Overanalyzing

Now that I've started this blog, I was looking through my collection today thinking about what albums I might want to write about.  Since I'm a compulsive CD buyer, I have a lot of albums that I still haven't fully listened to or formed an opinion on.  I thought I would make a point to listen to some of these and then write about them on the blog.  That was always one of the main benefits I saw to keeping something like this; the added impetus to listen to music that I've been meaning to spend more time with.

There's just one problem with that.  It seems to me that the intention of writing a blog post or a music review acts as a lens through which you perceive the music.  At the moment I'm listening to Sigh's Scenes from Hell, and I have a fear that I'm listening more analytically than I otherwise would.  It's subtle, but my desire to write down my opinion seems like it may cause me to listen with a more judgmental ear.  The opinion, which must necessarily be described in words, takes precedence over the emotional or visceral reaction, which often cannot be.

This is actually somewhat of a general concern I have about the way people listen to music in the age of rapidshare downloads and iTunes libraries.  With virtually any album available at the click of a mouse and "free of charge", I feel like people amass huge collections of music that they can't possibly absorb, and then end up going through it superficially so that they have an opinion they can give and appear to be knowledgeable about a vast amount of music.

I should admit that I have NO evidence for this fear.  In all likelihood I'm just a luddite.

Anyway, up next, a superficial discussion of Scenes from Hell.