4 posts tagged “last.fm”
"The Rhumb Line is waiting there too, you know it's worth the night's we wait there" -- St Peter's Day Festival, Ra Ra Riot
The melodies linger in my head long after the last track has played. The tracks are orchestral, yet danceable (if you so choose). The lyrics are focused and descriptive, each line a snapshot that brings to mind the pain, tragedy and joy that the band must have experienced as it made this album. I can't say for certain that the band worked through it's grief by making this album, but it certainly feels that way, and if so it is a stronger album because of it.
The Top Ten Albums of 2008
- The Rhumb Line by Ra Ra Riot
- The Midnight Organ Fight by Frightened Rabbit
- Brighter Than Creation's Dark by The Drive By Truckers
- Dear, Science by TV on The Radio
- For Emma, Forever Ago by Bon Iver
- The Odd Couple by Gnarls Barkley
- Real Emotional Trash by Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks
- Fleet Foxes by Fleet Foxes
- Santogold by Santogold
- Stay Positive by The Hold Steady
- Loyalty to Loyalty by Cold War Kids
- Evil Urges by My Morning Jacket
- Rook by Shearwater
- Vampire Weekend by Vampire Weekend
According to Last.fm
My most played albums of the last-twelve months filtered for those released this year looks like this:
- The Rhumb Line by Ra Ra Riot
- The Midnight Organ Fight by Frightened Rabbit
- The Odd Couple by Gnarls Barkley
- Vampire Weekend by Vampire Weekend
- Modern Guilt by Beck
- Fleet Foxes by Fleet Foxes
- Narrow Stairs by Death Cab for Cutie
- Stay Positive by The Hold Steady
- For Emma, Forever Ago by Bon Iver
- Wagonwheel Blues by The War on Drugs
At some point this week I reached 10,000 scrobbles on Last.fm. I thought it would be the perfect time to look back over my listening history(as documented by last.fm, more on that later) and see what I can discern from it.
The top five artists in my library are:
- Radiohead
- Kings of Leon
- Modest Mouse
- The White Stripes
- Mike Doughty
Mike Doughty, on the other hand, has only 71 tracks. He truly is one of my favorite artists, though I prefer his early solo work (and his work with Soul Coughing) more than his most recent stuff.
The top five tracks tell a different story. They are:
- 'Disaster' -- The Besnard Lakes
- 'Plasticities' -- Andrew Bird
- 'Neon Bible' -- Arcade Fire
- 'Another Travelin' Song' -- Bright Eyes
- 'Fans' -- Kings of Leon
Finally, the top five albums in my library according to Last.fm are:
- Because of the Times -- Kings of Leon
- Armchair Apocrypha -- Andrew Bird
- Sky Blue Sky -- Wilco
- Cease to Begin -- Band of Horses
- Neon Bible -- The Arcade Fire
The problem with all of these lists can be ascribed to the fact that for the first few months of my Last.fm subscription I didn't own an iPod. I still listened to CDs and mostly in my car. The only things being added to Last.fm at the time were tracks listened to on my computer, which were few. Even when I bought my iPod I wasn't as good about scrobbling tracks to the site as I am now. I'm almost adamant about it these days, and get quite upset when I realize something I'm listening too won't be logged on the site.
In another 10,000 tracks or so I'll take another look, and see if a clearer picture has been painted of my listening habits.
Here in ranked order are my favorite albums from the first six months of 2007.
- Armchair Apocrypha -- Andrew Bird
- Back To Black -- Amy Winehouse
- Boxer -- The National
- Sky Blue Sky -- Wilco
- Because Of The Times -- Kings of Leon
- We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank -- Modest Mouse
Wincing The Night Away -- The Shins
Moonbabies At The Ballroom -- Moonbabies
Icky Thump -- The White Stripes
These are the results of my rolling six months chart on Last.fm:
| 1 |
|
Kings of Leon – Because of the Times |
100
|
| 2 |
|
Andrew Bird – Armchair Apocrypha |
92
|
| 3 |
|
The Arcade Fire – Neon Bible |
69
|
| 4 |
|
Wilco – Sky Blue Sky |
60
|
| 5 |
|
Modest Mouse – We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank |
56
|
| 6 |
|
Norah Jones – Not Too Late |
|
I do like the Norah Jones disc, but nearly as much as iTunes seems to think. In nearly every randomly created playlist, tracks from the album show up.
I'm puzzled over Neon Bible's appearance at number three as well. I know I've listened to Back to Black more, but I've lost a few spins by playing tracks on my MacBook before syncing my iPod with last.fm.
What are your top 10 most-played songs currently?
According to last.fm my all time top 10 songs are:
- Another Traveling Song -- Bright Eyes
- Intervention -- Arcade Fire
- Bury Me With It -- Modest Mouse
- Rides the Rails -- The Besnard lakes
- Neon Bible -- Arcade Fire
- Devastation -- The Besnard Lakes
- My Girlfriend's Boyfriend -- Her Space Holiday
- And You Lied To Me -- The Besnard Lakes
- Old Soul Song (For The New World) -- Bright Eyes
- Ugly As I Seem -- The White Stripes
To be clear songs 2-7 are tied for second, and 8-10 are tied for eight place but I just listed the first ten songs.
I was surprised by this list. None of the artists featured are what I would call my essential artists. I feel like I should listen to them more just to game last.fm, but then it wouldn't really be a document of my natural listening habits.
