48 minutes, 19 seconds

God Module
Empath

I mentioned a few days ago that I'd attempt to add content to the blog that might eventually be repurposed as an FAQ--or rather an IAQ (infrequently asked questions). So here's the first installment. If you're a regular reader of this blog (ha! that joke never fails to crack me up), you've likely figured out by now that somewhere I must have a master list of all my CDs, arranged in order of total time. Well, you're right, I do. It's an approximately 25-page-long Excel spreadsheet. Three columns: total time, band name, album title. I simply work off the list, six discs at a time (the number my main stereo CD player will hold in one of its cartridges).

Friends who are aware of my, ahem, unusual proclivities often ask me whether I ever deviate from the list. "What happens if a CD comes up and you just don't feel like listening to that one at that particular time?" Or they'll ask a variant of the same question: "What if you really feel like listening to a particular CD, but it's not due up for, like, two months?"

The whole reason I originally came up with this system--aside from the fact that it satisfies the OCD part of my brain--was to remove things like "mood" or "choice" from the equation. Once I reached a collection of about 200 CDs (less than a tenth of what I own now), it became difficult to decide what to listen to at any given moment. I'd spend 10 or 15 minutes gazing at the CD spines, trying to figure out whether I felt like Cocteau Twins or Front 242. It was agonizing, and a waste of time.

Plus, there was the phenomenon everyone's probably experienced: You buy a new CD and you like it so much you play it over and over again for the next five days. Then you get burned out and never want to listen to it again. I needed to figure out a way to avoid that too.

My first approach was to listen to everything in alphabetical order, by band name. But that quickly grew tiresome. Especially when you have, say, six or seven albums from the same band. I love Front 242, but listening to six discs in a row risks the burnout phenomenon I mentioned above.

I needed something more random. That's when I began to use total time as a means of deciding what to listen to. Every CD has a total time, and artists release CDs with different total times--full-lengths, EPs, singles. It's random enough, easy to catalog, and removes entirely the decision-making process from my music listening. I simply have to consult the list to know what to play next. Neat. Clean. Simple. And, yes, anal-retentive.

Also today:

48:17 Stahlschlag, Acousticophobie
48:10 DavaNtage, Virus: Hate
48:08 Cyborg Attack, Blutgeld
48:07 Garmarna, Vittrad
48:06 Elijah's Mantle, Legacy of Corruption
48:05 HERR, The Winter of Constantinople
48:05 Jóhann Jóhannsson, Englabörn
48:04 Proceed, Neusprache
48:02 Current 93, Swastikas for Goddy
48:02 The Days of the Trumpet Call, Heroes & Traitors
48:02 Einstürzende Neubauten, Fünf auf der Nach Oben Offenen Richterskala