I’ll try to keep it brief this year. Stick to the facts.

We watched the season finale of ‘Homeland’ last night and then I sat about for half an hour afterwards tippy-tapping whilst Jo watched ‘The Voice’ on iPlayer. As midnight ticked by I had my headphones on and was listening to John Coltrane’s ‘A Love Supreme’ via Spotify. I love the way jazz is woven through ‘Homeland’. It seemed an affectation at first but as Carrie’s character became more skittish and improvisational, it started to make more and more sense. The title sequence is one of the best of recent years and every week it makes me want to listen to more jazz. So I did.

Later on I tried to listen to ‘Provision’ by Scritti Politti an album recently retrieved from a loft box of Jo’s stuff. I’ve never really listened to them and this seemed like a good time to start. Sadly, the detritus of Jo’s university years has left the vinyl in need of a pressure wash, so I only got 30 seconds in before abandoning it. Switched to ‘Matinee’ by Sharkboy which I’d spotted on the shelf a few days ago and pulled out. Then commenced wandering about the house and largely missed it.

I spent most of the day sorting out stuff from our prodigious loft and all the while ripping CDs to our network storage drive. I the major change in my listening habits since last year has been due to the acquisition of a Sonos system. I’ll write more about what that’s done later in the week. As the laptop churned away I tried a touch more Coltrane but it seemed if not sacrilegious then at least a little unfair to play it on tinny laptop speakers. Then played half of the Braids album until their ‘we want to be Animal Collective’ pleading became overwhelming. I’m not sure i’ll go back. Switched to Portico Quartet which lasted until Jo decided she wanted to hear ‘Your Woman’ by White Town. I was ripping a box of her CDs.

Prompted by another box find I played the whole of ‘I Was The King I Really Was The King’ by Animals That Swim and then just let iTunes run, so also got their first album ‘Workshy’ and then into ‘Burst Apart’ by Antlers and half way through its predecessor ‘Hospice’.

Then, whilst making tea I listened to a pseudo-religious epic by the band I intend to play at tomorrow’s Devon Record Club and then the first five songs from ‘Let It Be’ by the Replacements both on the Sonos in the kitchen.

Finally, I wondered about that woozy song that closes ‘The Bridge’ on BBC4 and might check out who it’s by.

Today’s head music

‘Rich and Strange’ by Cud
‘Julia’ by Silver Sun
‘Still In Love With You’ by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds 

#musicdiary2012