![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
flanerieoconnorIn my adolescence and immediately post, it often felt like the most important things in life were the books I was reading and the music I was listening to. To a large extent, I feel like my connection with both has fallen away over these last few years of isolation and estrangement, like my spare time has been increasingly devoured by screens and current events. I listen to podcasts and nonfiction audio books and news radio while at work, and scroll through articles and social media takes of the events of the day on my phone when I get home. Some of this, I'm sure, is a natural part of aging into midlife, but it still feels like a kind of calcification, and worth struggling against (I remember, as a kid, my father talking about how he found he couldn't get interested in novels/works of fiction anymore, and how terribly sad that made me). So, over the last couple of months, I've been making a conscious effort to do so- taking some time to read a physical book, preferably fiction, for awhile before sleep rather than looking at a screen, and finding albums to spend concentrated chunks of time with while driving around/commuting like I used to do back when buying CDs was still a thing and you wanted to get your moneys' worth out of them, rather than absent-mindedly flipping through the radio. I'll get to books in another post, but first wanted to share a bit of music:
First, I've been listening to a *lot* of Beach House lately, which has been a wonderful surprise. Until last year, I hadn't really listened to any of their stuff since "Teen Dream" came out roughly a decade ago, to rave reviews and lots of hype. At the time, I was pretty underwhelmed- it felt like the sort of thing that I ought to love, in theory, but which I just couldn't warm up to, and so I never really kept up with anything they did since. Last year, out of curiosity, I gave their latest-at-the-time album, "7", a listen (don't even remember what prompted me to do so), and was surprised to really like it, though it felt like a bit of a guilty pleasure, and so I followed along with the release of their new album, "Once, Twice Melody" in stages this winter as it was released (initially in video form, in four chapters), and it turned out it was good. Really, really good, and immersive, and improved on each listen. Went back and listened through things I'd missed from their back catalogue, and found they hadn't really released a bad album in the last decade, and that each one was better than the last. So, I've got a new belated new addition to my list of favorite bands, which was an unexpected delight (also got to see them live about a month ago, which was my first time really being in a crowd of people since COVID hit, and made me feel human and alive again in ways I wasn't really expecting). Favorite song linked below, which always makes me choke up just a little:
Also been listening to a lot of music from an internet microgenre called Dungeon Synth, whose existence I only found out about through an algorithmic youtube recommendation (lest it be said that this is only a force of malevolence)- it's a mixed bag, of course, as with any self-conscious scene/genre working within deliberately chosen stylistic constraints, but I find the good stuff awfully charming. I've always assumed there was still interesting DIY-type stuff percolating around odd corners of the internet that I'd simply lacked the skills/interest to find (another feature of aging), but it's pleasing and reassuring to come across a live example of such. Material for further research at: https://www.reddit.com/r/Metal/comments/kvt60e/homebrewed_an_introduction_to_dungeon_synth/
And again, my favorite that I've listened to so far linked below:
First, I've been listening to a *lot* of Beach House lately, which has been a wonderful surprise. Until last year, I hadn't really listened to any of their stuff since "Teen Dream" came out roughly a decade ago, to rave reviews and lots of hype. At the time, I was pretty underwhelmed- it felt like the sort of thing that I ought to love, in theory, but which I just couldn't warm up to, and so I never really kept up with anything they did since. Last year, out of curiosity, I gave their latest-at-the-time album, "7", a listen (don't even remember what prompted me to do so), and was surprised to really like it, though it felt like a bit of a guilty pleasure, and so I followed along with the release of their new album, "Once, Twice Melody" in stages this winter as it was released (initially in video form, in four chapters), and it turned out it was good. Really, really good, and immersive, and improved on each listen. Went back and listened through things I'd missed from their back catalogue, and found they hadn't really released a bad album in the last decade, and that each one was better than the last. So, I've got a new belated new addition to my list of favorite bands, which was an unexpected delight (also got to see them live about a month ago, which was my first time really being in a crowd of people since COVID hit, and made me feel human and alive again in ways I wasn't really expecting). Favorite song linked below, which always makes me choke up just a little:
Also been listening to a lot of music from an internet microgenre called Dungeon Synth, whose existence I only found out about through an algorithmic youtube recommendation (lest it be said that this is only a force of malevolence)- it's a mixed bag, of course, as with any self-conscious scene/genre working within deliberately chosen stylistic constraints, but I find the good stuff awfully charming. I've always assumed there was still interesting DIY-type stuff percolating around odd corners of the internet that I'd simply lacked the skills/interest to find (another feature of aging), but it's pleasing and reassuring to come across a live example of such. Material for further research at: https://www.reddit.com/r/Metal/comments/kvt60e/homebrewed_an_introduction_to_dungeon_synth/
And again, my favorite that I've listened to so far linked below:
