Music that stops you working

There's two kinds of music that stops me working whilst its playing, that which engages me so much that I just have to listen to it and nothing else, and that which drives nostalgia to the extent my head bangs.

In the first category, Picaresque presented by The Decembrists. I'm mostly reminded by Steve Hammill, Van der Graaf Generator and such and there are other influences I think I detect, the Kinks perhaps. In any event, wordy music that has its own wit will always grab me.

Which takes me to the one in the second category today, Nothing is Easy, Live at the Isle of Wight Jethro Tull. This is Tull in I think their best period around Aqualung, though it doesn't include Cross Eyed Mary and most of the rest of the studio album, it does have My God which I think was on it. Anyway, nostalgic magic for me from 1970, pop pickers.

Oh and both came from Emusic

New Music

I find it quite difficult to articulate reactions or pleasure in music and perhaps that is just as it should be, but in the meme of 'this is a blog so the nose pickings are important' here is the parallel to the 'Books on the Bedside Table'.

I got two CDs for Christmas and one for my Birthday, the latter isn't music but The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Tertiary Phase' which is excellent and a legal way for me to archive the series but it doesn't really belong here.

• SMiLE ~ Brian Wilson. This is just joyous and whilst I wasn't one of those that's been waiting and developmentally stuck since 1967 and Smile was promised it has hung around as one of those events that should have been. Well Fate may not exist and Karma be an excuse for good behaviour but Smile feels like it should have been released now and no earlier. SMiLE makes you smile, a lot.
• Medúlla ~ Björk. Just as SMiLE is about the human voice, so is Medúlla, almost entirely the human voice and so even though the production is key and critical it still sounds as though she's breathing into your ear and there's few things more thrilling or dangerous than the feel of Björk's breath on your ear.

An interesting affect happened whilst I was grabbing the links for this, I navigated to the Brian Wilson site whilst playing Oceania on the Medúlla album and Love and Mercy started playing. Brian Wilson and Björk should collaborate.