New year, new task

I spent a very lovely week doing not a lot in France over New Year, and as I always do in such times, I started noodling about in my ipod and seeing what I could do to make it leaner, meaner and generally better. I came up with one word - playlists.

I'll say it right out - mine are shit. They need a lot of work. So my job for the first few weeks of this year is to get them in shape. Shouldn't be that hard, I know, but I really do have a tendency to overthink these things, so much that they lose all chance of ever becoming a simple task.

So here's a few things that I need to do:

AAA. Now this was the name I gave to a playlist of all of my favourite songs ever. You know, just a simple selection of the songs I love above all others. Cocked it up. Well, actually, that's unfair. My tastes changed a little - don't they always? So I no longer consider Air's All I Need to be one of my favourites ever. A great track but not now one of the best ever for me. My Beastie Boys selection needs toning down. It's all about quality, not quantity. I need more classics - I've been playing a lot of the tracks that are popularly accepted as the best ever, and I think I agree with some of them now that didn't before. Such as River Deep, Mountain High (Ike & Tina Turner), No Particular Place To Go (Chuck Berry) and What'd I Say (Ray Charles). I guess this will need an annual review. Cool!

Acoustic. Pretty self explanatory as a playlist but I still think I cocked it up when I first put it together. I made the classic mistake (classic for me) of putting everything that falls under the umbrella of the playlist title onto the playlist, rather than just compiling a good selection that means I can hear the best acoustic songs when I want to. So I need to get rid of a lot of the Dylan because frankly he hasn't really done a great deal that isn't acoustic (yes, he picked up an electric at Free Trade Hall but I was never convinced). It definitely needs some updating - there's no Bon Iver, Fleet Foxes, The Acorn, Port O'Brien, Okkervil River, Band Of Horses. Needs fixing.

Covers. My approach to this has been far too sloppy. I need to focus. I'm trying to write a book about them for God's sake.

Valentine's. I have no idea what the thinking was behind this but it needs addressing forthwith. I don't think the Clipse have ever been considered relevant at Valentine's, unless you're actually a gangbanger (I still have no clue whatsoever what the hell a gangbanger is).

That's just a sample. So there we go - I have a lot of work ahead of me. Still, at least it will give My Wife some quiet time in front of the telly without me bugging her.