Hey Siri? Play anything in my library.

Start 1:53 PM Friday.

1. Blackfoot: “Teenage Idol” (southern rock, 1983)
2. * The Neal Morse Band: “A Momentary Change” (progressive rock, 2019)
3. Thoughts Factory: “The Burden” (progressive metal, 2020)
4. The Neal Morse Band: “Beyond the Borders” (progressive rock, 2019)
5. Bob Dylan: “You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go” (folk rock, 1974)
6. * Lost Dogs: “Bad Indigestion” (Americana, 1993)
7. Lost Dogs: “Whispering Memories” (Americana, 2006)
8. Lost Dogs: “Get Me Ready” (blues rock, 2006)
9. Lost Dogs: “Rocky Mountain Mines (rough mix)” (folk, 2019 this release, 1993 original)
10. The Neal Morse Band: “Long Ago” (progressive rock, 2019)
11. Cake: “Short Skirt/Long Jacket” (alternative, 2001)
12. Bush: “The Chemicals Between Us” (alternative, 1999)
13. Lost Dogs: “Pray Where You Are (live)” (folk, 2019 this release, 1993 original)
14. Billy Joel: “Say Goodbye to Hollywood” (rock, 1976)
15. Bruce Springsteen: “Hungry Heart” (rock, 1980)
16. Lost Dogs: “Eleanor, It’s Raining Now” (Americana, 1993)
17. Bon Jovi: “Runaway” (pop metal, 1984)
18. Lost Dogs: “No Ship Coming In (brow beat mix)” (folk, 2019 this release, 1993 original)
19. The Brothers Cazimero: “Kawika” (Hawaiian, 1991)
20. The Neal Morse Band: “Child of Wonder” (progressive rock, 2019)
21. Lost Dogs: “One More Day” (country, 2006)
22. The Neal Morse Band: “To the River” (progressive rock, 2019)
23. Angelique Kidjo: “Djin Djin” (Afropop, 2007)
24. The Neal Morse Band: “Vanity Fair” (progressive rock, 2019)
25. Angra: “Acid Rain” (power metal, 2001)
26. Lost Dogs: “Swirling Besties” (inter-track studio conversation, 2019)
27. Thoughts Factory: “Elements” (progressive metal, 2020)
28. Black Sabbath: “The Mob Rules” (metal, 1981)
29. Lost Dogs: “Precious Memories” (folk, 1993)
30. The Neal Morse Band: “The Dream Continues” (progressive rock, 2019)
31. The Alan Parsons Project: “Games People Play” (rock, 1983)
32. Bonnie McKee: “American Girl” (pop, 2013)
33. The Avett Brothers: “Live and Die” (folk, 2012)
34. Blondie: “(I’m Always Touched by Your) Presence, Dear” (new wave, 1977)
35. The Neal Morse Band: “The Great Despair” (progressive rock, 2019)
36. Lost Dogs: “Riding on the Devil E. Lee” (inter-track studio ad-libbing, 2019)
37. The Neal Morse Band: “I Got to Run” (progressive rock, 2019)
38. The Neal Morse Band: “A Love that Never Dies” (progressive rock, 2019)
39. Lost Dogs: “Red, White & Blue (live)” (country rock, 2019)
40. Lost Dogs: “Raul Ries Vs Senor Gomez” (inter-track studio chatter, 2019)
41. Lost Dogs: “Rocky Mountain Mines” (folk, 1993)

Stop: 4:4-something PM Friday.

* Christian artist

It looks like Apple’s Music app favors songs stored on your phone, which makes sense. The Neal Morse is a double album, and it’s not on Spotify, my streamer of choice, so I ripped it from the CDs and synched it to my phone. The Lost Dogs 1993 album, Little Red Riding Hood is a re-release, funded on Kickstarter, and it came with a bonus disc of outtakes and alternate versions, so that’s two CDs’ worth of stuff I also synched to my phone because I got the stuff before it was on the streamers. I also added another Lost Dogs albums, one of only a tiny few I didn’t already have.

The Thoughts Factory album: same story. Wasn’t available on Spotify yet so I synched it to my phone. The rest of the tracks are songs I purchased on iTunes but are not on my phone, so they streamed.

I wanted to see what Siri would do in response to this command. It was a good afternoon of music, even if it skewed toward two specific artists. I love the Lost Dogs material so it wasn’t an issue there. I don’t think this is Neal Morse’s best work, so it was an issue there.

HUGE disadvantage, though: I listened to 41 songs and none of them scrobbled to Last.FM, so they won’t contribute to my 2020 year-end listening summary. Super annoying. It’s why I have the Last.FM scrobbler app on my phone. It has access to your iTunes library and it scrobbles. This is also one reason I haven’t moved off of Spotify: it has built-in scrobbling if you turn it on in your settings, something Amazon music and the other services don’t have.

I may try this again in the near future with the Last.FM scrobbler and see if it does a better job of mixing artists.

Ohhhh you know what I could do? Spend a few minutes adding these 41 songs to my queue in Spotify and just play it through there, maybe while I’m watching TV or in bed, so I won’t actually have to listen to them again while adding them to my scrobbles.

“If you listen to fools, the MOB RULES!”