While driving to a client meeting this morning I heard “Interstellar Overdrive” on our local AAA station. As I considered just how much of a waste of time that recording is and began thinking about – as I often do, when faced with revisiting what was once a treasured find in my record collection – how much more I like the two solo Syd Barrett albums than Piper at the Gates of Dawn, I realized something else: I can’t listen to my Syd Barrett albums with anyone else. Years ago I’m sure I spun them with friends in my presence, but today, beside the fact that my closest friends and wife have never cared for those albums, I don’t want to spin them with anyone else around. They’re for me to listen to in private. I have my own feelings about them, and I don’t want anyone else distracting me from the relationship the albums and I have.

I’m not sure why I feel this way about these Barrett albums, in particular, and I’m wondering whether I feel this way about any other albums in my collection. Some albums I choose not to play for others because they may be grating or too intense – in no way do the Barrett albums satisfy the “it’s got a good beat and you can dance to it” objectives of much music we choose to play in social situations. Although the Barrett albums are loaded with backstory and a unique mood, they’re not the same as playing the third Velvet Underground album or some mystical folk-rock or ’60s jazz album that your beard-stroking friends might appreciate hearing played in the background. When I want to spin my Barrett albums, I do so alone. Maybe I don’t want to get caught sucking my thumb.

Do you have albums that shun company?