New Built To Spill for me. You In Reverse, whatever that means. Really nice. I'm sometimes a little bit apprehensive when one of my old favorites puts out a new one, you know, the inevitable letdown when compared to your memory of their past greatness. But screw it, I try no longer to make those comparisons, I just go with the flow. And this one has a great flow. Only got it a few days ago (only $9.77 at Fry's while getting some fuses and other supplies - god I hate buying music at big box department stores like that, but if you're already there ...) and purposely avoided listening to any downloads before buying, but can tell that it's gonna be one of the highlights of my music year. Kind of straddles the fence between the longer guitar workouts on my favorite Perfect From Now On with the somewhat more upbeat and crunchy sound of the later ones like Keep It Like A Secret. I'd have to say this new one is their closest brush with Crazy Horse yet, but in the end it really doesn't matter to me because it's all just so mesmerizing and charming in its own way. Really a nice album, but it does seem to be getting its share of detractors too who would prefer a return to that more concise pop sound. Oh well, we all know what happens when you try to please everyone ...

Also, one of my biggest gripes with the last one was that the songs often ended right when they were starting to get interesting to me, and they didn't end right. They just faded out. Always bugged me. But this one is full of guitar workouts and proper endings on most of the songs without those annoying long fadeouts (still a couple, but mostly done right this time ).

Also, that great, great Bunny Gets Paid by Red Red Meat that i've been playing a lot for the last few months. Recently discovered gem from 1995.