Tag: music

Spotify Review

I listen to a lot of music. My collection in iTunes was always growing, then I discovered Spotify. I loved the ease of listening to new things, the discovery algorithms, the suggestions, and the constant influx of new music. I subscribed pretty quickly in 2016.

At the end of 2016 Spotify then delighted me with my Year in Review playlist. It was a great way to look back at my year, and was a great playlist to throw on at any time.

In 2017 Sue, and the kids started listening to Spotify more. We have a Sonos speaker and I set it up with my account. Nearing the end of 2017 I was looking forward to the year end playlist. Once it arrived though, I was very disappointed. The playlist was mainly pop songs that were a result of the kids’ listening. It was so bad, I deleted it from my account.

There started to be more conflicts over Spotify use where multiple people were wanting to play music at the same time. We fixed this by signing up for the family plan, which has made me very happy. No more music interruptions at work, or random texts from the kids asking if they could have a turn on Spotify. The only pain was transferring the playlists I had created for their music to their account.

When 2018 was drawing to a close I was once again looking forward to the ‘Your Top Songs’ playlist. I figured the accounts had been separated long enough that there wouldn’t be any overlap. I was mostly right. The playlist is really good, full of lots of songs that bring me back to certain parts of the year. There are still a few pop songs that I end up skipping (and really should just remove).

We’re barely into 2019 and I’m looking forward to next years playlist already 🙂

Side Note:

Every Friday I check the new releases for bands I know and enjoy. Quite often there is nothing except pop and rap. Spotify really has a chance to make this area more customized to the account. The vast majority of the band I follow, and the albums I’ve saved are rock/hard rock/metal. Why the New Releases section shows 95% content that I don’t listen to is beyond me. Further is the fact that a lot of the music I listen to is by artists that are not mainstream. They release new albums, but those do not show up in the New Releases area. Spotify has a vast amount of data on my listening habits, they should make use of that.

Dessert Favorite

Last night Sox and I went out to see Wil play at the Upstairs Cabaret.

We arrived way, way, way too early, so we went and had a drink and dessert at Ferrisses. Yum!

We got to the club in time to see CR Avery perform. We could have arrived a lot later. His performance wasn’t our sort of thing. He is a beat boxing, spoken word artist. He even went off on the audience telling them to shut up and be quiet so he could get into it. In the end he said that that was part of the act, and it was his buddies that were making the noise as part of his show.

Still, we were really glad when Wil hit the stage. He put on an excellent show as always. He played some tracks from his new album, and many from older albums. He played my absolute favorite (Honey Pie), to round out his set. His encore was an absolute mind blowing song that I had never heard before, and was him going off on the guitar.

My only complaint about his music was that it seemed short.

Reasons Acoustic

I am looking forward to this album.
I have a bunch of concert bootlegs and I love Soundgarden’s live music. I’ve also seen them live in Vancouver, which is one of the reasons I am can’t wait for this album (look at track 6).

1. Spoonman
2. Searching With My Good Eye Closed
3. Let Me Drown
Tracks 1-3: Recorded live at Crosby Hall, Del Mar Fairgrounds, Del Mar, CA – November 30, 1996
4. Head Down
Recorded live at Mercer Arena, Seattle, WA – December 18, 1996
5. Outshined
Recorded live at Crosby Hall, Del Mar Fairgrounds, Del Mar, CA – November 30, 1996
6. Rusty Cage
Recorded live at Pacific National Exhibition Forum, Vancouver, BC, Canada – December 7, 1996
7. Burden In My Hand
Recorded live at Salem Armory, Salem, OR – December 8, 1996
8. Helter Skelter
9. Boot Camp
Tracks 8 and 9: Recorded live at Crosby Hall, Del Mar Fairgrounds, Del Mar, CA – November 30, 1996
10. Nothing To Say
Recorded live at Mercer Arena, Seattle, WA – December 18, 1996
11. Slaves And Bulldozers
12. Dusty
13. Fell On Black Days
Tracks 11-13: Recorded live at Henry J. Kaiser Convention Center, Oakland, CA – December 5, 1996
14. Search And Destroy
Recorded live at Mercer Arena, Seattle, WA – December 18, 1996

15. Ty Cobb
Recorded live at Crosby Hall, Del Mar Fairgrounds, Del Mar, CA – November 30, 1996

16. Black Hole Sun
Recorded live at Mercer Arena, Seattle, WA – December 17, 1996
17. Jesus Christ Pose
Recorded live at Henry J. Kaiser Convention Center, Oakland, CA – December 5, 1996

I’m also really looking forward to when Chris Cornell visits Victoria in late April for a solo acoustic show. That will be pretty amazing I think. The tickets I got are pretty awesome too. About tenth row, centre stage.