Stuff Decays, Music Lasts Forever

We will move to a much smaller place in a few weeks, which means we must separate ourselves from a significant part of our possessions. Decluttering and cleaning up your life is a good thing—entire books have been written about this—but it is also extremely hard. This exercise also serves as a review of how our interests and ideas of value have changed over time. It highlights how the technology we were once excited about can be short-lived and short-sighted.

When we moved to New York City in 2001, we shipped only 20 medium-sized boxes filled with our most valued possessions from home. Much of that space was taken by Elke’s and my vinyl collection, which was already outdated by years (the last vinyl I bought in Germany was Bossanova by Pixies). More than 20 years later, our original collection is matched by the records we purchased and were gifted since the vinyl revival started in the 2010s. We do have a turntable, but we have not played many of those records because streaming is more convenient. Still, these records feel like a precious possession and like a real connection to the artists, much closer than just a “like” on Spotify or Apple Music.

CDs don’t have this kind of timeless value. Of course, we have many of those, too, some in ugly binders, some in tightly wrapped boxes from the last move in 2017. I don’t remember when we last listened to a CD. Putting on vinyl has some elevating ceremony to it; CDs are just a clunky form of streaming, even though you might get better quality out of it. We still don’t want to throw them away just yet because any music purchase marks a special moment in life—something that got lost with the DSPs’ all-you-can-listen buffets. But we don’t have a dedicated CD player anymore, and who knows how many of those discs have already chemically degraded!

That is why the DVDs all have to go. We did collect movies that we loved watching again and again (“Own it on DVD!”), but the sad fact is that many DVDs don’t work anymore. Technology has failed us here, producing countless plastic discs that did not withstand the wear and tear of normal usage.

One can only hope that the streaming services are here to stay. Otherwise, our new record collections could vanish in an instant.

By the way, you can find (a subset) of Elke’s and my “collection” on the favorite album page, which includes three very different new albums that were released last week. Check them out!

Last but not least, we want to point you to two new releases by musicians close to our hearts. The singer/songwriter Sophie Colette released a new video today for her 2023 feel-good song “Don’t Worry.” Watch the playful, upbeat clip directed by C.Benji Nelson here:

Blaktai, the bicoastal collaboration between Blak Emoji and Whitney Tai, released “Behind the Wheel,” a new version of a Depeche Mode classic from the 1987 album Music For The Masses. Close enough to the original, but with updated instrumentation and female vocals, it is a perfectly executed cover.

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Song Pick of the Day

Listen to/watch all seven songs on YouTube. Follow our daily updated playlists on YouTube and Spotify for the 50 latest Song Picks of the Day. Thank you for following us and sharing the excitement.

Anna Prior is the drummer of the band Metronomy, but she also DJs and produces music under her own name. Her new song “Fall Back” is an unapologetic dance banger, albeit about a serious experience. “I think it’s where my lack of trust in relationships began, when my hyper independence began and when I started searching for people that I knew could never love me so I would never get hurt again,” she explains.

The Nashville singer/songwriter Hunter Metts is one step behind Anna Prior in his relationship. His new song ”Where it Ends” is “an echo of love’s final chapter before the inevitable end.” The slightly melancholic, delightful pop song will resonate with everybody who has to say goodbye.

By now, it should be evident that I’m a big fan of the London-based electronic musician Yodashe. “Easter” is the latest single from her still unannounced debut album. The track explores the emotional rollercoaster around the early stages of the pandemic with epic soundscapes.

As a contrast, Elke brought in a classic UK indie rock quartet, Chasing Kites. The topic of their new song “Collide” is decisively uncool for a rock band: the love affair of singer Donelly’s parents, who found to each other even though they were already in relationships: “I find it incredibly romantic how their love for one another was strong enough to overcome this,” he says.

“I’ve become a birdwatcher,” sings Vancouver-based singer/songwriter Kaleah Lee. So did we, that’s why we can relate. But there is more to the title track of her self-produced debut EP Birdwatcher. Listen to the entire record for a contemplative experience.

“Jealousy” is the debut single of an indie rock five-piece from Nottingham, England, who wants to own the name “Victory Lap.” They are not the first, so good luck. But they are up for a good start: the downtempo, nostalgia-infused track is irresistible.

Jessiqa Jones is a singer/songwriter who grew up in the birthplace of 90s grunge rock. She goes back to that style for her new song “it’s milk, DON’T CRY” as a way to express discomfort with life’s changes: “I ended up writing a song in a genre I had grown up loving, but always felt dismissive of creating in,” she explains her break from R&B-tinged pop music. And she is good with it, so we hope to hear more.

Nine Photos of a Day Trip to Sintra

How does the entrance of your train station look? This one here (1) is Lisbon’s Rossio railway station, with its Neon-Manueline façade, and it is as beautiful inside as you’d expect from the outside. When planning our trip, we knew we’d want to stay put in Lisbon, with one exception: a day trip to Sintra was something we considered a must-do. It takes about forty minutes by train from the Rossio station to arrive in the magical town of Sintra, which is declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Several landmarks await, and you can certainly manage to visit most of them in a day, but we indulged in just visiting one, the spectacular Pena Palace.

The Romanticist castle stands atop a steep hill in the Sintra Mountains, and the light and vistas from the surroundings are just phenomenal. Photo (7) is only cropped to make it square, but the colors are untouched sans what the iPhone already does with them. Seriously, the colors come strongly at you at the palace, and the whole experience is rather surreal. Were it not for the plethora of tourists, you’d feel like a princess—or prince—in a fairytale.

We highly recommend a visit to Sintra, especially the Pena Palace, and suggest just going with the flow. Expect masses of people but also corners of tranquility and beautiful moments of awe and bliss in abundance.