I’m doing a little shopping for new headphones to listen to at work. I’ve been using a pair of Sony 7505s that I hate for the past 4 years and I’ve reached the breaking point. The most likely reason for this is that I’ve been using my favorite pair of cans at home a lot more lately and that makes listening to the Sony phones sort of unbearable. My home pair are Grado SR125s. They put me in such a happy place. They distract me from reading. They kept me up the last two hours sitting in the dark listening to music. That seems to happen all the time. The sad: I can’t use them at work since they’re open and would drive my coworkers insane, they’re also pretty uncomfortable.

A friend pointed me at this head-fi thread which has tons of recommendations for different kinds of phones in various makes and price ranges. It’s pretty solid. Given my current tastes in sound and known dislikes, I’m leaning towards a pair of Audio-Technicas. I don’t belabor the technical specifications, I’m picky about what I like, and I’ll know it when I hear it. I’m going to go listen to some soon. Here’s the list of songs that I’m going to use.

♫ Boards of Canada - RoyGBiv

♫ Blue Sky Black Death - Stillness
I don’t know much about these guys but I’ve loved this song since I first heard it. It’s very trip-hop, kinda hard to go wrong with that. There’s also something weird about the mix that makes this track hard to listen to on my Grado’s but acceptable on my Sony and Shure phones.

♫ Ladytron - Beautyx2
Favoritest ladytron track? Yup! So pretty.

♫ Lil Wayne - BM Jr.
♫ Lil Wayne - Money on my Mind
BM Jr was the first track I heard off of Carter I back in 2004. This album came out of nowhere. Before this, Wayne had released three pretty forgettable records (yeah yeah yeah, Tha Block is Hot). The track is typical-to-pretty good Mannie Fresh production — too much snare and high hats but a great bass line and driving melody. And Wayne just killed this track. In a jaw-dropping, “whoa, who is this guy” sort of way. His flow and breath control on this are just incredible. Personal classic.
Money on my Mind is from Carter II and is responsible for unleashing The Runners‘ brand of production on the world. Have you heard Hustlin’? Same fucking formula.

♫ Crookers ft Kid CuDi - Embrace the Martian
I catch myself bobbing my head to this on the subway all the damn time. Oops.

♫ Jay-Z ft Beanie Sigel - Ignorant Shit
Jay’s flow and lyrics. The Isley Brothers sample. Just Blaze is amazing for this. Did you think I wasn’t going to have a Jay track on this list?

♫ M83 - My Own Strange Path
The first time I heard M83 was on the Night<space>Watch trailer. I’ve been sort of obsessed since. This track is from Digital Shades Vol 1, an ambient side project. By itself, it’s a great track. As part of the album it’s the height of a progression, and sort of amazing.

♫ Nina Simone - I Put a Spell on You
Speechless, just speechless. This is going on three times.

♫ Brian Eno - St Elmo’s Fire
The synths, the crazy lyrics, I love this track.

♫ Black Milk ft Royce 5′9” - Losing Out
♫ Black Milk ft Pharoahe Monch Sean Price - The Matrix
Black was easily my favorite producer in 2008. Easily. The Caltroit album, Elzhi’s albums, and Tronic. All just ridiculous, and he manages to hold his own against all these incredibly talented guest rappers… somewhat. His rhyme structure can be a bit forced, but all in all a huge improvement from his first album. The production is the star here though.