I’ve recently got into listening to Last FM via this t’internet of ours. It’s online radio and a sister site of the fantastically cool AudioScrobbler.

Using information garnered from the 4500 songs I’ve listened to and logged on AudioScrobbler, Last.FM plays me a customised radio station. It plays me some music that I know, lots that I don’t, and uses a very clever system to make sure that, in most cases, I’ll like what I get.

The inspiration to write up this entry comes as L.FM has just played me a truly glorious 6 minute version of Jeff Buckley performing Hallelujah. It’s glorious, wonderful and fantastically emotive. Kinda similar to the effect that his recording of Satisfied Mind has on me. It’s incredible.

It’s also just played me Paranoid Android by Radiohead, which is arguably my favourite song of all time ever. (The chords/lyrics/something will get engraved on my iPod next month, and possibly my grave stone in the more distant future).

You train the L.FM radio by clicking “Love”, “Skip” or “Ban” when a song plays, or by just letting it play. Given a little time (and/or a good sized Audioscrobbler profile of your own music), it rarely shoves up dud songs and can really mix up your listening habits. How cool is that?

Last is a wonderful site. It’s legal too, for those who’ve read this far and become suspicious. It’s run in the UK where we don’t have as many shit laws, and pays a license fee every few months. It’s non-subscription but they do offer an enhanced service for a month if you give a donation.

I love it. I really do. It’s a gazillion times better than Napster ever was for actually listening to music and I advise everyone to try it, love it and then give them some money to keep going.

Music is great. Really, really great.