I Listen to Music - Projects
I have a relationship with music, possibly related to whatever is going on in my brain,
where I thrash a particular song or small number of songs and then don't lkisten at all for
months and months. LastFM asks me to set an obsession. I think I've obessed over a very small number of songs.
This is them.
LastFM reports I have scrobbled a different number of tracks than I have in my database from their API. I will go with the data I have
I bet the distribution of artists is skewed to a very small number that I have played a lot and a large number I have played once. Will eventually find a way to figure that out.
| Artist | Scrobbles |
|---|---|
| Tears for Fears | 850 |
| Trinity Roots | 817 |
| Breaks Co-Op | 635 |
| Roxy Music | 568 |
| Thompson Twins | 553 |
| Public Image Ltd. | 518 |
| Simply Red | 513 |
| Seal | 504 |
| Icehouse | 452 |
| INXS | 360 |
| Bryan Ferry | 353 |
| Strawpeople | 296 |
| Gotan Project | 249 |
| Lemon Jelly | 242 |
| The Waterboys | 238 |
| Simple Minds | 232 |
| Nils Frahm | 226 |
| Paul Simon | 221 |
| Fat Freddy's Drop | 208 |
| Duran Duran | 196 |
| Kristian Benton | 190 |
| Dire Straits | 183 |
| Nik Kershaw | 181 |
| The 1975 | 175 |
| Stereophonics | 171 |
| U2 | 167 |
| Mazzy Star | 160 |
| Emancipator | 153 |
| Zero 7 | 149 |
| Talk Talk | 147 |
| Phil Collins | 141 |
| Deacon Blue | 133 |
| Sting | 116 |
| The Avener | 113 |
| Mylo | 101 |
| ABC | 101 |
| Visage | 99 |
| Genesis | 98 |
| Hans Zimmer | 94 |
| Lloyd Cole and The Commotions | 90 |
Cumulative scrobbles over time for my top 10 artists of all time. A flat line means an artist fell out of favour for a while, a steep climb means I was thrashing them. You can see newcomers arrive late and rocket up the chart, and old favourites that I keep coming back to year after year.
Everyone is allowed a guilty pleasure that you don't admit to everyone. Mine is this. But only played 21 times since records began in 2006
| Song | Scrobbles |
|---|---|
| More Than This, Roxy Music | 103 |
| Don't Stop the Dance, Bryan Ferry | 102 |
| Avalon, Roxy Music | 96 |
| Real Gone Kid, Deacon Blue | 94 |
| Sunrise, Simply Red | 92 |
| Fade Into You, Mazzy Star | 91 |
| Somebody Else, The 1975 | 90 |
| Beautiful Girl, INXS | 88 |
| Need You Tonite, Mylo | 83 |
| Ordinary World, Duran Duran | 82 |
| Same Old Scene, Roxy Music | 81 |
| Greenland, Emancipator | 79 |
| Fade to Grey, Visage | 79 |
| Bohannon, Fat Freddy's Drop | 79 |
| Ramblin' Man, Lemon Jelly | 78 |
| The Otherside, Breaks Co-Op | 77 |
| Holding Back the Years - 2008 Remaster, Simply Red | 75 |
| Spirit Alive (Wandabaa Murrun), Kristian Benton | 74 |
| One Day, Opshop | 70 |
| Handbags and Gladrags, Stereophonics | 69 |
| Do You Still Love Me?, Ryan Adams | 69 |
| The Whole of the Moon - 2004 Remaster, The Waterboys | 69 |
| Woman in Chains, Tears for Fears | 66 |
| So Beautiful, Simply Red | 64 |
| Two Thousand And Seventeen, Four Tet | 62 |
| Egos, Trinity Roots | 62 |
| All Of My Heart, ABC | 59 |
| Lay Me Down, Breaks Co-Op | 57 |
| Sleepyhead, Passion Pit | 56 |
| Real Slow, Miami Horror | 56 |
| It's My Life, No Doubt | 56 |
| True, Trinity Roots | 56 |
| Make Me Smile (Come up and See Me) - 2014 Remaster, Steve Harley | 55 |
| We Are the People, Empire of the Sun | 55 |
| Beautiful People, Trinity Roots | 54 |
| You Take Me Up, Thompson Twins | 54 |
| Slave to Love, Bryan Ferry | 53 |
| Greenstone, Emma Paki | 52 |
| Fade Out Lines - Marcapasos Remix, The Avener | 52 |
| Ringo, Joris Voorn | 51 |
I like a very small part of a single song by Public Image Ltd. Their song Rise is a little catchy in parts and garbage, in my view, for the rest of it. I don't care much for any of their other work, it's not my bag
Some how, one weekend, I played Rise to get my fix of the bit that I quite like and then appear to have left Spotify playing their entire back catalogue after changing the amp source to something else. Thus rocketing them to my 5th most listened to artist even though I hate all but about 3 minutes of their entire work.
Anger is an energy!
I suspect this is a product of me playing a relatively small set of artists, but it's clearly visible that I play music and then not for a period of time. I don't know what happened in 2015 but for almost the whole year music was not a part of my life. And the pandemic years showed that I was at home a lot more and so listened to more music.
The big peak in July 2021 was the above mentioned Public Image Ltd thing.
| Song | Scrobbles |
|---|---|
| Fade Out Lines, The Avener | 11 |
| Lay Lady Lay, Duran Duran | 11 |
| Have a Nice Day, Stereophonics | 9 |
| Not Enough Time, INXS | 9 |
| So Beautiful, Simply Red | 8 |
| Daughter, Loudon Wainwright III | 7 |
| Trouble, Lindsey Buckingham | 7 |
| Ramblin' Man, Lemon Jelly | 7 |
| Greenstone, Emma Paki | 7 |
| Ordinary World, Duran Duran | 7 |
| Come Undone, Duran Duran | 7 |
| When Smokey Sings, ABC | 7 |
| Somebody Else, The 1975 | 7 |
| The Trip - 2023 Remaster, Still Corners | 7 |
| Streets of Your Town, The Go-Betweens | 7 |
| Sunrise, Simply Red | 7 |
| Bohannon, Fat Freddy's Drop | 6 |
| Dakota, Stereophonics | 6 |
| Maybe Tomorrow, Stereophonics | 6 |
| The Whole of the Moon, The Waterboys | 6 |
| Life's What You Make It, Talk Talk | 6 |
| Higher Trails, John Hanlon | 6 |
| No More "I Love You's", Annie Lennox | 5 |
| Come, Lemon Jelly | 5 |
| In The Bath, Lemon Jelly | 5 |
| Real Gone Kid, Deacon Blue | 5 |
| Fly Like An Eagle, Seal | 5 |
| Coming Up, Paul McCartney | 5 |
| Fisherman's Blues, The Waterboys | 5 |
| The Look Of Love, Pt.1, ABC | 5 |
| 7 Seconds, Youssou N'Dour | 5 |
| Beautiful Girl, INXS | 5 |
| I Have Seen, Zero 7 | 4 |
| Into Dust, Mazzy Star | 4 |
| Love My Way, The Psychedelic Furs | 4 |
| Bring It On, Seal | 4 |
| Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Five, Paul McCartney | 4 |
| Fade Into You, Mazzy Star | 4 |
| Crazy, Seal | 4 |
| Nobody Else, Rikki Morris | 4 |
| Artist | Scrobbles |
|---|---|
| Seal | 49 |
| Simply Red | 29 |
| Duran Duran | 25 |
| Stereophonics | 25 |
| Lemon Jelly | 21 |
| Tears for Fears | 20 |
| The Waterboys | 20 |
| Still Corners | 20 |
| Thompson Twins | 18 |
| Wings | 17 |
| INXS | 17 |
| Strawpeople | 16 |
| Icehouse | 15 |
| ABC | 15 |
| Paul McCartney | 13 |
| Clannad | 12 |
| Nik Kershaw | 12 |
| The Avener | 11 |
| David Lowe | 11 |
| Talk Talk | 11 |
| Lloyd Cole and The Commotions | 10 |
| Bryan Ferry | 9 |
| Simon Webbe | 8 |
| Mazzy Star | 8 |
| Loudon Wainwright III | 7 |
| Simple Minds | 7 |
| The 1975 | 7 |
| The Go-Betweens | 7 |
| Emma Paki | 7 |
| Fat Freddy's Drop | 7 |
| Lindsey Buckingham | 7 |
| Hans Zimmer | 6 |
| John Hanlon | 6 |
| Deacon Blue | 5 |
| Annie Lennox | 5 |
| Youssou N'Dour | 5 |
| JAY-Z | 4 |
| M.I.A. | 4 |
| The Sundays | 4 |
| Quantic | 4 |