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PRESENT TENSESOME TIME AGO, possibly around the turn of the year, I became bored with music. The iPod was full, but much of it seemed stale. Most mornings I'd leave the house, jam the ear plugs in my ears and wilt a little as the music bounced off my eardrums and fell flat.

I didn't worry too much about it, because I'd been bored with music before. Experience suggested that at such moments it was best to just relax, fall back on old favourites and wait for the inevitable reinvigoration delivered by a new song, sound or album. Or that I'd stumble on a previously overlooked genre, and begin some adventures in an entire back catalogue of British skiffle or Tuvan throat music or whatever. This is how it had always worked before. There was no reason it wouldn't happen again.