the gay science

The greatest weight.— What, if some day or night a demon were to steal after you in your loneliest loneliness and say to you: "This life as you now live it and have lived it, you will have to live once more and innumerable times more; and there will be nothing new in it, but every pain and every joy and every thought and sigh and everything unutterably small or great in your life will have to return to you, all in the same succession and sequence—even this spider and this moonlight between the trees, and even this moment and I myself. The eternal hourglass of existence is turned upside down again and again—and you with it, speck of dust!"— Would you not throw yourself down and gnash your teeth and curse the demon who spoke thus? Or have you once experienced a tremendous moment when you would have answered him: "You are a god and never have I heard anything more divine!" If this thought gained possession of you, it would change you as you are or perhaps crush you; the question in each and every thing, "Do you desire this once more, and innumerable times more?" would lie upon your actions as the greatest weight! Or how well disposed would you have to become to yourself and to life to crave nothing more fervently than this ultimate eternal confirmation and seal? —

Top 30 Albums of 2006

1, Junior Boys – So This Is Goodbye [Domino]
2, The Knife – Silent Shout [Rabid]
3, Benoît Pioulard - Précis [Kranky]
4, Mew - And the Glass-Handed Kites [Sony]
5, Joanna Newsom – Ys [Drag City]
6, Various – The World is Gone [XL Recordings]
7, Peter Bjorn and John - Writer's Block [Wichita]
8, Ellen Allien & Apparat - Orchestra of Bubbles [Bpitch Control]
9, Beirut - Gulag Orkestar [Ba Da Bing!]
10, Tim Hecker – Harmony in Ultraviolet [Kranky]
11, Biosphere – Dropsonde [Touch]
12, Max Richter - Songs From Before [Fat Cat]
13, Sunset Rubdown - Shut Up I Am Dreaming [Absolutely Kosher]
14, Phoenix – It's Never Been Like That [Astralwerks]
15, AFX – Chosen Lords [WARP]
16, Clark – Body Riddle [WARP]
17, Lindstrøm - It's a Feedelity Affair [Smalltown Supersound]
18, Girl Talk - Night Ripper [Illegal Art]
19, Hot Chip – The Warning [Astralwerks]
20, Sean Lennon - Friendly Fire [Capitol]
21, Grizzly Bear – Yellow House [WARP]
22, Destroyer - Destroyer's Rubies [Merge]
23, Trentemøller - The Last Resort [Poker Flat]
24, The Beatles – Love [Apple Records]
25, Prefuse 73 - Security Screenings [WARP]
26, Liars - Drum's Not Dead [Mute]
27, Thom Yorke – Eraser [XL Recordings]
28, Fujiya & Miyagi - Transparent Things [Word and Sound]
29, Burial – Burial [Hyperdub]
30, Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Show Your Bones [Interscope]

Top 25 Albums of 2005

1. Cocorosie – Noah’s Ark [Touch And Go]
2. Prefuse 73 - Surrounded By Silence [Warp]
3. Röyksopp – The Understanding [Astralwekrs]
4. M83 – Before the Dawn Heals Us [Gooom]
5. The New Pornographers - Twin Cinema [Matador]
6. Vitalic - OK Cowboy [PIAS]
7. Kanye West – Late Registration [Roc-A-Fella]
8. Masha Qrella – Unsolved Remains [Morr Music]
9. Animal Collective – Feels [Fat Cat]
10. Isolée – We Are Monster [Playhouse]
11. 13 & God – 13 & God [Anticon]
12. Patrick Wolf – Wind in the Wires [Tomlab]
13. Broadcast - Tender Buttons [Warp]
14. Vashti Bunyan – Lookaftering [Fat Cat]
15. Stephen Malkmus – Face the Truth [Matador]
16. Eluvium - Talk Amongst the Trees [Temporary Residence]
17. Sufjan Stevens – Illinois [Asthmatic Kitty]
18. Bloc Party – Silent Alarm [Vice]
19. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah – s/t [Self-released]
20. Wolf Parade - Apologies to the Queen Mary [Sub Pop]
21. M.I.A. – Arular [XL]
22. Colleen - The Golden Morning Breaks [Leaf]
23. Markus Guentner – 1981 [Kompakt]
24. Keith Fullerton Whittman – Multiples [Kranky]
25. Boards of Canada – The Campfire Headphase [Warp]