Liner Notes

Soundscape #100: “Does Anal-retentive Have A Hyphen?”

While it’s true that no man is an island, I don’t know if man is specially designed to live in crowded cities, jostling for space on the escalators, in the trains, in the shops. Most of us would get by fine enough just by tuning out other human activity around us and continuing on our way. Which is probably the reason why we get people seemingly unaware that they are cluster-fucking up the human flow by standing right in front of the escalator trying to decide where to have dinner.

Tom Borowski. Office 2, 2008.

As with any city with truckloads of people, we get a healthy representation on the other end of the scale as well. Some cope by adopting habits that they think help them get through the day. For example, I like to have my work week planned out as early as possible so as to avoid any nasty surprises. I know of people who has routinised their lives so much that they are lost if they so much as deviate 5 minutes from the “plan”. I like to minimise contact with strangers by having my sunglasses on in the train and reading a book at the same time (yes, I know). While most of these little things that get us through the day are exactly that, sometimes living in a overcrowded city can push them towards compulsion and obsession.
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Playlist:
1. (0:00) Of Montreal - Disconnect The Dots (Satanic Panic In The Attic)
2. (4:26) Scotland Yard Gospel Choir - Good Kind Of Crazy (5 Song EP)
3. (9:14) Belle & Sebastian - To Be Myself Completely (The Life Pursuit)
4. (12:32) Bright Eyes - A Scale, A Mirror, And Those Indifferent Clocks (Fevers And Mirrors)
5. (15:18) Aqualung - Strange And Beautiful (Wicker Park OST)
6. (18:50) Spoon - The Way We Get By (Kill The Moonlight)
7. (21:32) Aimee Mann - How Am I Different (Bachelor No. 2)
8. (26:34) Yo La Tengo - Little Honda (I Can Feel The Heart Beating As One)
9. (29:40) Death Cab For Cutie - Blacking Out The Friction (The Photo Album)
10. (33:10) Radiohead - Paranoid Android (Ok Computer)
11. (39:35) Okkervil River - For Real (Black Sheep Boy)