A Year In Music: The Review

Whilst I was away over Christmas and New Year's, I received the last CD that I bought in 2008.

CD #52: You Am I - The Cream and the Crock



So thus concludes my attempt to buy a CD every week for the whole year. Like all things, it began with a nice and simple goal of that buying a CD every week would promote more listening of music (or in Japanese, 音楽を　ききます, as I have just learnt).

Logistically, buying a CD every week wasn't as tough as I had thought (besides the obvious financial problem, of course). I was lucky that in 2008, a lot of the artists that I like released a new CD (such as Oasis' "Dig Out Your Soul", Muse's "H.A.A.R.P" and Mr Children's "Supermarket Fantasy"). I was even luckier that Coldplay (with "Viva la Vida" and "Prospekt's March") and Yui (with "I Loved Yesterday" and "My Short Stories") had 2 new releases in the same calendar year. A lot of the other stuff I bought were either "best ofs" that were new (such as Stereophonic's "Decade in the Sun", The Whitlams' "Truth, Beauty and a Picture of You" or Radiohead's "Best Of") or old (such as Mansun's "Legacy", Feeder's "The Singles" or Love Love Straw's "Decade"). Then we had the "fill in the gap" CDs that were of artists that I like but for some reason, didn't own that particular CD (such as Crowded House's "Temple of Low Men", Foo Fighters' "Skin and Bones" or End of Fashion's self titled debut which is probably the only CD that I know of to have been "lost" from my 350+ CD collection). And then by luck or by impulse, there were new CDs that I bought from artists that I decided to try out in 2008 (such as The Last Shadow Puppets, Trial Kennedy or Spoon).

So, did I achieve my goal of listening to more music? Yes and no. Most CDs tat I have bought this year were only listened to once and that was only because I was playing it whilst it was being ripped onto my external hard drive. Some have not even been played (The Thrills' "Teenagers" and The Arctic Monkeys' "Favourite Worst Nightmare" springs to mind) for whatever reason. The CD that I listened to the most must have been The Whitlams' "Truth, Beauty and a Picture of You". Sure, it's a "best of" so I already know most of the songs on it. But being away from Australia has made me rediscover these really Australian songs and enjoy songwriter Tim Freedman's superb musicianship and the range of emotions that he creates in the songs.

I bought most of my CDs online at CD WOW! I find the CDs are significantly cheaper than other retailers (both of the online and "bricks and mortars" type), that they ship freight free and bill in Australian dollars appeals to my situation. Though I do miss going to my old CD haunts in Sydney just to browse and soak in the atmosphere of a CD shop. Whilst I was never the type to browse and buy items on impulse or on a whim, nor, discover things that I didn't know existed or had been released (thank you, Internet!) I always got a kick at seeing all the CDs stacked neatly on the shelves with all their different covers on display. With the physical CD/album seemingly approaching its death sentence, the physical music shop becomes a greater place and source of nostalgia for me. Whilst I was away, I found out that Dirt Cheap CDs (bad name but a great place for...well, dirt cheap CDs) had closed its final physical shop. There goes another place in Sydney that I fondly remember, which has probably been replaced by another soul-less convenience store; vale. I have been to the music stores in town and in Tokyo whenever I'm there. But besides picking up the occasional Japanese CD, the Japanese CD stores do not cater for my needs. Japanese editions of "foreign" CDs are ridiculously expensive compared after the currency is converted. Even when most Japanese editions come with a bonus track or two and a booklet with translated lyrics, the price is not justified. Though this has not stopped most Japanese from buying physical CDs. Whilst I do not have the statistics to prove otherwise, I find that most CD stores in Japan are packed every time I go there. Or maybe because the people are there just to see me. And I have also seen some of my students in possession of physical CDs at school (God bless them it was Oasis' "Dig Out Your Soul"). Until I am proved wrong (a common event) I guess CDs will be around for a bit, at least here anyway. Which warms my nostalgic heart.

So. Was my attempt at buying a CD a week a success or failure? Logistically, it was a success, as I comfortably managed to pick up 52 CDs without having to "scrape the bottom of the barrel" in terms of quality so to satisfy the quantity (an initial fear). Ideally? Well, I do possess a whole heap of new music and I guess if there was a fault, it was that I just didn't have the time to sit down and listen to it all. Now that I don't drive or travel far to and from work, I lose a significant amount of time to listen to music (the same applies for reading). As such, there's an immense backlog of stuff to get to. Given my style, I'll get to it one day. But, I do have a nice collection of CDs organised alphabetically over 3 CD cases in Sydney and a growing collection here in Japan. I guess I can say that I collect CDs, not in the sense of seeking rare or obscure CDs, but just to amass a collection of CDs. So I'd take that as a sign of a smashing success.