My New Obsession:

So I don't know how I feel about this, whether it is good or bad, but I have become obsessed with my iTunes "25 most played songs". I think about it when I'm playing music. I ask myself questions like, "I wonder what this will do to my top 25?", "Is it right to just play _______ so they can make the top 25, even when I really want to listen to ________?" I get sort of excited when I plug in my iPod to see the new top 25. What does this mean for the three people that read this thing? Well, you'll get regular updates on my Top 25, because I'm just that pathetic. Anywhere, this is what we have as of 8:48 am CST.

1) Anthems for a 17 Year Old Girl - Broken Social Scene (9 plays)
2) The View - Modest Mouse (6 plays)
3) The Way We Get By - Spoon (6 plays)
4) Cause=Time - Broken Social Scene (5 plays)
5) I'm Still Your Fag - Broken Social Scene (5 plays)
6) Cattle and the Creeping Things - The Hold Steady (5 plays)
7) Casimer Pulaski Day - Sufjan Stevens (5 plays)
8) Poor Places - Wilco (5 plays)
9) Hotwax - Beck (4 plays)
10) Where It's At - Beck (4 plays)
11) At My Window, Sad and Lonely - Billy Bragg & Wilco (4 plays)
12) It's Alright Ma (I'm Only Bleeding) - Bob Dylan (4 plays)
13) Like a Rolling Stone - Bob Dylan (4 plays)
14) It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry - Bob Dylan (4 plays)
15) Lua -Bright Eyes (4 plays)
16) First Day of My Life - Bright Eyes (4 plays)
17) Poison Oak - Bright Eyes
18) Your Little Hoodrat Friend - The Hold Steady (4 plays)
19) Who Rocks the Party - Les Savy Fav (4 plays)
20) Teeth Like God's Shoeshine - Modest Mouse (4 plays)
21) Jacksonville - Sufjan Stevens (4 plays)
22) A Short Reprise for Mary Todd, Who Went Insane, But For Very Good Reasons - Sufjan Stevens (4 plays)
23) Decatur, Or, Round of Applause For Your Stepmother! - Sufjan Stevens (4 plays)
24) One Last "Whoo-hoo!" For The Pullman - Sufjan Stevens (4 plays)
25) Ashes of American Flags - Wilco (4 plays)

There's only a few things about this list that make me unhappy. In the case of ties (which there are plenty) I think iTunes goes by date, but then again, I'm not entirely sure. So all those 4's are pretty random as far as a true ranking, plus I'm sure there are other 4's that just didn't make the list due to the ranking system iTunes uses.

Second gripe is that two of the Sufjan Stevens songs (Mary Todd and Whoo-hoo!) aren't really songs, but short little snippets. Of course, as I really like the stretch of Illinois from "Jacksonville" through "Casimer Pulaski Day", they get played more often, since they are 40 seconds and 6 seconds respectively, thus not really worth skipping.

Of course, these difficulties only drive the obsession.