MOG

Listening to music at work always reminds me of that line from high fidelity; "Which came first — the music or the misery? Do I listen to pop music because I am miserable or am I miserable because I listen to pop music?" The atmosphere at work can be either salvaged by, say some Camera Obscura, Vampire Weekend, the Shins even (is it just me or do they sound really chipper these days?). Just as easily though it’s brought down by something melancholic or overly emotive- or is it? I think all the grey and overexposing lights, the boring stationary and unreliable co-workers is what makes me miserable, so feeding that beast with Interpol’s Antics or Radiohead’s The Bends might be doing more harm than I first realised. But as we felt in Hornby's classic story of those kids in Championship Vinyl, maybe we just want to be miserable sometimes, someplace. I love that I hate it here, it would say something bad and weird and strange about me if I liked it. Besides, as Rob says, "What really matters is what you like, not what you're like."*