KEY POINTS:
On Friday night after work, whether I've got a few drinks under my belt or not, the decision about what songs I'll listen to on the bus gets me going every time. Sometimes it's so exciting I can't decide. I know, I know. What a geek. But it's
the weekend, I have 30-or-so minutes of uninterrupted listening pleasure and, if that's not a good time to slap on some Kool and the Gang and celebrate, then when is?
Actually, I don't have any Kool and the Gang on my iPod and Friday nights are mostly reserved for Queens of the Stone Age, Isis, or the new Opeth album. But really, let's face it, these days no one has time to sit down and listen to music, which is why the bus is a music-listening mecca.
Music, it seems, is becoming more and more like a soundtrack to our lives rather than something important in it. And there is a worse fate - background music. Wallpaper music.
Imagine a songwriter's horror at coming up with a song; sweating it out for months, years even, on an album, only for the listener to put it on the stereo and forget it's playing.
It happens every day. Come next Monday, when Coldplay fans get their hot wee hands on new album Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends, many will have a hard enough time getting to grips with the title let alone taking time to analyse their "revolutionary" new direction.
You should, it's actually quite good. But it's just as easy to chuck it on while you're cleaning the bathroom or conjuring up a macrobiotic vegan feast in the kitchen a la Chris Martin.
Background music has been around for years. Brian Eno, who produced the Coldplay album, made a classic album based on the idea with 1978's Ambient 1: Music For Airports.
And spare a thought for Portishead, and other Bristol acts like Massive Attack, whose excellent and pioneering compositions, were labelled cafe music in the early 90s.
There are even times at vinyl night - a special time where us lads play records, have a few beers, and dissect the song by Asia that our 70s prog' expert has subjected us to - when the songs are forgotten and can hardly be heard over our drinking and musical arguments.
The last time I sat down and analysed an album was out of necessity last month in Los Angeles, before an interview with former Bush frontman Gavin Rossdale.
I must admit, while delving into the innards of his first solo album, Wanderlust, all I was looking for was a deeply personal line that would give me an excuse to talk to him about his wife Gwen Stefani. Turns out I needn't have listened so hard because he was happy to talk about her. Oh well, I'll look Gavin and Gwen up next time I'm in LA nd maybe he'll remember me for being the guy who loved the teardrop lyric in his song Future World. That's a beautiful line, man.
Who wants to analyse music too hard anyway? Just get into it. There's nothing quite like the feeling of invincibility you get walking down the street listening to something pummelling and rebellious like Bulletproof's Dark Times - Desperate Measures.
Ah yes, what a feeling.
That's the power of music. It need not be just a soundtrack to your life, it can be the heart, soul and life blood of your very existence.
Whoops, sorry, I'm getting over-excited - and it's not even Friday yet.
