6. Aerial - Kate Bush

and all your shirts and jeans and things
And put them in the new washing machine

Background music. That is how I will sum up this album. I kinda like it, but it has never been able to hold my attention. I can listen objectively to it and respect the interesting arrangements, the singing and the composition of the songs. As someone who enjoys music, I feel I should like it but there is something missing and it doesn't exactly inspire me. Maybe I'm just not in the right space to understand or connect with it. But there are a few songs where I love the piano bits, and I really do enjoy "kinf of the mountain" and I wouldn't be suprised if in 10 or 20 years I pick out this album and find that I love it.

I'm currently finding listening to the whole album at once a bit of a mission. Each song seems so long - and there are 16 of them. The album is made up of 2 discs, which may change the listening experience - but I tend to do most of my listening now via my pc and ipod, and in my library the album is sorted as one.

Kate Bush still intrigues me though - it's that kind of ethereal voice...a bit weird - a bit 'off' the mainstream sound. maybe a bit experimental.


favourite track - none of the songs would ever make my top 100 (or 1000 even) but I rather like "king of the mountain". "how to be invisible" is also quite listenable.

Skippable song - not sure. there is no one song that immediately has me reaching for the fast forward

Original Release Date: November 8, 2005

a feeling...

I've got that feeling that I want to discover and listen to new music. I'm currently surfing around itunes, just bought a couple of singles - the new Death Cab for Cutie single, and finger eleven "paralyzer"/

But, I'm not going to buy any full albums - as I could probably discover something "new" in amongst all my old cds...

off to listen to the next cd on the list...

I Will Survive

this has been around for 8 or 9 years. but it still amuses...

5. Soundtrack - Adventures of Priscilla Queen of the Desert

I've been to paradise, but I've never been to me

after ten or fifteen years of scorning my parents collection of Abba and other assorted 70s tapes, I arrived home from university with this soundtrack in my collection. And spent a summer blasting all those songs that my parents knew and liked (except when I was listening to Weezer - they weren't so keen on that).

Yes, I did enjoy the movie. Then a year or three later I bought the soundtrack. Probably on special at the warehouse. It was that mid-ninties period where disco and abba become vaguely cool again. Not that I care about that now, and I can just enjoy the music without cringing.

It's a pretty good collection of songs, a bit of abba, a few obscure songs I'd never previously heard of and a few that I don't like at all. But a solid soundtrack anyway.

favourite song - I will survive - Gloria Gaynor
skippable song - Can't help loving that man - Trudy Richards

Original Release Date: August 23, 1994

4. Across a Wire - Live in New York City - Counting Crows

I was lucky enough to see counting crows live a few years ago on the Hard Candy tour.  This double live album is from a few years prior to that - at a guess, sometime after Recovering the Satellites.  I quite like listening to Counting Crows live when I'm in the right mood.  The songs are never go quite how you expect them too.  I've listened to a few bootlegs and they never seem to sound quite the same each time.

The track lists of the two CDs have a couple of the same songs, but otherwise cover a good portion of the two Counting Crows albums that I suppose most people know best.

Two live cds of two concerts might seem a bit strange (why not just one?) but they are very different. I think the VH1 disc is my favourite but that may be because it is late at night as I listen, so I preferred the quiet more acoustic versions of the vh1 concert. Whereas the MTV concert is, well, louder and would be better for blasting in the car on a road trip.
I think I only paid $17 second hand for this cd a couple of years back but it is worth owning or buying the MP3s if you like the Counting Crows.  If you were just going to own 1 counting crows cd I'd still recommend august and everything after (even though I think I prefer their later music).

Favourite song - Mtv - 'A Murder of One',VH1 - 'Rain King'
Skippable song - 'Chelsea' (its a but too jazz for my taste) and also 'round here' (mtv version - I like it but at 10 minutes its a bit long)

Release Date - July 14 1998

v

3. Acoustic Dance Party - Toad the Wet Sprocket

According to Amazon.com, I purchased this EP on March 28, 2000. Which would mean it was my first ever online purchase with my first ever paycheck from my first ever job after I finished university. Fitting that it was a Toad cd, seeing that they provided a constant soundtrack through my five years at uni.

I cant be expected to be objective at all about toad the wet sprocket

acoustic dance party contains 5 songs off the albums dulcinea & fear performed live unplugged.

sometimes I forget why I lived for toad back in the 90s but listening to this cd reminds me and they once again afirm they have a spot in my top 5 if not claim the title of all time favourite music artists

heh I was hoping I could rationally evaluate the albums in my collection but find it is impossible. many of them were a huge part of my life at one time or another and I can't separate the music from the feelings they invoke

ah well, no matter what this ep is a classic example of 90s acoustic rock.

favourite song - somethings always wrong
song I'll skip - none, I love every track on this cd


Released : December 13, 1994

R.E.M. - Supernatural Superserious