doctorvee

One year ago today I signed up to Last.fm, or Audioscrobbler as it was back then. If anybody doesn’t know, Last.fm is a website that keeps track of what you listen to, makes interesting charts, recommends artists that you might like and people who share your taste in music. Pretty cool then.

Obviously Last.fm can’t take note of what I’m listening to on my stereo or on my MP3 player when I’m out and about. But it nevertheless should produce a pretty accurate picture of my taste in music. So I thought since I’ve been using it for one year it would be a pretty good time to have a look back at what I’ve been listening to. I know you probably won’t find it interesting — well tough, I’m writing about it anyway.

First things first then, and it’s no surprise that Autechre is my most listened-to band — by a long way. I have listened to 1105 Autechre tracks compared with 810 for second-placed Jaga Jazzist. It wasn’t always like that though. Jaga Jazzist benefited from the fact that I got into them soon after I signed up to Last.fm. I bought both of their albums last winter, and another one came out this spring — I loved them all. Team Doyobi, The Future Sound of London and Björk also benefited from a similar effect, though the latter two have slid down the table considerably. FSOL hung around near the top for a very long time, but they have fallen through the floor all of a sudden.

I’m surprised that Boards of Canada are so high up. They lingered outside the top ten for such a long time — now they’re right up in fourth. Obviously the release of The Campfire Headphase contributed to this, but I have a feeling that their high position is owes a lot to the fact that I downloaded A Few Old Tunes and Old Tunes Vol. 2 from Soulseek this year. These are both albums that have about thirty (mostly short) tracks each. Listening to these could have pushed them into the top five.

It is worth noting at this point that if Richard D James used only one name he’d easily be in the top three. All of his releases this year were under his AFX pseudonym. Add these to the Aphex Twin column and you get about 800, and that’s without adding in his other monickers which would add another few dozen. I didn’t know that I liked Aphex Twin so much. Then again, he has released a phenomenal amount of records this year.

There are other high positions that I can’t quite explain. Radiohead are a fine band of course, but they haven’t released anything this year and I don’t recall going on any Radiohead audio-binges. And I simply don’t understand how Eels remain in my top ten. Yes, I’ve gone on Eels binges, and I did buy a few of their albums this year. But the top ten? Surely not? I blame the ridiculous number of tracks on the new album. Clearly listening a few times to an unspectacular album that happens to have thirty-or-so tracks on it can make all the difference.

If you asked me a year ago where Sigur Rós would be, I would have put them very close to the top. Yet I feel that 8^th is a fair position. I got bored of ( ) this year. Indeed, I haven’t been listening to much of Sigur Rós’ old albums of late. A significant chunk of this is probably actually made up of their remix album, Von Brigði.

Maxïmo Park are the highest-positioned band to get on my chart on the basis of just one album (A Certain Trigger in the ′Park’s case). It is an album of mostly short songs, a format that works well if your main priority is to get high on a Last.fm chart. John Cage is another one — I only spent a fiver on it as well, and it is a fine CD. It’s good to have an oddity like that so high up.

Jackson and His Computer Band isn’t far behind, although that is not because it is an album of short tracks — it actually is an excellent album. Looking down the list, from there onwards there are plenty of bands who get right up there on the basis of just one CD. Jamie Lidell almost made it, although I bought Muddlin’ Gear this week so he only just no longer counts! Taking it to the ultimate extreme, Chok Rock is at number 78 (having amassed 56 listens) on the basis of just four tracks. Good work.

Radiohead’s guitarist, Jonny Greenwood, still hangs on at 33. For a significant chunk of the year he was actually ahead of Radiohead itself! If you haven’t heard Greenwood’s solo stuff before, I strongly urge you to check it out.

I am surprised and disappointed that Polar Bear are so low down — they only have 59 plays (which equates to listening to the album only about seven or eight times). I have definitely listened to this album more when I’m travelling on my way to and from university.

Right, on to the tracks chart. I knew that this would just end up showing which albums I had listened to the most. I thought that Autechre’s Draft 7.30 would eventually float to the top, but it’s their new album, Untilted, that occupies the top. Despite having been slightly disappointed with Untilted, I still have a real urge to listen to it a lot (more on that when I reveal my end-of-year review at, er, the end of the year).

Apart from Autechre, Jaga Jazzist clearly rules the roost. All three of their albums feature pretty heavily in the list. The Stix has always been there or there abouts. 37 times — that’s a lot. I loved that album so much, but the shine has kind of come off it (probably because I’ve listened to it >37 times, mind you).

Cryptoburners by Team Doyobi still manages to hang on in the top 50. I listened to that album loads last winter. Although I prefer Choose Your Own Adventure, I got that a long time before I signed up to Last.fm.

Apart from that, download singles from Sigur Rós and Boards of Canada get a high position simply because they were my first taste of the new albums, so obviously I listened to them a lot. Quite a few tracks from Takk… are slipping into the top 50. Perhaps it will creep up over time.

A biggest question mark is reserved for Björk’s Öll Birtan. I don’t recall listening to it that much, I don’t understand why I would have listened to it that much — iTunes seems to agree. A strange one.

So there you have it. My listening habits of the past year. I hope you found it as exciting as I did, even though I know you won’t have.