Do Judge a Book by its Cover

Unlike books, you should judge an album by its cover. Does the cover promote the artist as a product, and if so are you buying? Is there depth, is there a story, is there some quirk, sense of history, is there some visual hook that finds some thread of interest within you, resonance with the soundtrack of your daydreams, workouts, jogs, car drives - resonance with the soundtrack of your life.

If so, pick it up give it a listen, chances are you'll know within 20 seconds if you've got a fit. If necessary, go to track 2, but if an artist doesn't resonate with me by track 1 or 2 they go back to the bin. The judge the album by its cover method will let you down occasionally, but likely the essence of the music within is conveyed even in a font, a color scheme, photo or title.

Whether at your local library or perusing online, judge an album by a cover, pick it up or click on it and give it a listen. Have fun with randomly discovering music new to you.

And of course, if you are not a Pandora Internet radio listener yet, you have to sign up at Pandora.com. It's free (40 hours per month) and you can design your own stations by entering an artist or song or selecting prefabricated genre stations. The station will randomly select other music with similar musical tonalities and thus introduce you to music you are likely to like, but that you wouldn't hear on your local Clear Channel radio station or otherwise discover.

Happy listening!