegal download era, but catching up on this music has still remained a surprisingly difficult task. I first heard this issue's cover stars, The Waking Eyes, new Holding On To Whatever It Is album on some slick advance vinyl they were sending out, so I've yet to digitize that one. And I've probably only digitized 10 per cent of my CDs, so there's quite literally a mountain of aluminum discs still to be assimilated.

Then I went to a James and ended up so inspired that afterwards I loaded all their albums on to my computer and listened to them for a week straight. They all add up to inevitable hiccups in one's listening calendar.

These hiccups, though, are what makes the quest all that more exciting.

I've always felt there's been a huge divide between people who just listen to music — the kind who have a favourite song and maybe a favourite band, and if prompted, will maybe dance a bit at a wedding — and those who live and breathe music, whose appreciation is far greater. If you're one of those deep breathers, you'll understand my iTunes quest, or have a similar general desire to squeeze the most out of all that music you care so deeply for.

The point is to truly extract everything you can out of music, to not miss anything, and to wring every bit of value and excitement you can out of your record collection. Think of it as a sort of choose your own adventure, where every new pathway reveals something interesting and exciting. Every now and then you'll come across some crappy band to slow you down, but at least there's a Neil Young or Radiohead
or whoever your favourite band is just a click away to take you down a better path.

In the long run, it's all about making that journey. Just watch out for Crystal Castles.

The following is my editorial from the October 2008 issue of Chart Magazine. To purchase the issue, head on over to the Chart Shop.