Auto Rock

Sometimes there's a song or an album or a band that can pick you up from any sort of mood. The other evening I was traipsing home in the twilight down a rain-sodden side street in New Southgate, coughing every few yards and barely audible even if I'd have tried to speak. There are various home-styled issues that are distracting me, but I was cheered immensely by the presence of Sigur Ros on my mp3 player, a band whom, when playing, can cause you to find beauty in anything, be it the dreariest bepuddled pathway or the uniformly dark grey clouds.

These home style issues are mostly along the lines of having to move. They say that moving house is the most stressful thing you can do, and I'm not inclined to actively disagree, especially in London. You'll get a London weighting on your salary working in the smoke but this means literally nothing because it's all swallowed up in housing costs. I have friends who, when studying in Northern Ireland, were paying £30 per week for accommodation. In London, if you can get it at £70 it's a miracle, and in truth you're looking at above £80 in most cases. So when you've found a nice flat, affordable, spacious and with agreeable cohabitors, you make it your business to hang on to it.

That is, until the letting agent that you've been nagging for years to fix the damp informs you that they'll be moving you out because the state of the problem means the house is approaching unlivable. Happy days, indeed. So now I have to find new accommodation at an affordable cost, in an area where I actually can abide living, and in a dwelling thats fit for human habitation. Good luck me.

These things have a tendency to play on your mind. So it's a beautiful thing when your thoughts can be carried away by a piece of music. In this case its not finding the beauty in the ugly things, its finding the Rock in the best place. Of course it's Mogwai. Mr Beast was released on Monday and to listen to Glasgow Mega-Snake on near-full volume is to detach oneself from all cares and worries, and to revel in the rediscovered art of the Riff. It's a beautiful, beautiful thing.