To shuffle, or not to shuffle?

If you are a music owner, you might keep a neatly ordered, alphabetised and systematised, colour-coded and artist and genre-divided collection of CDs, vinyl, mp3s and tapes. If you are a music fan, you might have all of the above except that any semblence of order might have long ago given way to a pile of homeless CDs and the surprise of finding Bentley Rhythm Ace in a Boo Radleys' case. Because no doubt a moment of blinding clarity meant that you had to listen to Screamadelica immediately after some Sigur Ros.

However you keep your music, as likely as not, you will at some point keep some part of it with you as a 21st century talisman on your portable personal digital music player. A topic of debate between the Broken Biscuit Records is how you choose to carry your music with you. I am not asking about how you physically transport the music but what it is you choose to carry and most of all, how you listen to it.

This may come down in part to choice of gizmo and its capacity. But even if you are streaming audio on the go, two clear camps exist. There are those of us who carefully select our audio experience, a new album to be absorbed or a soundtrack to a particular experience. And there are those of us who squeeze as much as possible into a digital space and then listen to the whole lot at random.

Perhaps this says something about personality. I am an arch shuffler who is not always sure what music I actually own. I have been told I use my mp3 player as though I might as well be listening to the radio.

But boy, what a radio station. The pleasure of re-discovering a track you had forgotten is surely matched by encountering a new favourite song you never knew you owned. For shufflers like me, perhaps the greatest joy of all though comes from the mix the machine can create for you. That "oh yes" moment that throws together two unlikely but perfect musical neighbours, and brings a grin to your face, is what a really good shuffle is all about.

On the shuffle today:
Foals - What Remains (Total Life Forever); Bat For Lashes - Travelling Woman (Two Suns); Teenage Fanclub - Alcoholiday (Bandwangonesque).