Repeat Button: Friend or Foe?

Posted on 08.11.06 in Music and there are

Some people love the repeat button. Some people hate it.

I’m definitely a friend of the repeat button. When Jennifer Knapp released Kansas, I listened to that cd in my car for over a year without changing it. I had a 45 minute commute to and from work each day.

When I was younger I’d only take one cd with me when we went on family vacations. Amy Grant’s Lead Me On album went on several vacations with me. I’d sit in the back of our motor home, lay on the bed and look out the window and watch the scenery while listening to the same songs over and over and over. Love it.

So are you a friend or foe of the repeat button? What songs/albums make you reach for it?

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Lately, it has been the Sufjan Stevens album “Illinois” that has kept my repeat button warm.  I also recently found a recording of Elton John’s first U.S. live appearance.  He plays for 18 minutes straight and ends with a rendition of “Get Back” by the Beatles.  When I listen to this it reminds me of why Elton is Elton. 

I have also been repeating “The Word” by Sara Groves lately.  That song has just been getting me lately.

I am also a big fan of that Kansas Album.  Probably one of the finest in this Genre.

Sara Groves gets the repeat quite often; Add to the Beauty has been in there since I bought it eight months ago.  I may switch for a few songs, but then it pops itself back in.  There is also a song that Sara Groves included as a demo on The Other Side of Something and on Station Wagon called “Prayer for this Child” that will get repeated frequently.

When Casting Crowns debut was released, it took over the CD player for a few months.

The song “He Covers Me” by Steve Camp is a multi-play every time. “Sing Sing Sing” - the live, super-extended version by Benny Goodman.  “Fanfare for the Common Man” by Aaron Copland.  “Sweet Afton” by Nickel Creek just sets a nice mood and gets the repeat, as well.  As mentioned, Kansas is great to relisten to.

My problem is that I’m obsessive/compulsive. If I start to listen to a CD, then it will generally get at least two full plays before I switch - more if it is new and I really want to absorb the flavor of it.  But when I listen my my iPod, I’ll shuffle all the songs and, by golly, finish the full cycle before I start over.  You see, I have to finish what I started.

Sara Groves on repeat is a common thing with me as well.  And I get stuck on one Chris Rice song and then, later, another.  Right now it’s Sleepyhead Sun from Amusing.

Matt Costa has been on repeat in my car for weeks.  And I have no plans to eject it any time soon.

Total foe of the repeat button.  I could push play on my iPod and not hear the same song for nearly a month.  That’s the way I like it.  Variety.

This is going to sound weird. But I’m a tad bit scared of the repeat button because I fear “wearing out” a song prematurely.

You know how when you first hear a song and like it, and it gets stuck in your head and you “hear it” inside your brain all day, the song has that new-car smell, and there’s passion attached to it.

I feel like most songs (there are a few exceptions, but not many) eventually become “too familiar”, and the passion is worn out and they are no longer fresh.

By not overplaying a single song, I can greatly increase the enjoyable lifespan of that song and any collection associated with it—at least I think that’s the case.

Having said all that, I don’t really get a chance to listen to music all that often these days anyway, and only manage to listen in sporadic bursts (mostly while driving alone—my wife and I like to talk while driving, and don’t like shouting over music).

I’ve had Bitter Kiss by Five Cent Stand in my truck’s CD player for at least a couple of months, and the whole thing plays from start to finish repeatedly while I’m driving.

Of course, I work at a home office and usually only drive my truck a few times a week, so maybe that’s why the music still seems so fresh and enjoyable. 

(Or maybe it’s just because it’s so freakin’ rad)

HUGE fan of the repeat button.  I tend to get into a song, and then listen to it to death.  But it doesn’t kill the song for life for me, rather it becomes a bit of a soundtrack, so everytime I hear it again, I remember the time in my life that I loved it and everything that was going on.

Amy, that is exactly how I feel about the repeat button. I love your reference to the song becoming a “soundtrack” to that season in life.

C-hammer, I can see where you’re coming from. I don’t think that’s ever happened to me, though. If I like a song I like to listen to it often to try to grasp every nuance that the artist tried to communicate.

Unfortunately, my kids like the repeat button too and one can only hear Old MacDonald so many times losing a bit of sanity…

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