I’ve been busy, but also very lazy. I’m finding it difficult to motivate myself to blog for a few reasons.

I have a huge stack of CDs I still haven’t written anything on. It’s terrible, because people take the time to send me these releases and expect my opinions on them.

But the reality is, I hate giving negative feedback. I want my blog to be a positive place where I write about the music I love. I am not Pitchfork, or triple j, or FasterLouder – I am one guy. So instead of trying to give my opinion on everything that comes my way, I’d rather spend my time sharing music I think is brilliant.

This means that if an artist sends me a release, and it doesn’t grab me, and I don’t want to naturally listen to it, I find it really hard to review. There’s no motivation to listen to or write about mediocre music, because ultimately it does little to benefit my audience who want to hear about music they might enjoy! I know musical tastes are subjective, but I’m not going to share something I despise in the hope that someone else might enjoy it – I need to share what I like in the hope of cultivating an audience with similar tastes to mine. I need to say what I think.

I’m not saying all of these CDs I’m yet to review are bad – after a serious listen, I might like them. But when I sit down and force myself to listen to things, sometimes I can’t concentrate, especially if the music doesn’t naturally urge me to keep listening. When I’d rather sit down and listen to Johnny Foreigner or P.O.S. (both of whom I need to write about more), it’s difficult to force myself to listen to something which I feel an obligation to critique and write about. It feels unnatural, and blogging should feel natural.

Too long; didn’t read? I’m getting weighed down by a bunch of writing I feel I should do, but don’t necessarily want to do. It’s having the effect of hindering what used to be a spontaneous and fun exercise, where I could discover a band in an afternoon and have published something about them within an hour or two. It’s also hindering the quality of the music I feel I’m sharing. There are so many amazing artists I love that I don’t think I’ve ever written about here, and it’s a crime.

What will I do about it? I’m taking a break, even though I haven’t written for a month anyway. I’ll be back in August sometime. I’m going to clear out my disgusting inbox of PR e-mails, 90% of which I won’t care about. I’m going to go through my backlog of releases I’m yet to write about, listen to them seriously, and hopefully work on some reviews (or at least short articles) about them, which I will publish when I return. I’m going to work on clearing out the ever-growing list of things I have to write about. From here on in, as much as I crave and love music in physical formats, I will only accept digital submissions of music, unless of course the label or artist is adamant in sending me a CD. I will make sure that anyone sending me music understands that I will only write about the music I love, when I have the time. I’m tired of feeling an obligation to write about music that I don’t want to write about.