Waves of excitement are followed by waves of calm. I’m learning to ride the limbo, not get stressed about the fact that things take time, take advantage of stolen moments, take stock. Last week was one of those weeks. And I was lucky it coincided with our glimpse of summer. I spent some beautiful hours on primrose hill with my guitar, feeling a bit like a caricature of a singer-songwriter, but enjoying every minute none the less. I’m working on some new songs (might as well write the second album while I’m waiting for the first to be born. My grandfather keeps asking if it needs a caesarean section..)

I also spent a lot of intimate time with my iTunes library. Spotify took over recently and I was starting to take the adverts for mysinglefriend.com personally. I’m sure I’m not alone in admitting that, especially when it comes to new music, my listening habits are distastefully 21st century. I flick from song to song, site to site, 2 tracks here, 20 seconds there, half a video, a little googling.. The hope is that when something is amazing it will stick out, or call me back. I do find myself returning to bands – and of course different music speaks to you at different times. Still, I’m sure there’s a lot that escapes through the net of quick-judgement. And I’m not mentioning the fact that listening to music rarely gets undivided attention – I’m talking on the phone, making lunch, there are 3 chat boxes open, 4 articles tabbed – music has become the soundtrack to our multi-tasking lives. Sorry, I’ve slipped into plural. I’ll speak only for myself, and I know I’m high on the culprit list.

So it felt particularly luxurious to put some serious time into listening, old-school style. Revisiting albums that I love so much – but like with childhood friends you know they’ll always be there, so you don’t feel you have to make daily contact. And I was dumbfounded (funny word), once again, by the brilliance I discovered. These are such obvious albums I feel stupid writing about them… but have you listened to every word of Paul Simon’s Graceland recently? “She said there’s something about you that really reminds me of money. She was the kind of girl who could say things that weren’t that funny.” Of all the funny/money rhymes ever written that has to be the best. And the music! Those backing vocals! And have you ever noticed that Abbey Road ends with 7 songs in a row all under around 2 minutes in length? What sort of crazy creativity is that! How come are we so standardised these days (with our 12-track albums of radio-friendly 3-minute songs) after The Beatles already broke those rules so long ago?

So that was the end of my April, a little pause in the play. And now it’s the start of May (um, how can it be May already?!) Time is very strange game. Lets see what it chooses to do next.