Tuesday, December 9, 2008

now what?

I've bought a few new CDs this past week and a half, and although I haven't really settled in with them, I do have an opinion. What a shock!
The Blackie & the Rodeo Kings best of collection (Swinging From the Chains of Love) is still getting lots of play. Nickel Creek's best of (Reasons Why) is a knock out! A beautiful sounding, wonderfully played selection of material. And it has a DVD of videos too. A signed copy of the David Byrne & Brian Eno album arrived from Newbury Comics. OK it's only signed by Byrne, but the album is excellent, and considerably "poppier" than I expected. A neat package, I might add!
Speaking of neat packages...The Fireman's electric arguments is the best of their three albums, and will actually get played again. The Fireman is Youth and Paul McCartney, and their previous 2 ambient dance thingys did nothing for me. But this one, is Macca's most interesting work in a long time. He should take chances like this more often! JD Souther's first album in 20-something years is a new direction. No more Eaglesish country rock, JD gives us melodic tunes, great singing but in a jazzier context. Kudos to the horn players on here!
And then there's Neil Young's latest archive project, as we get ready for the mega-release next year, Sugar Mountain. It's a CD+DVD set of a very early club date after Neil left Buffalo Springfield. All acoustic, just Neil and his Martin. He sounds impossibly young. His stories are innocent, even naive. A fascinating document. I haven't watched the DVD yet, because it won't play on my computer. Not sure what the issue is...but tonight I'll try it in the DVD player.
Lots of books to read. I have to finish The Grapes of Wrath, then the new John Lennon bio, Ian Thomas's new novel The Lost Chord and then Mick Wall's biography of Led Zeppelin When Giants Walked the Earth. I'm glad Christmas is coming, I'll have some time to read!
Last night I read the cover story on Britney Spears in the new Rolling Stone...ahhh, poor baby!

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