Most Listened To…, Week Ending 5/23/09

If you’re anything like me, you are a tiny bit obsessive compulsive when it comes to charts and numbers (and iTunes organization, album art work, et al). If you’re anything like me, you will agree with me when I say that cutting-edge innovations like FixTunes and Last.fm are utterly indispensable and essential.

I look at my Last.fm stats often and connect every music outlet I use to my account. I starting using the account in December of 2008, despite opening it in October of 2007. Since December, I’ve made to make every listen count, whether it be on my iPod, iPhone, at home, or in the car. As you might have already guessed, almost every moment in my life is attached to some sort of group of songs. I want document each week’s listening achievements. Take this journey with me.

I do some of my heaviest music listening while I sleep (which is why since December 2008, I already have nearly sixty thousand plays clocked in). I have bouts of insomnia, but a well-crafted playlist can put me right to sleep.

So that’s just a little background information of my listening habits, but even still, some of the play counts that last.fm spits out are ridiculous — I’m not exactly sure if they’re all that accurate. It is also worth to note that I don’t give myself many bands to listen to in any given week. I like to consume myself in entire discographies when I listen to a band.

Despite having Veckatimest in its full glory at my disposal, I spent most of last week listening to three of my favorite bands: Radiohead (661 plays), Arcade Fire (614 plays), and Spoon (533 plays), according to last.fm. I do remember spending a few days going through Funeral and Neon Bible — a weekly ritual I have kept up for a couple of years now — but last.fm insists I went through the albums 20 times each. Though I wouldn’t be all that surprised if I actually did.

Radiohead, Adele, and Amy Winehouse are constantly added to the sleeping playlists I mentioned earlier. I’ve found that these three artists, as well as Coldplay, are just as riveting while you sleep. Intense daily listening of the Arctic Monkeys, Belle & Sebastian, Bloc Party produce surprisingly high week-end numbers that surface from time to time.

On the Song-specific side of the chart, my Top 20 most played songs hold no suprises — they are all Arcade Fire and Radiohead tracks, save for one. The song I played most this week was the Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ “Dull Life.”

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I have always credited “Dull Life” as my favorite song from It’s Blitz, reminding me most of Fever To Tell-era YYYs. I hate using “-era” in this sense, but I can see why Wikipedia uses it. “Dull Life” screams fist-pumping, table-banging excitement and energy. It’s a great booster, something I come crawling back to throughout the long work week.

What were your most listened to artists and songs of the week? Leave a comment with your Last.fm account so we can all be friends! Make sure to join the Pretty Much Amazing last.fm group!