Lie on your bedroom floor and listen to this

Bob Lefsetz, the reknown music industry analyst, recently wrote this that just took me back 20 years:

We used to save up for our records. The radio was our religion. We listened long enough to be inspired to buy albums. And when we purchased those twelve inch discs, we played them again and again and again, waiting for them to reveal their truth….You built your collection album by album. You didn’t buy anything casually. You wanted every record to count. So if someone dropped by your house or apartment they could scan your discs and get a vision of the true you, the essence.

But now hunting for rare records is only about collector satisfaction. The history of music is instantly available, with a click online. Who cares if you’re ever going to listen to what you download. It’s free. You end up with so much music that you know very little of it. There are certain singles you can recite most words of, after that… And the albums have gotten longer, and your free time is shorter. And it’s not only you. Kids have got so many diversions. The concept of lying on your bedroom floor listening to the same disc over and over again is an antiquated dream. Kids have instant stimulation on their computers. They’re IM’ing, texting between soccer practice and homework. You want to get into music, but it’s almost impenetrable.

I'll admit it: I listen to singles a lot, and only rarely have the occassion to listen to an album the multiple times it deserves to get familiar with it, intimate with it, and learn to appreciate it. Here is the first album I have been able to do that for in a long time: