Is there a tune which you CAN’T hearken to simply ONCE, you need to hear it two or thrice in a row, each time you play it?  

Ged Babey conducts a removed from scientific survey, on Fb, amongst his pals (writers, musicians and most significantly music fanatics) asking them this query. 

An experiment in ‘conversational journalism’ or a sneaky manner of that includes his new favorite tune – a tribute to Buzzcock Pete Shelley – by the cult band Swansea Sound? You resolve.

As a reviewer of latest music, in fact I typically hearken to songs a number of instances – however, mainly I all the time have accomplished anyway. However is it ‘regular’?  To hearken to a selected tune time and time once more. Two, three, as much as 5 instances in a row. Since you simply have-to. As a result of it’s simply so improbable.

Why can we do it? Isn’t it a teenage factor? Are there psychological causes for it?  I requested for examples and doable causes from my on-line friends.

From my intensive investigations I conclude that it’s fairly widespread – at the very least amongst us music obsessives and other people of a fragile however punk-inspired creative disposition.

It could return to the late seventies, when had been teenage punks and the seven inch vinyl single was the principle manner music was consumed.

Again in time when you possibly can solely afford to purchase one single at a time, every one was performed endlessly till you possibly can afford the subsequent one.  (Sara Bee)

When God Save The Queen 7″ got here out, a schoolfriend introduced it into college and I borrowed it in a single day. I have to’ve performed it about 20 instances in a row, flipping over to the B-side Did You No Flawed and again once more.  (Alex Aiken)

When Spiral Scratch arrived by submit direct from New Hormones It was performed non cease all afternoon and the subsequent day… the identical goes for New Rose and Anarchy. It was simply so thrilling  (Michelle Brigandage)

Buzzcocks Boredom. Out of each ‘punk period’ recording I discover it the wittiest and the tune that jogs my memory most of that period (old-fashioned telephones) …  And, in fact, the most effective, most good joke of all is the 2 notice guitar solo… merely genius. Endlessly enjoyable, eternally important.  (Tony Rollinson)

Songs like Bear Cage, Requiem, Model and Boredom have so many particular person components to return to and deal with. (Russ Bestley)

So maybe compulsive listening is our thoughts going again to our youth and that first buzz.  The identical as habit to alcohol or cigs goes again to that first drink or smoke.

Oddly, two bands had been talked about by varied folks: Buzzcocks and the Velvet Underground.

Subterraneans by Flesh 4 Lulu (is my prime instance of a tune I all the time hearken to at the very least twice in a row) Why?  As a result of I don’t need it to finish. 

What Goes On (the Dwell 1969 model)  too by the Velvet Underground – As a result of 9 minutes isn’t lengthy sufficient, I would like it to final half an hour.  (Gus Ironside)

Gus OMFG, so true! In truth a number of VU songs….. Foggy Notion, Sweet Says, Jesus. There are simply SO many!    (Michelle Brigandage )

(Considered one of a number of decisions included…) Sunday Morning by Velvet Underground – Why?  As a result of there’s one thing inside them which someway solutions a query I’m asking however I can’t fairly pay money for the reply.  (Elijah Wolf)

It’s extra than simply private style and love of the actual tune I believe.  Elijah put it superbly. These explicit songs have an existential craving in them someway.  They’re like hymns or prayers – there’s a non secular ingredient to them.  Or am I going off on a flight of fancy.

Is it simply we’d like repetition within the music or is it an autistic trait?  Generally it’s the precise lyrical content material particularly.

I listened to this tune on the Stranglers final album a number of instances in a row as a result of it fitted the stage of my life I used to be going by means of exactly and got here at a time once I wanted it  (Robin Murray)

So Many Troopers by Ian Brown trigger it talks about road troopers, younger guys, addicts dying in jail like some I do know… (Marco Lo-Fi)

Tank Park Salute (Billy Bragg) – It’s simply so profoundly shifting I can’t hearken to it simply as soon as.  (Nick Boldock)

Different examples are the place there are musical tropes from childhood or teenage. Mick Fletcher’s alternative  Crusoe by Cinerama consists of the hook from the theme tune to the 60’s/70’s childrens TV adaptation of Robinson Crusoe. A bit of music that everybody of a sure age will bear in mind.

Sean Smith advised me that his song-on-repeat is Ceremony. However a number of variations: Pleasure Division, New Order, Galaxie 500, Chromatics.  So it’s the tune no matter the artist performing it.

(Peter Northam)  I’ll cease a tune, take it again to the start, flip up the quantity and begin once more because it simply wanted to be heard louder. Everybody does that tho’. proper? 

No Peter, simply you.  As standard with surveys you get a few individuals who take the piss and wilfully misread the query. Nath Haywire and Rut from Totton, lovers of quick sharp shock hardcore and the ten-second tune voted for A Managed Experiment to Decide the Psychological Results of Breakfast Tv on Small Youngsters  by Dr and The Crippens and Suburban Filth – Faith Is Shit.  Songs so-short you HAVE to play them once more, as a result of for those who blink, you miss them. See Additionally You Endure by Napalm Loss of life and so on.

It’s not solely quick songs that develop into objects of obsessive listening.

The final tune that did this for me was revisiting Fucked Up – Yr of the Pig.  It took me again to the instances once I first heard it and there aren’t many bands like Fucked Up on the market. The tune builds and builds in drama and is a looong tune. Its simply such an ear worm for me however one I’m glad to have in my head.  (Frankenstein Jones)

One Of These Days by Pink Floyd – that atmospheric wind after which that echoed first bass notice simply hit proper, then when it performs by means of and the synth flashes in you’re simply captive. As soon as that guitar begins warming up that’s it, it’s constructing as much as one thing fucking large snd you simply realize it. Then the standard PF journey, now accompanied by some correct flat thuddy pounders on the circles. Then fucking BOOM. It’s all in and so are you. In the event you can’t do it at the very least twice it’s since you’re late for one thing. (Harry Bahia)

Possibly the 12 inch prolonged dance combine was invented to capitalize on the need-to-extend the listening pleasure.  Bauhaus Shes’s In Events and Timezones World Destruction are, IMHO two nice examples of it being a profitable thought.

Alex Aitken made the purpose that:  Historically B-sides on 7″ had been inferior forgettable tunes however one of many nice issues about punk was that the B-side was simply as superior and fairly often higher than the A-side.  Fairly a number of crop up in peoples examples.

Solely a pair folks talked about danceability of their favoured songs.

Aerosol Burns by Important Logic it all the time will get me dancing with its manic vitality. (Toska Wilde)

Stevie Surprise – Superstition: the groove is irresistible and irrepressible.  (Ian Moss)

The good, repeatedly watchable promo video will also be a set off for repeat-plays – the perfect instance from latest instances being Altermoderns – She’s Not Yours – a video and tune I by no means tire of.

There weren’t very many alternatives from latest instances. In all probability extra to do with the individuals who comply with me on-line being of a sure age group – however there was one exception:

Moist Dream – by Moist Leg. An ideal pop tune. Catchy and goes on for simply over 2 minutes. Should have performed that at the very least 5 instances in a row upon first listening to it.  (Tommy Overington)

I really like this tune too!  (Michelle Brigandage)

There are most likely 100 songs I may consider given time that I’ve performed time-after-time-after-time. They’re essentially my favorite songs although. Some all-time-greats I’ve heard so many instances it’s good to not hear them once more for some time:  One other Lady, One other Planet for instance, like Teenage Kicks or Do Something You Wanna Do seems in adverts, on the radio, all over the place – and has accomplished for many years now.  It’s all the time good to have new, recent ear-worms and that is my newest.

A love tune for and about Pete Shelley – incorporating a number of of Buzzcocks musical tropes.

Swansea Sound are a C86-ish period ‘supergroup’ made up of members of Talulah Gosh/Heavenly and The Pooh Sticks. All of their songs are wry, intelligent, catchy and enjoyable. Veteran Outsiders and iconoclastic cult icons that they’re, most of their songs have a barbed wit. This tune is the exception because it’s a easy love tune to Pete Shelley, his artwork and his persona. Point out is made in fact of the ‘epiphanic one-note solo’ talked about by Tony Rock’n’Rollinson earlier.

The tune is from their forthcoming album Twentieth Century due out on Skep Wax subsequent month. (That is the one place you may completely hear it at present.)

I needed to ask Rob and Amelia from the band their songs-on-repeat.

I’m one other one who needed to hearken to Buzzcocks singles greater than as soon as – Love You Extra particularly. It takes you on such an exhilarating trip, so shortly – you don’t have time to work out if you ought to be laughing or crying – after which it’s over! The tune has resolved however the emotions it stirred up are nonetheless completely alive and unfinished. So it’s essential to strive once more. The expertise jogs my memory of occurring these flumes at water parks. The descent is over so quick, however you’re nonetheless buzzing, and also you want that feeling once more, so that you trot spherical to the steps and queue up for one more go.

The tune that I needed to play time and again most just lately was really an previous tune: Lifeless Finish Road by The Kinks. It’s addictive, however this time I believe it’s due to a half-smiling, half-melancholy feeling that lives on after the tune has completed, and it’s so beautiful and onerous to outline that you need to put the tune on once more in case it evaporates. (Rob Pursey)

I reckon it’s a type of habit – if a secure one. 3 instances in a row isn’t many for me although. I generally should play songs again and again till I’ve actually digested them. “Idk” by Belief Fund was my most up-to-date “repeater”. (Amelia Fletcher)

So, what have we realized? Nothing actually.  That music lovers are hooked on tunes, misplaced in music and we play the most effective, most liked, emotion-packed, memory-laden songs many times and once more…. and lengthy could we accomplish that.

Now return to the beginning and skim this all once more….

Different examples which individuals put ahead, not included above:

Sunspots – Julian Cope (Sam Dines)
Speak Speak -Such A Disgrace (Nick Hutchings)
Most important Travelled Roads – Doll by Doll  (Jim Donnelly)
Echo & The Bunnymen ‘The Cutter’ (Phil Newall)
Saint Jack by the Primevals  (Joe Whyte)
Pardon My Coronary heart – Neil Younger
6 o clock -Verve
Cranes Within the sky -Solange
Elusive – Scott Matthew (Elijah Wolf)
Delays – Nearer Than Heaven (Marco)
Crazyhead – Have love will Journey
Jim Jones Revue – Excessive horse
Intercourse Pistols – Fairly Vacant  and Satellite tv for pc (Stu MacGregor)
Jason Faulkner – Miracle Medication,
Conflict – Full Management
Pere Ubu –  Non-Alignment Pact  (Tim Naylor)
Born Out of Time – The New Christs..
Ghost on the Freeway – The Gun Membership   (Darren Birch)
Metropolis Slang – the Sonics Rendezvous Band  (Tom Crossley)
David Bowie – Prettiest Star/Woman Grinning Soul
Iggy & the Stooges –  Search and Destroy  (Mike Jarvis)
Psychedelic Furs – President Gasoline  (Tim James)
Starman – David Bowie,
Strolling In The Darkish – Throwing Muses
Wire – Map Ref 41N 93W,
Down In The Park – Tubeway Military,
A Evening In – Tindersticks  (Lee McFadden)
Killing Joke –  Dominator (Rick E Common)
Killing Joke – Requiem (Robin Andrews)
Merely Pink – Stars
Die Cheerleader – Saturation (Patty O’Dors)
R Dean Taylor -Ghost in my home
The Damned -White rabbit (Simon Richardson)
Candy Factor, Greenback Days, Final Dance, Straight to Hell, Magnificent Seven, The Name Up, Flip Blue, Race for the Prize, Witchita Lineman… that’s off the highest of my head , there are various many extra  (Sara Bee)
Japan -Ghosts  It’s simply fucking eerie and delightful. In truth I’m going to play it once more now… (Paul Bickmore)

Swansea Sound will be discovered on-line right here

Enormous due to all my on-line pals who’ve inadvertently contributed to this piece. 

Put collectively, with love, by Ged Babey