Guilty pleasures

Although a fan of last.fm, I've pretty much converted to Spotify these last few months. Music has always been a big part of my life. This fact was brought home by listening to Dale Winton on Radio 2 on Saturday as we drove back from the North. His Pick of the Pops was 1989, I knew 19 out of the top 20 tracks for that day. I was nine years old so I think that's fairly impressive.

So that gave me a guilty pleasures to follow up on on Spotify - Cher. Today I'm listening to Michael Bolton. Should I feel guilty? Probably not, because ultimately who cares what's 'cool' anymore, everything is 'cool' to someone, otherwise how would the rest of us ever here about it? But who gets to decide? So much is 'cool' at the moment which I think is totally nuts - skinnyness, binge drinking.... and don't even get me started on John and Edward.

Spending a week with pregnant ladies and new babies has made me reflect (again) on whether we'll have kids. As always its still a maybe - we never stay on one side of the fence for long. But I hope if we do we'll be able to raise them to spend as little of their time worrying about what is 'cool' and just focus on what they enjoy. So many people seem to spend their lives worrying about 'coolness' that they never have time to find out what's 'cool' to them...

So come on - what are your guilty pleasures?

Soundtrack

Music is one of the most important pleasures in my life. I spent a good proprtion of my teenage years lying in my bedroom singing (or crying) along to all manner of music. My tastes have broadend as I've got older - with only Jazz eluding me completely.

Yesterday one of my favourite albums arrived in the post from ebay. My Dad had this album on tape, which meant I had it on tape and he never saw it again. I think I actually wore the tape out. I don't know what reminded me of it, but suddenly I had to have it and listen to it again. There was only one copy of it on ebay, so £3.26 (including P&P) later I was the proud owner of Paul Simon: Negotiations and Love Songs 1971-1986.

Tracks:

1. Mother and child reunion

2. Me and Julio down by the school yard - makes me jig around the room

3. Something so right - chillout, slide down the sofa and so 'aaaaahhhhhhh'

4. St Judy's Comet - this has got to be my favourite lullaby

5. Loves me like a rock - a little bit of gospel-ish

6. Kodachrome - so silly, yet so right

7. Have a good time - a little bit sleazy

8. 50 ways to leave your lover - a classic

9. Still crazy after all these years - I think this should be 'our song'

10. Late in the evening

11. Slip slidin' away - my philosophy

12. Hearts and bones

13. Train in the distance

14. Rene and Georgette Magritte with their dog after the war - this one makes me cry

15. Diamonds on the souls of her shoes

16. You can call me Al - again so silly, yet so right, I should really look up what is means....

The lyrics are so insightful and beautiful, the music is spot on - taking you from tears to childish dancing and back again over the course of the compilation. I love the way when you know an album so well you can anticipate the movement of the next song before it starts - and if you here them out of their 'proper order' it just feels wrong. I can't believe I've lived without this album for this long.