As a music enthusiast, I occasionally find myself staring at my CD collection in it’s slightly naff racking, underneath my hi-fi, centre stage in the grand scheme of my room. Unlike John Cusack’s character in High Fidelity, I’m not interested in methods of ordering and the variety of methods doesn’t interest me any more than is natural for someone with a life. My CDs are alphabetized by artist, and then date ordered by discography. Just like they should be. I seem to remember that in Nick Hornby’s book (was it in the film as well? Bothered?), he ends up re-organising them according to the key moments in which his character became as inane as Hornby himself.
On the evenings in which my social life dwindles slightly, I have noticed in my racks some dubious and often downright preposterous relationships between neighbouring albums. Sure, Nick Drake sits pretty comfortably next to Dylan (as I imagine he’d always have wanted it), and the date ordering system even means his later, solitary work rubs shoulders with Dylan’s similarly lone, organic stuff. I guess it’s also appropriate that Drake backs on to Cohen, but less so that you have to go through De La Soul and (ahem) Dodgy to get to and fro.
Conversely, in F’s, Fairport Convention, Faithless, the Ben Folds Five and Franz Ferdinand all stand together in one huge(ly) disposable cabaret of forgotten dreams, ill-conceived dreams, and well - just dreams. There’s a huge indie mish-mash down in S as Supergrass, The Strokes, Super Furry Animals, The Stone Roses and The Smiths strum away over half a shelf (with some friends). Just looking in that direction, I wonder where I went wrong as Talk Talk’s sublime soundscaping burns holes in the first Thrills record.
There are a few other good couplings (The Beautiful South like proud parents of their post-grad kids, Belle & Sebastian), Björk and The Beta Band making music to take drugs to make…etc, and two generations country closing the set (Neil Young and Wilco). But there are also some terrible ones: Johnny Cash and Cast (bought when I was a nipper, and I don’t ever weed records out), Damon Albarn’s Mali Music and the Manic Street Preachers, Morrissey and Motown, Shine 5 and Talvin Singh?
Since these pairings look so uncomfortable, I’m lead to think that maybe Hornby’s protagonist had the right idea. What do other Stylus writers think, what unorthodox methods of ordering are used, and what are your best/worst pairings?