A music meme

Don't ask me to explain what a meme is, I'm still grappling with the concept myself. But apparently it's the blog equivalent of chain mail... I got this from here.

1. Total volume of music files on my computer?

Media Player is claiming 4.97GB. I have no idea how accurate that is, but I'm sure it's a heck of a lot closer than Windows XP's search engine's woeful 1.85GB estimate. It completely missed several live Tori Amos concerts that I've downloaded in the last month, which are about 1GB each in .wav format and account for more than half of the material on my hard disk.

In fact, Tori totally dominates my hard drive anyway, because I don't generally store or listen to music on my computer if I have it in CD format. The only things that are on there are the result of trying to create new playlists, or random shuffles. At one point I put every single song of hers up to 2001 on the computer while trying to select a new 'best of', and I haven't removed any of them yet.

Of course, she's totally dominating my musical life, and my blog, so why should my hard drive be any different.

2. The last CD I bought was?

Nik Kershaw - To Be Frank. I'll say no more about it because I am planning to post about it sometime in the next... oh, I don't know, financial year probably.


3. Song playing right now:

I haven't actually played any music today. The last thing I played last night was Garlands by you know who.

4. Five songs I listen to a lot or that mean a lot to me (in no particular order):

I've gone for things that have been a total obsession at some point or another.

Siren - Tori Amos. My current obsession from an artist who, let's face it, has made an entire career out of creating music I consider worthy of obsession. I could list 75% of her catalogue under this question. This particular song, though, is proof of the fact that I never listened to her for the words, but for the sheer quality of her musical instincts.

This is a woman who became stereotyped in some quarters as wispy, ethereal and basically worthy of derision as off with the fairies. My new boss associated her with Celine Dion, for heaven's sake (don't worry, I'm making plans on how to rectify his foolishness). Those kinds of description couldn't possibly prepare you for the exhilarating energy and drive that is Siren.

Woman in Chains - Tears for Fears. A song that, over the course of six minutes, opens up like a flower. I don't think I've heard any other track that is so organic in its development, from a pair of bass notes and scattered percussion through to the only higher key at the end of a song that ever totally convinced me it was there for reasons of logic and not because the songwriter feared he couldn't hold my interest for another three repetitions of the chorus.

Jealous Kind - Jars of Clay. A band that promised and delivered many good, even great, things from their second album onwards, finally delivers the killer blow. A song that tore my soul into pieces only so that it could add in pieces I hadn't even realised I were missing.

Jaded - george. Of all the songs on my favourite album of the decade thus far, this is not perhaps the most emotionally satisfying, but it's the one that can't be beaten for musical audacity and sheer spectacle. Exactly how many different rhythmic pulses can occur in a song without it sounding the least bit disjointed? I can report that the answer is at least four. The vocal highwire act that takes place in Jaded is simply thrilling.

Let Down - Radiohead. A combination of despair and ecstasy that only the greatest music can achieve.

5. Which 5 people are you passing this baton to, and why?

Almost everyone I know who has a blog has already done this, so I shall have to be creative. I'm thinking that I'll send an invitation to God, because I'd be fascinated to see His responses. And also to Glenn at furialog, because his writing about music is far and away the best I have seen on my internet travels thus far.