Hold on, 20th Century

To my surprise, I found a copy of Stars' 2005 record, "Set Yourself On Fire," on my girlfriend's computer recently, which was great because it's exactly the kind of record that I like well enough to listen to occasionally, but not well enough to actually buy.

So I burned a copy, put it in my car stereo and the songs were all out of order. The record just didn't sound as good as I remembered because of it. (Two weeks later, I'm not even sure where the CD is. Maybe in my girlfriend's car?) For a twenty-something, I realize this sounds incredibly anachronistic, in an era when so much of music is downloaded a la carte and consumed in "shuffle mode." But I think there's so much to be said for the statement a full album, digested from first song to last, makes. (Don't get me started on how important the second song and closer are.) Listening to a full album's songs out of order is somewhat akin to reading a novel's chapters out of order: Sure, the quality of the work is understandable, but the greater artistic purpose is lost.

In a related, unsurprising development, the Times' Ben Sisario documents how NYC record stores are struggling as rents below 14th Street do nothing but climb and few buy records anymore. I couldn't imagine a world without Other Music, the greatest record store in the world. It's esoteric and elitist and tasteful -- adjectives that probably (hopefully?) describe me -- and Scott Mou sits on the stool near the new rock CDs and talks to those who are cool enough to know him. (Does Mou still work there? I haven't been in a few years.)

The record store scene in Boston/Cambridge is pretty underwhelming, as it seems to be Newbury Comics or used record store. At the latter, the collection is always random and usually not worth the digging, though I did find Cat Power's new record, "Jukebox," at Looney Tunes on Mass. Ave. in Cambridge for a cool $9 last week. And Newbury Comics...well, you'll find almost every indie record you're looking for there, but you'll find a lot of things you're most certainly not looking for, too, especially non-music-related kitsch and dumb psycheldic posters and T-shirts. At Other Music, it's the best and nothing but.

In another related, unsurprising development, Tony Judt's newly published essay collection, "Reappraisals: Reflections on the Forgotten 20th Century," is on my list of books to buy.