In which Ben's genius lets him down...

Yesterday, Anna, the redoubtable Mrs T, initiated her plan to re-paint our bedroom. So I heaved (or possibly hove) furniture about, got dustsheets in from the shed and so on, and left her to it, as she had made clear this was to be her project.

Towards the end of the day, having done various bits of cleaning and preparation, she discovered we had no paint.

So today I have been painting our bedroom, while she is out doing variously parish (am) and pro-life (pm) work.

I thought it would be nice to have some company, but the kids were all occupied or pre-occupied or both, so I thought music would have to do.

Being indecisive by temperament, I thought I would allow the Genius app to choose some songs.  All I had to do was to pick the first and it would choose others from my extensive collection. And this is where it gets interesting (well, perhaps that's over-stating it, but it was what prompted me to write this post, so it must have caught my interest).

I selected as the first song about which the Genius playlist was to be constructed, All My Loving: a light early Beatles number that suited my mood (and began with A so I didn't have to look too far...).

And what did Genius think would be in the same style or mood as that?

The very next track was Pink Floyd's Brain Damage.

That was followed by:
The Clash (Train in Vain)
The Ramones (Sheena is a Punk Rocker),
The Ozark Mountain Daredevils (Jackie Blue),
Thin Lizzy (Cowboy Song),
Plain White Ts (Come Back to Me),

Queen, Deep Purple, another Beatles song (With a Little Help From My Friends), Led Zeppelin, another Floyd (Have a Cigar), another Clash (I Fought the Law), The Buzzcocks, The Who, another Plain White T's (Hey There Delilah), Jimmy Eat World....

Is there any sense in which these are related to the initial selection? I know the Beatles were the most influential and inspirational band ever, but was All My Loving really behind this eclectic selection?

Anyone know how this Genius thing selects songs?  Or is it really random, and just pretending?

Still I have got a lick of paint on the ceiling and all walls, so thought I'd blog this while waiting for it to dry sufficiently to put a second coat on. Then there's the tea to make, dog to walk, children to entertain and hamster to clean out before Mrs T gets back...