In the new apartment (here’s a photo tour if you haven’t been here before), we have a bath. I had a bath in Sydney before I moved to Switzerland, and for the past four years have made the most of holiday soaks to satisfy that chilling-out-in-walm-calm-liquid feeling. (I’m a Pisces – we need water!)

Tonight was my third time in the tub here, and I’m thinking it should become a regular Sunday feature. Normally I would read while warming ma bones, but this time, I listened to music. Leo gave me a Sonos Play 1 speaker for my birthday. (No affiliations, I don’t get any money from products on the blog.)

I was a bit miffed when I saw the box, not knowing what it did, but it’s a little powerhouse of sound which links to your own music via your iTunes collection or the music on your phone etc and it also links to radio stations.

So how about this for being the perfect present for a music lover who doesn’t listen to anywhere near as much music as preferred?! We set up the speaker in the office, but because it’s so small and light I transferred it to the bathroom, with the plan to listen to an album from start to finish.

When was the last time you listened to an entire album? I think the only time I’ve done it since the invention of the MP3 player was for Radiohead’s In Rainbows, in 2007. Not only is it brilliant, but also the first time a major international act released an album where the buyer could download it and pay what they thought it was worth. I love that album still (and happily paid about AUD$20 for it!).

I digress …

Using the app that you need to download to work the speaker, I went to “All Albums” and closed my eyes, scrolling down for a few seconds and eventually stopping on A Rush Of Blood To The Head by Coldplay, released in 2002.

Coldplay’s second album

There are some great, award winning songs on this album, including the main hits “Clocks” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d020hcWA_Wg and “The Scientist”. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RB-RcX5DS5A

But by about song eight, I started thinking I’d heard the song before. This same feeling hit me when I saw Coldplay in concert, turning to my mate Phil and asking “Haven’t they played this already?” It becomes a bit samey-samey! When Chris Martin sang the final words of the final song “Amsterdam” 55 minutes after I first lay down, I too was ready to be cut loose. And not just because my fingers were pruning.

It was the first time I’d really listened to Martin’s voice, and I like it for its imperfections. The acoustics in the bathroom weren’t too bad, and while in corpse pose I really started to relax. Maybe that could have something to do with the excellent smelling bath bubbles too.

Hopefully, my blind scroll will take me on another hour-long, start-to-finish, listen-to-how-it-was-intended-to-be-heard musical adventure again soon. It was great to lie back and think of England …’s aural talents and enjoy the start of an album, before willing the end to just hurry up and come. “Ooh err, I say, missus!”

Here’s the track listing, to jog your memory about A Rush Of Blood To The Head, if you, too, know the album, but haven’t listened to it for ages.

Wishing you a wonderful day, and apologies for my terrible 70s British comedy gag!