i listen to music exclusively on my ipod these days.

whenever i add something news itunes, it gets put in a folder called "to listen," which, given the intransitive quality of that verb, should technically be called "to listen to" but i don't like the repetition. (v. likely it will henceforth be called "to hear.")

there are songs that i keep; there are songs i remove; and then there are songs that remain in "to listen" limbo, e.g. novastar's "because." (n.-fucking-b. dmca fellow: the link goes to his myspace page, where one may hear the song.)

i suppose i should feel a little guilt that i still have his "b/c" on my ipod and not john lennon's.

(but i don't.)

what is to be done w/ this song? it's a bit coldplay going a-ha (but not the a-ha going coldplay of the former's last album), singer joost zweeger's voice full of i-can't-believe-it's-not-scandinavian-melancholy--he's belgian!--and the guitars responding in kind w/ plangency.

actually, if you go to the song's last.fm page, you hear the best part, the chorus. when the song plays in my head, not on my ipod, this is the part that i extend, that i loop, that i make into the whole, cutting it off right before the chorus ends w/ a falsetto swoon that is reminiscent of nothing so much as a minor key version of rod stewart's version of "some guys have all the luck."

i wonder if this is the same thought that went through the heads of the original samplers, who heard what was best in a song in five-to-ten second glimpses rather than in a whole.

a final thought: "b/c" might be the pop single equivalent of 2001: a space odyssey and, as my students tell me, waiting for godot, i.e. a work that is more appealing in the reflections of idle moments rather than while one is experiencing it.

none of this, however, helps me determine the song's fate.