Today, I got a friend request on Last.fm from a user named Socratesv1. I’ve been using the website since 2006 to keep up with my changing music taste, and occasionally get friend requests from friends and/or people who have a similar music taste to me. The username didn’t seem familiar to me, but we did share a “very high music compatibility”. The  music we had in common was Imogen Heap, S Club 7, ABBA, Owl City and OK Go.

@Synoiz sent me a CD of ABBA’s greatest hits for my birthday yesterday (because I realised I owned no ABBA music ;_;), and this means that all I’ve been listening to today is that. This probably explains why we’re “very high” on music compatibility.
[I tend to listen to "new" music obsessively until I get sick of the sound of it.]

Anyway, I soon realised that I *did* know the mysterious Socratesv1, and that he was a friend of a friend of mine who I had spoken to on Skype before. So I logged on, and we talked about the music we had in common (quickly skipping over the S Club 7). Soon, conversation turned to my obsessive listening habits of the day… Which I quickly diverted by picking a random song I liked, to try and make it seem like I listen to other music too.

This song just happened to be You Will Love This Song, which I promptly sent him a link to. He seemed to like it, despite my annoyance at not being able to sing the phrase “You said you love it when all the words in a song move really fast and your ears have to choose just one little phrase to hold on to” in the song fast enough.

He swore that he could, and that he could actually record a new version of the song for me just to prove it.

I called his bluff (because I like this song a lot).

And so, this “challenge” of sorts began.

Alex (this friend of a friend) says that he’ll record me a version of the song by the new year, in the same style, playing multiple instruments (as a one-man band).

This is going to be awesome.

[I wrote this blog post to remind myself to get around to meeting him in January and glare at/glomp him for failing/finishing the song.]