Defining moments in a life

Music.

Those who know me, know it's as integral to my life as the woman I love, the air I breathe and the food I eat. Music has kept me going through the good times as well as the bad. It's more than just background noise...and should never be treated as such.

Yes, I know. Not everyone shares my passion for music. Some just "see" it, as I said, as background noise, something to have on in the car while they're driving or in the house to fill the empty spaces in their lives. I don't see it as such. To me, it's needed to define moments, put things in perspective, or just simply carry me away to a safe place inside my soul.

There isn't a week, it seems, that goes past that I'm not buying a CD. And yes, let's get this out of the way now: I don't like digital downloads. They're not as good as CDs, even though CDs today are mostly audibly overproduced pieces of noise made louder to satisfy the iPod and their ilk. Dynamic range is a thing of the past. Tonal quality sacrificed at the altar of a lie jokingly referred to as "cd-quality". Pfft. That's likely the second biggest joke I've ever heard, with the concept of "conservatives for change" narrowly beating it out.

But I digress. As I said, there isn't a week that goes past where I haven't bought at least one CD. This week, well, I've got four of them sitting near me as I type. Colin Hay (the lead singer of the 80's band Men at Work) did a solo album with acoustic version of his old group's biggest hits, along with some of his solo material, and it's damn good. Well worth tracking down, if only to hear "Overkill" done acoustically.

A couple blasts from the past as well: Metallica's self-titled (and sometimes referred to as the "black" album) from '91 is part of my collection again, as well as a greatest hits package by Cheap Trick, something that's long been missing from my collection.

I also decided I wanted something new. During a recent visit to a Barnes and Noble (yeah, they're slightly overpriced, but you can listen to samples of every album they have, and they've got excellent Jazz and Classical sections), I picked up the new release by an artist from Mali named Issa Bagayogo.

His style's considered electronic, but this new album also has some Jazz overtones to it. Listening to samples of some of the tracks, I was hooked, and picked it up. It's in the car CD player now, and it's been nice to listen to there, but I have to devote some time to listen to it at home where I can enjoy it uninterrupted.

Yes. Believe it or not, I still try to sit back and listen to albums the way they were meant to be listened to...by themselves with no interruptions. No TV, no games, not while reading or cooking or whatever, but just hearing the music for the sake of the music.

Although it's next to impossible to find in the new layout Facebook offers, I have an app that shows what I'm listening to on Winamp. Right now, The Fugees are playing Killing Me Softly. I've got my noise cancelling headphones on, which is so cool that it's even drowning out the sound of my fingers going across the keyboard at full speed.

What about you? What drives you, musically? Is it mere background noise filling in the holes in your life or does it have a greater meaning than that? Most importantly...what are you listening to right now?