I used to think breaks would never be needed, but I took one, and it's helped out a lot, but now I'm just in a different mode of listening. Before I took a break for a while, all I listened to was the dead, I mean, literally, thats it. I listened and knew so much. Friends would throw on shows/random jams, and have me guess what show it was, stuff like that, it was like a game they were playing, to try and stump me (which they rarely if ever did, save a '77 playin' jam they threw on midway through). I was overly obsessed, I had narrowed my musical horizons. I feel much better now having a better mix, and I feel I appreciate music as a whole more. I'm back to listening to more jazz, which can not only be incredibly complex music, but at its core, is the root to a lot of other music (most of the stuff I enjoy), plus I've dug deeper into other bands I would have otherwise passed over, like the talking heads, neil young, etc. I'm glad I took a break.
