Late Night Tales

Another OCD nightmare:  Apparently, Late Night Tales and its predecessor Another Late Night are two long-running series of artist-curated compilation albums on the UK label Night Time Stories. The tracks on the albums are selected and mixed by the artists to create the ultimate late-night mix. Many of the albums end with a story track, read by English performers including Benedict Cumberbatch, Will Self, Brian Blessed and Patrick Moore. The series has been met with critical acclaim, with GQ Magazine praising Late Night Tales as "The Rolls Royce of compilations".

The series started in 2001 with Another Late Night compilations by Fila Brazillia and Howie B; the first Late Night Tales came out in 2003 with compilations by Nightmares on Wax, Sly & Robbie, and Jamiroquai.  A compilation by Iceland's Ólafur Arnalds will be released on June 24 and will be the 44th in the series.  Most of the releases include cover versions recorded by the artists.

You can purchase the compilation albums here or at Night Time Stories' Bandcamp page.  So far, I've got album Nos. 12 (Four  Tet), 13 (The Flaming Lips), 14 (Belle & Sebastian), 15 (Air), 24 (Midlake), 29 (Metronomy), 34 (Bonobo), 35 (Django Django), 37 (Franz Ferdinand), 39 (Jon Hopkins), 42 (Nils Frahm), and 43 (Sasha),  but the anal-compulsive OCDer in me can't tolerate the gaps in those numbers, and how long do you think it will be before I've collected all 44?

How long do you think it will be before I've listened to them all?  I still haven't gone through all of the Natural Snow Buildings LPs yet, and I've barely scratched the surface of Godspeed spin-off Set Fire To Flames.  I've got my listening work cut out for me.

Franz Ferdinand

Likable, intelligent, Scottish pop-rockers Franz Ferdinand has done a huge disservice to English-speaking Buddhists.  It's hard enough to quiet the mind in meditation and not engage in imaginary conversations or recite lyrics you've memorized somewhere along the line, but now Franz Ferdinand has made it even more difficult.  

They've taken words from the Buddha's Eight-Fold Path and turned them into a catchy and melodic song that I'll never be able to get out of my head while trying to sit.   Right Thoughts Right Words Right Action are three parts of the Eight-Fold Path (Right Understanding, Right Thought, Right Speech, Right Action, Right Livelihood, Right Effort, Right Mindfulness, and Right Meditation) enumerated in the Buddha's very first sermon.  Virtually all Buddhists know them, and now, all English-speaking Buddhists, or at least all English-speaking Buddhists hip enough to have heard this terrific song, will have this stuck in their heads even while they're trying to empty their heads.

And I had just finally been able to stop singing Steely Dan's Bodhisattva to myself during meditation.  

But now you've heard the Franz Ferdinand song, too (if you haven't before), and now it's stuck in your head as well.  Because I posted it.  

So much for my karma.