In the Changer- New(ish) Music

I've been sitting on this topic for months now and it's about time it gets posted. Well, it's just that I got tired of seeing my note about this blog sitting the desk for the past couple months. I've listened to these cds and I pretty much give them my thumbs up.



Radiohead's In Rainbows, their latest, is another great album from the lads from across the pond. Nothing new here, but why would you want them to do something new? Their sound is as fresh as ever and they continue to impress.











Colbie Caillat and Sara Bareilles each put out a great cds last year, Coco and Little Voice respectively, and while both releases contain catchy songs, but A Fine Frenzy's One Cell in the Sea is a vastly superior album. It is almost as if Enya put on a red wig and steered her way into the pop music scene. There are elements of Enya-inspired melodies scattered throughout which make for memorable ballads and melancholic lyrics. Sure there are a couple tracks that border on the cheesy like "You Picked Me," but songs such as "Almost Lover" vault this cd into instant classic for me.





Y34RZ3R0R3MIX3D is another good cd from Nine Inch Nails, much better than the original Year Zero album from a earlier in the year, but nowhere near as good as NIN's With Teeth from two years before. This remixed version has also an enhanced cd so one could make up their own mixes since each song is separated in different tracks. Yet another brilliant move by Trent Reznor.





Cafe Tacvba released their newest album, Sino, in late 2007 and is their best studio album, maybe since Re. One could argue that Reves/Yo Soy is as good, but Sino is levels above their previous cd Cuarto Caminos. I'm still waiting to catch them in concert, who knows what'll happen, but having their music in my library is almost good enough for me.







There was a Beatles tribute album made back in 2005 called, This Bird has Flown: A 40th Anniversary Tribute to The Beatles' Rubber Soul. My buddy Gary also a Beatles-phile, first told me about this cd and it didn't disappoint. Included were some magnificent covers like The Donnas version of Drive My Car and the bluegrass inspired Think for Yourself. I especially loved Surjan Stevens' What Goes On; it's as if the song was deconstructed, reessembled and redone as a totally different song. There are few echoes of The Beatles in this track. But on the other hand there was at least song that I thought did not work as a cover. Unfortunately the title track of this album, Norwegian Wood (This Bird has Flown) did not do it for me. It seems like The Fiery Furnaces tried too hard to make this song sound Beatle-esque and may have lost the verve this song has in its original state. Otherwise, it's a nice album to add to anyone's Beatles musical library.