The last 10 songs I played

Folks periodically ask what I listen to while I write, and the answer is inevitably that my mixes are random and hard to predict.  That said, certain songs tend to stay in rotation for a while, and some become fixtures in my writing playlists for months at a time. 

As a sample, the last ten songs I played before I turned off the music earlier tonight were the following:

1. "Lonely Boy," The Black Keys
2. "Howl," The Gaslight Anthem
3. "Man on the Moon," R.E.M.
4. "We Belong Here," Stephen Kellogg & the Sixers
5. "Breathing Underwater," Metric
6. "Anna Sun," Walk the Moon
7. "Dark Clay," Levi Weaver
8. "This Is Why We Fight," The Decemberists
9. "Stay Young, Go Dancing," Death Cab for Cutie
10. "Maybe It's Over," Jon McLaughlin

Nothing too surprising here, plenty of tunes I've blogged before, a wide range of emotions, kind of a comfort mix, for whatever that's worth.

Music and my writing

Many folks have asked me whether I listen to music while writing, so I thought I'd answer the question here. (Web Weasel, are you noticing that this is another potential FAQ candidate? Back off.)

I usually write in silence, but often because I forgot to put on music. I actually prefer writing to music, because it helps enhance the trance-like effect of intense concentration, but the music must meet one of two requirements: it must either have no words and a relatively consistent tone, or it must be music I have listened to so many times that the words fade away for me.

For example, over the years I have written many columns, stories, and novel parts to the sounds of Blue Rodeo's Outskirts, one of the best albums ever. I've also written a great many parts of my first two novels while listening to the two Smallville soundtracks, particularly the first one, and the lovely Snow Patrol album, Eyes Open.

If you don't know Eyes Open and you at all like emotional (okay, emo) music, you should check out this CD. It was, in my opinion, the best album of last year. (The Killers' Hot Fuss was the best of the previous year. I'm not sure about this year's best.)

I've amassed a number of albums that meet my requirements, and I am always listening to new ones and adding them to the list by giving them heavy rotation on my playlist. I like having a range of available music, so I can match the sounds to the emotions of what I'm writing at the time.

New albums, though, never qualify, because they distract me. I can't have that.