Some things you will never love

“If you met a girl and took her back to her room, and if there were some Nick Drake records there, you’ll probably want to marry her.”

Jeff Buckley died a couple of years back. Nick Drake died before I was even born. The latter was born in Rangoon, Burma. Singapore's got a slew of Burma inspired road names: Irrawaddy, Moulmein, Mergui, Mandalay, Pegu, Martaban. But this is not about either of them.

It's about the quote.

I think it was mentioned in Malcolm Gladwell's book Blink that there are alternative ways to figure out a person's character. One was was through interviews with his/her friends another was to look through the person's room, checking out the layout, books on the shelves, music the person listens to.

I definitely belong to the latter.

And especially looking at the music the person listens to.

And if the person can provide me with the date/year/period when they buy each of the music album, all the better.

Maybe that's why when I Tower Records distributed their in-house magazine Pulse! freely at the shops, I always liked reading the Desert-island Discs page. That or maybe cause I have a psychotic liking for lists.

There was a time when I seriously thought that the girlfriend that I have must have got Tori Amos records. Then I discovered that it wasn't an effective filter. And I grew out of it.

But till this day I firmly believe that the music a person listens to speaks volumes of the person's character. But this works only if the person has a sizeable collection. I guess it's similar to what statisticians would call Sampling Error. So random errors can be reduced. Eg. A person owns Westlife's Greatest Hits and U2's Greatest Hits (both the 1980-90 and 1990-2000). Both Irish bands but different in many other ways.

Anyway, today, if I ever walk into any girl's room and see the following CDs in the collection, I'll probably want to marry her. *just kidding*


Unbelievable Truth - Almost Here

Suddenly, Tammy! - (We Get There When We Do)

Lori Carson - Everything I Touch Runs Wild

These are available in bargain bins all over the world. You will have to dig deep.