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I’ve rediscovered losing myself in music.
Back in the CD and Discman days it was fairly normal for me to get hooked on one album to the exclusion of all else. In fact I seemed to have a particular gear in my head prebuilt for obsessive repeat listening. Albums were exactly the right length to provide a sustained mood with just enough variety to keep my interest so that I was anxious to relive the same 30–60 minutes over and over again.
REM albums often lent themselves to this mode. Dismemberment Plan’s album Change and The Shins first two records did the same. Sigur Ros, Guster, Radiohead: I did not just like these albums, I dissolved into them for days. I did not do this with every album. Even some that I liked very much did not invite this level of complete absorption. White Stripes for instance were far too jarring and spiky, TOOL gave me too much anxiety and angst, Belle and Sebastian and Nick Drake were just too somnambular. If I didn’t break theirs up with other things I wouldn’t be able to get out of bed. It required a consistent and welcoming tone along with a high level of quality and the occasional burst of energy.
This mode shifted with my full embrace of MP3s around 2007. The last album I think I absorbed in my accustomed obsessive way was Lets Get Out of This Country by Camera Obscura in late 2006.