Track 2: How the Day Sounds

Artist: Greg Laswell

Song: "How the Day sounds"

Album: Three Flights from Alto Nido

Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/greglaswell

So, how does the playlist come together every year, you may wonder? Around the beginning of November, I'll look through the list of songs I've heard that year. This year, there were about 1,600 songs to sort through. Some of them I know I like, some I know I don't like, some I don't have an opinion on, so I'll listen to all or part of those songs. From these songs, I'll make a first cut of about 150 or so songs, and I'll listen through this playlist once. I'll pare this list down to a second cut of about 50 songs, and I'll listen to these at least twice more. Then comes the final cut to the playlist of 20 or so songs.

Before I start, I usually have a pretty good idea of what songs I think will make the cut, but, as I go through the process there are always songs that I thought would make it that don't hold up, and other hidden gems that surprise me. "How the Day Sounds" was one of the hidden gems this year. It wasn't on my radar at all when I began the process, but now it's one of my favorite songs from the year.

This, to me, shows the benefits of having a well thought-out process and sticking to it when making decisions. At the beginning of the day, you may have a pretty good idea what you will end up doing when you've completed the process, but you may turn over a hidden gem or find a new perspective on something along the way. I've found this to be invaluable in the practice of law; inevitably I'll have a problem or issue that seems unsolvable (or insoluble, if you prefer) at first, but, when I examine the documents or pleadings or what have you a step at a time, I usually find a viable solution or response. It works for important things like lawsuits and really important things like playlist assembly.
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This is Greg Laswell's second appearance on the annual cd compilation, after "Sing Theresa Says" from a few years ago. Sadly, I haven't actually bought an album from Mr. Laswell yet; he's fallen into a sort of grey area in which I like his songs, but I haven't felt compelled to buy his albums yet. What is it that makes the difference between a merely enjoyable song and one that gets you to take the extra step of checking out the rest of the album?

I read a book on this subject called The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell. He suggests that context, timing, and the influence of remarkable people make the difference between things that catch on and those that fizzle out. Good stuff. Also worth reading by Gladwell is Blink, which examines how decisions made by instinct are oftentimes more accurate than decisions made by a process of logic and reason.

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"How the Day Sounds" is a great pop love song reminiscent of Coldplay's "In My Place." Check out the line "When the lines have all been drawn, I know where I belong, where I belong," which echoes "In My Place": "In my place, in my place were lines that I couldn't trace." Also, at the end of "How the Day Sounds" Laswell pleads "My love won't you sing along?" which recalls "Please, please, please, come back and sing to me" from "In My Place." Both are beautiful, plaintive love songs.

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Update: I have bought Three Flights From Alto Nido since I first wrote this entry, and I am happy to recommend it to one and all. Should please fans of Pete Yorn, Josh Ritter, or, say, David Gray.