A rather disturbing fact jumped out at me this weekend. I hadn’t updated my Smart Playlists in iTunes to include a separate one for 2014. Once I had rectified that, I discovered to my horror that I had only bought one album all year. And that was something that came out last year in the UK and I pre-ordered the US release by mistake (Lanterns On The Lake, in case you’re interested). What had happened? I used to buy at least an album a week, sometimes more. Now, it’s true that I’ve been busy and that most of the new music I’ve found myself exposed to in the past few months has been bland electro-pop that makes Sarah McLachlan seem like the front of the avant-garde. But I also haven’t been seeking any new act out which has led to a bit of a dearth of new music around my speakers.

There’s another thing nagging at my brain, too, which mostly occurred whilst looking to see if New Order were playing anywhere near me this summer (the answer: not really). While I’d go see them regardless, it popped into my head that going to see New Order in 2014 is like going to see Bill Haley and The Comets in 1984. Which is terrifying.

Anyway, I am old. But, having a trawl about, I did discover that Ronika’s album is out next week, plus I finally got around to hearing Martha and on the basis of this, I ordered their debut album (also out next week):

Boston has less snow in it these days, but I didn’t really get much further than the hotel and its environs this time. That will hopefully change in June…