Sweet serendipity

‘If you liked that, why not try this?’ Such tempting words, so hard to resist. I love the idea that some immeasurably complex computer algorithm, lovingly created by nerds, can sift through the teeming piles of new music out there and find something for me that I didn’t know I was going to like. One day this glorious state of affairs may even come to pass. For the moment, though, these links always lead you to (i) music you already own and enjoy, (ii) music that sounds a bit like the music you already own and enjoy but isn’t as good, and (iii) music you wouldn’t touch with a bargepole attached to another bargepole. For me it’s always little Jamie Cullum or Michael Bublé. If you listen to anything vaguely jazzy, the algorithm always sends you to Michael Bleeding Bublé. Even nerds aren’t completely incorruptible. I can imagine that brown envelopes full of used notes, carefully placed, would constitute a sensible investment in these hard times.