If my iPOD had seams, it would be bursting at them!

I love music. I love my iPOD. And now, I love Genius. It's this amazing new device on iTUNES that suggests music you might like based on the songs that are already in your library. I spent a great deal of time (and money) on it when I first discovered it last weekend.

Sure, it's not always accurate and it's suggested some really random picks from time to time, but I really like to find new music to add to my collection and this is a dangerously easy way to do so. It really exploited the new curve my musical tastes have taken, but more on that in a minute.

I think I have fairly diverse taste in music. I like shmaltzy, sappy love songs but I also like angsty, you-broke-my-heart-you-jerk anthems (even though I've never been through a break-up of my own.) I get into deep, thoughtful lyrics, especially praise and worship songs that can be used as prayers, yet I also like music with a great beat and absolutely no substance to speak of. I love oldies...I grew up on songs from the 40's, 50's and 60's, so I have a fondness for them like most of my generation has for the 80's.

I love soundtracks to musicals. I love boy bands. I love Christmas music. I love great harmony. I love soulful divas that can really belt it out. I love disco. (Yes, disco. The funkier the better.) I have songs on my iPOD from all sorts of genres, including alternative, R&B, hiphop, pop, rock, folk and if you count Yanni, even New Age.

Before you start thinking I'm just not picky, there are SOME things I don't listen to. I'm not a fan of country music. (There are a few exceptions, but on the whole it doesn't grab me.) I don't like music with nasty (or "explicit," as they say) lyrics. (I memorize lyrics way too easily, I don't need that garbage floating around in my head.) And I don't like hardcore, screechy rock and sounds like Satan himself is singing the lead. That stuff just scares me. Even more than clowns! *haha* I can't handle opera. Being able to sing along is very important to me, so I don't like music with foreign lyrics. (The exception being if I can pretend to dance to it...*haha*) And even more specifically, I don't like: John Mayer, Phil Collins, Coldplay, Melissa Etheridge, James Blunt, Li'l Wayne (he SCARES me!!) Akon and Kenny Chesney (yes, technically inside the Country category, but I find his voice to be particularly unacceptable.

I mentioned earlier that my tastes have taken a turn. Well, recently, I've been drawn to music that's a little outside my box; music that's really mellow and laid back. I'm a fairly noisy person so I'm naturally drawn to things that are boisterous and busy. Lately I've been downloading some songs that are pretty chill.

I think it started with Sara Bareilles. You probably know her song, "Love Song," which every radio station has set out to make us sick of hearing by playing every 10 minutes. But I downloaded her album and it's really, really good. She writes some great lyrics and has an amazing voice. I particularly like the really sad and dramatic songs like "Gravity" and "Between the Lines." Again, I've never experienced anything she's talking about but my melodramatic tendencies really get into it. :)

Then I downloaded the soundtrack to Penelope (which as you'll remember, I loved) and it's quirky but relaxed vibe introduced me to Meiko. "Piano Song" is so much fun, I listen to it over and over. I loved it immediately.

Then I discovered Brooke Fraser when she was Editor's Pick on iTUNES one week. What a blessing that was. I have never heard such powerful, passionate love songs before...and they're all written to God. She clearly has such a close relationship with Him and is also obviously well-read in Scripture, as all of her songs have a poignant message. But again, her songs are very quiet.

So add all of that together and multiply it by iTUNES' new Genius feature...and it equals me discovering all sorts of music that's way off the beaten path. It suggested Lenka, whom I had never heard of but once I listened to a few samples of her album I knew I was going to like her. She's a little bit folk, a little bit pop...and really the best way I can describe her voice is cutsie. Her songs are playful and a little silly, but it makes GREAT crusin' around music. For me, anyway. :) My favorites are "The Show" and "Don't Let Me Fall."

The Show

I'm really looking forward to some cooler weather so I can open my windows, light some candles and sit back and relax to my new amazingly easy-going playlist. *sigh*

(P.S. I've changed my blog playlist in honor of my new finds and so you can listen to the artists I've mentioned here. I hope you enjoy!)