Marcel Winatschek

The Blue One

My white earbuds finally died—not gradually, not gracefully, just dead—so I walked into the electronics store on Ernst-Reuter-Platz and walked out with a blue iPod Nano. Unplanned. Obviously necessary.

New hardware demands a proper christening. I loaded it up with everything I’d been meaning to actually sit down with: Royal Treatment Plant, Ida Maria, Fall Out Boy, and Amanda Palmer—whose solo work had been pulling at me ever since the Dresden Dolls started feeling like the only band doing anything genuinely theatrical and unhinged at the same time.

New hardware makes familiar music feel like a discovery. Whether that’s the placebo of fresh equipment or just the permission to finally stop and listen properly, I can’t say. Either way, the blue one has earned its place.