I heard a few songs by them the other day. Wasn't expecting to like them anywhere near as much as I did.

The new Bob Dylan.

Really not sure about it. About half of it is formulaic 12-bar blues performed by a band that doesn't work nearly as well live as on record, which despite the odd inspired and original line go on for far too long. The other half is generally much better - a much greater sense of intimacy than on anything since the gospel albums, a well-written and tuneful centrepiece on Workingman's Blues (albeit with a sentiment that's a bit hard to stomach coming from a rich, sixty-five year old who, in the proper sense of the word, has "never worked a day in his life" either) and an absolute belter of a closing track that sounds like Hamlet musing his way through Elsinore.

I don't know how it'll look when the dust settles. I don't think it's as good as the last two, but it's definitely better than Empire Burlesque.

Roy Nathanson - Sotto Voce
Zoe Rahman - Melting Pot
You Say Party! We Say Die! - Hit The Floor
Daniel Wylie - The High Cost Of Happiness
Scritti Politti - White Bread, Black Beer
Hefner - Catfight
Blood Meridian - Kick Up The Dust
Johnny Cash - American Recordings V
Elvis Costello & Allen Toussaint - The River In Reverse
Metric - Live It Out
Ali Farka Toure - Savane
Peter, Bjorn And John - Writers Block
Joan As Police Woman - Real Life

Mountain Goats - Get Lonely
Cerys Matthews - Never Said Goodbye
The Young Knives - Voices Of Animals And Men
Pajo - 1968
Sophie Solomon - Poison Sweet Madeira

Gang of Losers - The Dears
Crazy Itch Radio - Basement Jaxx
Awoo - The Hidden Cameras
F#A#(Infinity) - GY!BE
Lift Your Skinny Fists LIke Antennas To Heaven - GY!BE
Feels - Animal Collective
The Earth Is Not A Cold, Dead Place - Explosions in the Sky
Things We Lost in the Fire - Low
The Great Destroyer - Low
And I Feel Fine... (Best of R.E.M. 1982-1987) - R.E.M.

Ooberman - Carried Away
Sunshine Underground - Raise The Alarm
The Dears - Gang Of Losers
Kasabian - Empire
Bob Dylan - Modern Times
Viva Voce - Get Yr Blood Sucked Out
Erin Mckeown - Grand

Rammstein - Rosenrot

OK, as it's Reise Reise 1.5, I have a question - why wasn't the fantastic Wo Bist Du left of that album for the unlistenable Stein und Stein? And why the hell did HMV fuck around with their DVD offers, so they lost £10 of business? And why does Croydon suck such elephant -*test*-('")iculars?

Of those two, I prefer Stein Um Stein by a mile. Was Wo Bist Du even one of the songs that was recorded during the Reise Reise period? Because about half of Rosenrot was actually new stuff, and while not as good as Reise Reise as an album it had a number of great songs for me... Spring, Rosenrot, Te Quiero Puta!, Hilf Mir, Stirb Nicht Vor Mir, and most of all Zerstören

Looking forward muchly to one of the guys' solo/side-project, whichever it is...


Incidentally, I ventured into HMV for the first time in ages today, but my fast-growing overdraft stopped me from buying any albums. I just wasted 9 quid on singles instead, as you do. (Muse - Starlight x2, Lazyboy - Underwear Goes Inside The Pants, Little Man Tate - House Party At Boothy's)

I know from Wikipedia that Rosenrot and Wo Bist Du were ditched from the final tracklisting (Rosenrot was going to be a single, but was ditched for Mein Teil), the rest I have no idea.

Anyway, typing isn't a good idea today - Mein Rücken Schmerz.

Cursive - Happy Hollow
Micah P Hinson And The Gospel Circuit - S/T
Boxcutter - Oneiric
Vetiver - To Find Me Gone
CSS - Cansei De Ser Sexy
Jim Noir - Tower Of Love
Tramp Attack - Call In Sick
Mojave 3 - Puzzles Of You

REM - ...And I Feel Fine
Ben Kweller - Ben Kweller
The Fratellis - Costello Music
Mars Volta - Amputechture
Yo La Tengo - I Am Not Afraid Of You And I Will Beat Your Ass
Liam Frost - Watch The Spectres Dance
The Veils - Nux Vomica
Get Cape, Wear Cape, Fly - Chronicles Of A Bohemian Teenager
Mansun - Legacy
Bonnie Prince Billy - The Letting Go
Scissor Sisters - Ta Dah

Evanescence - Fallen in the HMV sales (a long overdue purchase).

Also grabbed a few singles (Evanescence/Call Me When You're Sober, The Ordinary Boys/Lonely At The Top, My Chemical Romance/Welcome To The Black Parade). The bankruptness of student-dom is finally starting to leave me, and I can see me splurging bigtime by the time the January sales come round...

Larrikin Love - The Freedom Spark
James Yorkston - The Year Of The Leopard
Sparklehorse - Dreamt For Light Years In The Belly Of A Mountain
Nicky Wire - I Killed The Zeitgeist
Babybird - Between My Ears There Is Nothing But Music
Album Leaf - Into The Blue Again
KT Tunstall - KT Tunstall's Acoustic Extravaganza
Mercury Rev - Best Of
Gomez - Best Of
Beck - The Information
Killers - Sams Town
Kathryn Williams - Leave To Remain

Amazingly I have done one of these "simple" list for a while. Then again I haven't been spending much on CDs lately. Here is what I have bought since last time:

Saint Etienne - Tales From Turnpike House + EP
The Wallflowers - Rebel, Sweetheart
Rogue Traders - Here Come The Drums
Kings Of Leon - Aha Shake Heartbreak
Kings Of Leon - Youth & Young Manhood
Broken Social Scene - You Forgot It In People
Opeth - Damnation
Opeth - Deliverance
Opeth - Blackwater Park  
Regina Spektor - Begin To Hope
Architecture In Helsinki - In Case We Die
Captain - This Is Hazelville
The Little Willies - S/T
Panic! At the Disco - A Fever You Can't Sweat Out
Rosie Thomas - If Songs Could Be Held
Metric - Live It Out
Psapp - The Only Thing I Ever Wanted
She Wants Revenge - S/T
TV On The Radio - Return To Cookie Mountain
We Are Scientists - With Love and Squalor
Covenant - Dreams Of Cyrotank
Covenant - Europa
The Fiery Furnaces - Rehearsing My Choir
Anouk - Hotel New York

I'll just pre-empt Monday:
Deftones - "Saturday Night Wrist"