Sanding the Surprise Off Shuffle
CD sales are climbing again, and the reason may have less to do with sound quality than with the random button. This week we look at why fans are going back to the five-disc changer, and what streaming algorithms took away when they promised us randomness.
The Guardian asked music fans why they’re buying CDs again, and the answers were great. One London collector has more than 10,000 discs working their way down his hallway, and his whole philosophy is four words long: “I don’t need Spotify.” A San Jose mom likes her hand-me-down player because nobody is forcing autoplay or AI playlists on her. Then a Toronto listener who’s owned a five-disc changer since 1999 summed it up: “Algorithms make everything predictable, but everybody’s taste is kind of random.”
Tech companies have been selling us randomness for twenty years. In 2005, Apple launched the iPod shuffle with the slogan “Life is random.” Then people found out that real randomness clumps. Three Pearl Jam songs in a row, and suddenly the thing must be broken. By 2014, Spotify had made shuffle less random so it would feel more random. They took the surprise button and sanded the surprise off it.
That’s where the slide toward the algorithm started. Autoplay, Discover Weekly, daylist, the relentlessly chipper AI DJ. They’re all machines built to guess what you won’t skip. A prediction engine can’t take chances, so it plays you the safest version of yourself and stamps “Made For You” on top.
Real taste is lumpy. It’s Master of Puppets sitting next to the Sleepless in Seattle soundtrack, the Columbia House filler you picked at number nine, and the record your cousin left at your house in 1987. A CD shelf can’t predict anything, and that’s the point. It tells the truth about what you loved. At three bucks a used disc, it’s also the cheapest way to own an album there has ever been.
The Songs
Jessie Reid opens the set with “Blue Moon,” which is built on percussive folk guitar and a hauntingly beautiful voice. It drifts between calm stretches and moments of real intensity. This is a fireside, glass-of-wine song for when the temperature starts dropping.
Then comes the whiplash. “Visions of an Empire” by Inception is a thrash hybrid that remembers what so much modern metal forgets, which is to crunch. Pained, Mustaine-flavored vocals ride on top of a locked-in rhythm section. Leave it to Scandinavia.
Scott Frilot’s “Clock Radio” showed up through one of those free-CD-just-pay-shipping ads, and it was worth every cent of the postage. It’s quirky and joyful, and yes, it has a key change. Pure fun.
“Live Forever” from The Retrograde is rootsy rock right in the wheelhouse. You get gritty vocals, a great riff, mandolin, triangle and a tasty solo. At six minutes it jams like the Allman Brothers did, back when bands let a song stretch out. It’s going straight on the road trip playlist.
Steven Wilson, a founding member of Porcupine Tree, closes things out with “A Basket of Bees.” The prog DNA is all over it, with layered textures, shifting movements and time signature changes. If you’re into progressive rock or fusion, this one’s for you.
