Don’t read too much into the title of this week’s playlist. Originally I was going with “Curious Paths” as a way to capture the wending way my listening took me this week, but I mistyped and “Oaths” it was. The “Pruning” part refers to my massive pruning of albums from my digital library, which I’ll talk about more below. First, playlist.
- Bi Kyo Ran – “MONOLOGUE”
- Elder – “Sigil to Ruin”
- Shuggie Otis – “Strawberry Letter 23”
- Willow – “Talk on the Hill”
- Melvins & Napalm Death – “Awful Handwriting”
- Yo La Tengo – “Swing for Life”
- King’s X – “It’s Love”
- Yawning Balch – “Pyramid of Djoser
As far as the selections go, it’s a bit of a jolt opening with Japanese prog outfit Bi Kyo Ran. I usually pick an opening that’s a little more welcoming, but this angular, outside composition came on random last night and I couldn’t stop listening to it. Beyond it, it was cool discovering a new Willow track and album – her second this year – arriving later this summer. The new Elder might be their best album to date, and I finally learned the rhythm parts to one of my favorite songs of all time, courtesy of King’s X.
I have this weird obsession (I hate using terms like OCD and the like when I have no official diagnosis right now other than anxiety and depression) when it comes to my collection. I had to have everything I owned in my Apple Music Library, despite the fact that I have an Apple Music account and can pretty much stream anything I want. And so I was diligent about constant upkeep and additions, making sure if a Bandcamp purchase wasn’t available on the platform I manually added it, and made sure every single year and genre classification was correct.
Once I hit about 8000 albums, Apple Music decided it was tired, and patiently explained to me through shutdowns, delays, and bugs that the app wasn’t really made for that sort of accounting. So I’ve been pruning records, trying to get my brain comfortable with the fact that I don’t need to have everything represented in my library — what’s the reason? Some misguided hope that someone would want to see it, and they would be amazed at how cool and eclectic my collection was?
The more I dig, and the more I listen, the more I come to realize so much of what this running commentary reflects back is that I have deep, unresolved issues of esteem and adequacy that probably deserve closer examination.
Anyway, that’s the thought plaguing my evenings this week.
Be safe, be good to each other. See you next week.
Consuming the Tangible 
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