So, what is your fave disc(s) of late?

[Dave_G]

Mine:

The new The Flower Kings. Ohh lah lah, great stuff.

Tomas Bodin - I AM. Oooh yeth baby, this is a deep as hen disc.

Rick Wakeman - Return to the Centre of the Earth - I love this stuff, with the choir and symphony and all, mixed with rock.

IQ - Dark Matter. Nuff said. The best band ever. Well, not really, but I like this type of stuff a lot.

Karmakanic - Wheel of Life. A superb recording.

The Fixx - Reach the Beach. What a great band they were!

Thanks.

Dave

[Davey]

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.

[ForeverAutumn]

Nothing's really been turning my crank as of late. I've gotten a little bored. I picked up three new disks last week:
Jeff Martin - Exile and the Kingdom
Sam Roberts - Chemical City
David Gilmour - On An Island

I haven't really had time to digest any of them yet. I don't know why, but I've just been a little ho-hum about my music collection this week. You ever have that happen? You stand in front of hundreds of CDs looking for just one to listen to and nothing looks appealing.

[unleasHell]

The Bella Low: Inside Closed Eyes

anyone ever heard of this?

a 10 year old CD from a now-defunct Portland band, wild, wild stuff, they at times sound like Yo Lo Tengo, early Clan of Xymox, they do a song that sounds like Ian Curtis vocals over Hawkind-style space rock, progressive with Sitar (ala Amon Duul II : Wolf City) great guitars, cool vocals (male and female), unexpected music direction changes, a very solid CD...

WOW, can't stop listening...

found it on ebay and can find NOTHING about them on the internet...

peace

[Dusty Chalk]

I can't get enough of my daily fix of Katatonia's The Great Cold Distance -- quite possibly their best album yet. I need to go back and listen to Last Fair Deal Gone Down.

[musicman1999]

A couple of real oldies have been getting a lot of play lately,Not Fragile by BTO and an old Bob Seger cd Smokin' OP's.A collection of covers from 1972.A must for Seger fans.

bill

[MindGoneHaywire]

Merle Haggard twofer reissues, T. Rex expanded reissues, & the Arctic Monkeys. Dig the new Prince also.

[3-LockBox]

The Tangent - A Place In The Queue ; yeah, so Stolt is gone, but man is this a well written piece of work. Those of you who hate jazz won't like it cuz its jazzier than any Flower Kings album. The song 'In Ernst' is IMO, as good as any 20 minute epic I've ever heard.

Carptree - Man Made Machine ; any fan of IQ should love this one. Its a darker, edgier version of IQ to a point. But then this band breaks off a few work outs that recall Flower Kings or some mellow folk tinged prog ala Ritual.

Flower Kings - Adam & Eve ; never understood the derrision from FK fans regarding A&E. I think its a solid release, and one of their most consistant. Got Paradox Hotel on order

Pain Of Salvation - The Perfect Element ; these guys are close to supplanting PT as my perennial faves. Tight writing and execution. Think Opeth:Ghost Reveries without those cookie monster vox.

Salem Hill - Not Everybody's Gold ; now I understand the Echolyn and Spock's Beard referrencing going on other websites. This disc is unlike anything I've heard since from these guys. 2004's Be was good, their latest, Mimi's Magic Moment, is weak and smacks of contractual obligation. Not Everybody's Gold is killer, American flavored neo-prog.

Ritual - Think Like A Mountain ; Folk tinged prog with the usual neo-prog trimmings, with a twist...good vocals. In fact, the same guy (Patrik Lundstrum) sings with Kaipa, who's Keyholder gets a lot of rotation on my player.

Honorable Mention: Still digging IQ's Seventh House, their best disc to date IMO...Yes:The Ladder - better than you've heard...Donald Faygen:Morph The Cat- sounded a little too familiar out of the wrapper, but gets stronger with every listen.

[Slosh]

Calexico - Garden Ruin
Much more focused, traditional pop structures on this one. It trades in some of Feast Of Wire's quirkiness for songs that inhabit your head for days at a time. Right now "Panic Open String" is the one I can't get out of my head. Great album. Buy it. Now.

Built To Spill - You In Reverse
Yeah, what Davey said. More like Keep It Like A Secret and There's Nothing Wrong With Love than Perfect From Now On or Ancient Melodies Of The Future. Hmmm, am I the only one seeing a pattern here?

Tapes 'n Tapes - The Loon
I think I may have mentioned this one once or twice before. Someday in the future the rest of you will catch up, maybe.

Meneguar - I Was Born At Night
Well, it sounded good at the record store. At home it seems too safe and predictable but perhaps I just need more time with it. Hey, $7.00 for translucent vinyl so I don't feel burned but I was hoping I happened upon something special.

Tool - 10,000 Days
It leaked and I downloaded the whole thing but haven't had a chance to get through it all just yet but at least now I'll know if I'll want to buy it or not.

[3-LockBox]

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.

Crap...

I'm one of those who preferred the more concise pop sound of their last two and didn't buy into that 'noise-as-art motif of PFNO and earlier releases. Crazy Horse you say?

great

Double crap...

[Duds]

Nice!!! this was going to be my pick as well!!! Just a great disc from start to finish.

I gotta say that I've been listening to AC/DC "Highway to Hell" a lot lately. "Walk All Over You" and "Night Prowler" are awesome tunes.

I can't get enough of my daily fix of Katatonia's The Great Cold Distance -- quite possibly their best album yet. I need to go back and listen to Last Fair Deal Gone Down.

[Duds]

Tool - 10,000 Days
It leaked and I downloaded the whole thing but haven't had a chance to get through it all just yet but at least now I'll know if I'll want to buy it or not.[/QUOTE]

WHERE WHERE WHERE?!?!?!??!

[Duds]

I haven't really had time to digest any of them yet. I don't know why, but I've just been a little ho-hum about my music collection this week. You ever have that happen? You stand in front of hundreds of CDs looking for just one to listen to and nothing looks appealing.[/QUOTE]


This happens a lot. I have close to 3000 cds, and sometimes I just cant find anything that I want to hear. Amazing

[ForeverAutumn]

Pain Of Salvation - The Perfect Element ; these guys are close to supplanting PT as my perennial faves. Tight writing and execution. Think Opeth:Ghost Reveries without those cookie monster vox.

I'm intrigued.

[shokhead]

Morph the cat.

[Mr MidFi]

You In Reverse for me, too. As Doug Martsch sings in the closer...

You wait, and wait
You wait for something
That will make the waiting
Worth the wait

No disc in 5 years since Ancient Melodies...that was a wait, man. And I'm not going to say that it was "worth the wait" necessarily, because nothing is worth 5 years of anticipation. But wow, this is a lot better than I was expecting.

Doug's guitar cries and sings and emotes and erupts with all the tasteful, tuneful, mind-bending intensity you want, yet the songs remain well-crafted and appealing. Too bad the tour was postponed due to DM's detached retina. That's some lousy karma, there.

I've also been listening a lot to Porky Tree's Stars Die collection, which has some extremely trippy shiat on it. Plus, I'm still very much digging My Morning Jacket's Z, Crooked Fingers' Red Devil Dawn, and Wilco's recent live album.

On a lighter note, I downloaded KT Tunstall's debut for my daughter. Considering how much a 13-year-old girl likes it, it's surprisingly enjoyable.

[Duds]

On a lighter note, I downloaded KT Tunstall's debut for my daughter. Considering how much a 13-year-old girl likes it, it's surprisingly enjoyable.[/QUOTE]

i thought it was a pretty good disc as well!!!

[richmon]

Two that've been rotating alot in the casa de Richmon:

Return to Forever 'Where have I known you before' - always loved 'Romantic Warrior' and a few notches below that enjoyed 'The Lepracaun' 'My Spanish Heart' and 'Hymn of the Seventh Galaxy'. Somehow I missed this, the first RTF with Al DiMeola. His playing is a little less firery than RW, but WHIKYB is wonderful, dare I say every bit as good as RomWarrior?

Gov't Mule 'Deja Voodoo' - Heard the song 'Slackjaw Jezebel' on my local college radio and was wowed enought to pick up this latest release from GM. The Mule added a hammond b3 and processed Warrens vocals so they sound more Greg Allmanish. The first two songs are slow, but 3-12 deliver the goods. This along with Warren's matured songcraft make this way better than 'The deepest end' to my aural inputs.

[Mike]

Calexico - Garden Ruin
Much more focused, traditional pop structures on this one. It trades in some of Feast Of Wire's quirkiness for songs that inhabit your head for days at a time. Right now "Panic Open String" is the one I can't get out of my head. Great album. Buy it. Now.

Yep I'm with you on that a really nice, quite a change from what I've heard of their stuff before, nice little DVD came with mine too.

My current fave is Electric President - Electric President album it won't appeal to everyone maybe a tad twee, but lots of layered sounds to enjoy.

Cheers
Mike

[Davey]

Crap...

I'm one of those who preferred the more concise pop sound of their last two and didn't buy into that 'noise-as-art motif of PFNO and earlier releases. Crazy Horse you say?

great

Double crap...

Noise as art? That makes no sense to me in relation to any Built To Spill music I've heard. I can't really understand how one could like Keep It Like A Secret and not like Perfect From Now On. Unless you have ADD and three minutes is your limit . The songs are just more extended and sweeping on PFNO, more progressive, they take time to develop, and they take you on an adventure, augmented with strings, both natural with the cello, and programmed with the mellotron, along with the moog and optigon for an even fuller sound. Hasn't BTS always reminded you of Neil Young and Crazy Horse? More psychedelic at times, and more Beatlesy, but still good old Neil at the heart. Of course, Doug is a much better player than Neil, but the music has a lot of similarities.

But in the end, it's just good music. Could be I'm misrepresenting the sound. It does have similarities to the last one, but I find the music more substantial here. Maybe listen to Mr MidFi more than me, because he loves Ancient Melodies and apparently loves this one too. I like Ancient Melodies, and loved a couple songs, but always felt it was missing something. That vision he had on PFNO. The fire in his heart. The willingness to put it on the line. But this one seems to bring it all together, all the good parts, without having to sacrifice much depth. Most of the songs are longer than normal, average about 5-6 minutes. It takes a big chance and opens with a 9 minute opus, and it doesn't feel like a wasted second to me. It really is one of their best albums yet, and coming so far into their career, and 5 years after the last release, it's amazing to me. I love it. Album of the year so far

[Troy]

I bought a used Fates Warning disc recently. BoooooRING! I hate that kind of singing. Formulaic and dead predictable pop-metal.

I need to get out and buy some seedees. Umphy Mac, Lips, OSI. Maybe today . . .

[Dusty Chalk]

I'm intrigued.

Hey! I recommended Pain of Salvation to you and your husband a long time ago...(I specifically remember recommending the drumming)...

[Slosh]

Tool - 10,000 Days
It leaked and I downloaded the whole thing but haven't had a chance to get through it all just yet but at least now I'll know if I'll want to buy it or not.

WHERE WHERE WHERE?!?!?!??!

http://www.obner.org/bb/viewtopic.php?t=19635

[Stone]

Band of Horses - Everything All the Time
This album is full of relatively simple, straight ahead rock songs. There's really nothing new about this, but damn is it done well by these guys. The arrangements are perfect to these ears, with a little banjo here and a little acoustic guitar there. Another bonus to me is that it's not overly long, which is nice for my ADD-over-three-minutes-is-typically-too-long self. I think tiny mix tape's review hit the nail on the head with this one.

Liars - Drum's Not Dead
I really don't understand why there's not more being said about this album (granted, it has received some pretty good reviews). Maybe because it's off the beaten path. These guys move from NYC to Berlin, and got away from the post-punk scene, and it really paid off. This is really different from They Threw Us All In a Trench . . . . The drums are often at the forefront of this concept album, about the struggle between art and creation vs. stress and self-doubt. Great record.

[ForeverAutumn]

Hey! I recommended Pain of Salvation to you and your husband a long time ago...(I specifically remember recommending the drumming)...

Yes you did. You're absolutely right. Not sure how that slipped down the list. My apologies.

Hey, have you heard Matchbook Romance, Voices? It's nothing groundbreaking or anything, but it's really growing on me. Just good old fashioned metal.