#433: Leftfield - Leftism (1995)

Zack: Lately, I’ve been working on coding presidential campaign announcement speeches based on issue content. The endeavor has led me to a number of very interesting findings. For one, Herman Cain implies that we would be better off if the president were illiterate in his 2012 speech (something Rand Paul would vehemently disagree with, since he spends a good chunk of time talking about his proposed “Read the Bill” law that would require legislators to actually read legislation before they sign it) and that Ron Paul is strongly against the government regulating the pasteurization of milk. But besides for the occasional gems, the task is mostly incredibly boring. Most candidates say the same tired prose about American values over and over again. But the work still requires me too much of my attention. Other research I’ve done may have involved more rote data entry, and so I could listen to a podcast or an album or watch a basketball game while doing it. But here, any attempts at multitasking inevitably lead to me getting distracted. Except, that is, for this album apparently. Leftism is a house/dance album, so it perfectly blended into the background and didn’t distract me at all. There was enough change from track to track that I subconsciously could recognize when one song ended and another began, which let me subtly monitor that passage of time and give it a semi-informed review. And overall, I thought it was meh. But it was an unobtrusive meh, and I really appreciated it for that at least.
Favorite Tracks: Original; Open Up; Melt


Emily: Generally, my office is a headphone-free zone. There's no official rule, but there's only four of us, we're usually very busy with detail-oriented work, and my boss is decidedly old-school. Therefore, I'm usually working at my desk without any music, podcasts, or other audial ambiance. Today, though, is an exception. We're in a particularly slow time, and my boss is out all day, so I decided to get some album-listening in while doing a bit of research for my next case. Leftism turned out to be well-suited to desk listening. It's an electronic "dance" album, though I'm not sure how much actual dancing can be done to ambient melodies and house beats. However, it struck just the right balance between background ambiance and holding my attention, allowing for just enough focus on both the music and my research. Other albums wouldn't necessarily work quite as well for this task, but I'll keep my eye out for other desk-friendly music as the list goes forward. Perhaps people will even listen to more music at my next place of employment.
Favorite Tracks: Afro-Left; Space Shanty; Original