Wonderflonium

I've bought a lot of CDs in the past 2 months. A lot of bands I like have come out with new music, and I'm filling in some gaps in my collection. You can see what I've gotten recently at the blog that auto-updates every time I rip a CD into my Kuro Box for playback in SlimServer, and I've now hooked up my SlimServer with SlimScrobbler so you can see what I'm actually listening to on last.fm which is incredibly cool, has changed my life, and made me listen to a whole lot more new music. In fact, you all should friend me on last.fm, or get accounts, so we can share music tastes.

If I was good I'd write really long reviews of all of it like I did for the new Marillion but I'm lazy.


Suffice it to say the new Rush album is really good--certainly their best since Counterparts and maybe the best since Signals which Snakes and Arrows reminds me of quite a bit even though they're completely different. But I'm like that.

The new Maria McKee album is also quite good. She's so interesting.

Dungen's new album sounds like really old (pre-1970) Yes. So far it hasn't hit me like Ta Det Lungt but it's growing on me.

I didn't own any 1977-1980 Genesis, and those three albums on the 1976-1982 box set, well, I forgot how good they are. I hadn't really listened to them since high school, and realized Phil Collins didn't really screw things up until 1986. Maybe 1983.

I'm not really impressed with the new Dream Theater. Too far on the metal side of the prog-metal spectrum for my taste. But maybe kingfox will like it since he's an Iron Maiden fan.

Fountains of Wayne are reliably good again with Traffic And Weather.

The new album by The Shins is better than I thought it would be. I mean, I know they're hot and trendy right now, and I thought I'd like it, but it's much more melodic and intricate than the critics would have you believe. They remind me of some sort of 80's alternative band that I liked.

And then a new Marillion Front Row Club release was another from a show I was actually at, and has some of the best Steve Hogarth live singing ever put to tape.

Tori Amos' new one has several good songs but like some of her stuff collapses under the weight of a concept. Too much concept. And the fact that it's like 24 tracks long artificially inflates her popularity count in my last.fm favorite artists list.

Jordan Zevon is just brilliant, and his EP bodes well for his full-length album coming out in August.

Feel free to discuss more in the comments. I think I hit all the high points.