Choosing what music to listen to is often highly dependent on the context. Some tunes go great with night driving (see: Dramamine by Modest Mouse), others are awesome for parties (see: pretty much anything produced by Pharell or Timbaland). In that respect, there are certain artists whose work goes very well with the urban landscape, others not so much.
I was thinking about this on the bus this morning as I listened to my favorite Razorlight tracks. Razorlight isn't one of my all-time favorite bands per se, if I had to rank them they'd probably be at the end of my top 20. Yet for times like these there's probably no other artist, save for the Strokes perhaps, that I'd rather listen to. The taut guitar riffs, urgent singing and bouncy drums are the perfect accompaniment to my morning commute through Paris. In the grand scheme of things I might prefer Neil Young or some Skynyrd, but since one of the things I like in music is to have a soundtrack to what I'm doing, these wouldn't do the trick. The city has a fast and irregular heartbeat, and just being along for the ride ain't enough, you need a voice to kind of make sense of it all.
To me this style of music is just perfect for an 8am bus ride while observing all the little moments that compose city life: shop-keepers setting up their stores, girls wearing skinny jeans smoking one last ciggy before entering the subway station, little kids skipping along while their weary parents take them to school, or just simply some guy wearing a suit and listening to his iPod, while taking it all in.
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