I call, time to put the cards on the table.

Had the chance to listen to several new discs, most of which were excellent.

A new comp from Chrisnz was largely excellent but the only play so far was in the car. The rap still hasn't grown on me which is hipocritcal given that I used a rap track on my comp. Need more time with this one to get into what I enjoyed most, as it is I'm playing right now. One thing I know for sure is that I hate having the track list on the disc itself! What's that song? I have no idea, the track list is in the CDP. I'll admit that it's easy enough to print one for myself but I didn't have that option at first since it went from the mail to my car.

Davey's new comp which only arrived yesterday so I'll withold any final judgement. All I can say after one listen is that this is some depressing comp you got here. Really enjoyed the first Fiery Furnace's track but it's the only one that made me smile. The second FF track was simply too long for me to get into on first listen. Of course liked the Wheat track but my absolute fave was "About Today" by The National. Freakin' awesome toon.

Thanks to both of you.

Also some asst. new listens:

Finally broke down and bought Snakebit by that SR fellow. Ridgeway's best album? Not by a long shot but his best for a very long time. Some great tunage that had some really weird moments. One track had me expecting to see credits for Jackie "teak" Lazaar and yet another had me on the edge of my seat expecting to hear the familiar strain of "feelin' groovy!" Dig that crazy farsifa sound of Pietra's. Only listened once since it didn't seem like a promising candidate to take to the gym.

The Cars-Complete Greatest Hits on Rhino which is certainly more complete than my '85 or so Elektra edition of the Cars greatest hits. 13 tracks vs. 20 = no contest. Oddly I'm not sure it's remastered but it still sounds good and will be a nice occasional spin.

Portis Head-Live at Roseland NYC. Didn't like it at all. I've yet to hear any Portis head that I really like.

The Beatles Live @ the BBC. With two discs I've only managed part of 1 but it was OK. At the release date of this album I guess all of the tracks I've listened to were previously unreleased which was a pleasant surprise. Much more of a 50's rock and roll feel which I liked.

Switchfoot-The Beautiful Letdown. Honestly this one was for my boys who said they really liked Switchfoot. Hey-it's way better than the rap they usually listen to so I was all for it. Actually really liked one track, just forget which one. Overall fairly generic alt. type rock that you don't really even know is playing. Like I said, a giant leap over rap for me.

DJ Kaskade-It's You, It's me. It's Dreadful save for one pretty cool track-Seeing Julie

The Faint-Wet From Birth. Love it but for cryin' out loud why o' why did they include the gawd awful and painfully stupid track "Erection"? Neither clever, funny, nor witty, I don't have time for that kind of nonsense.

And finally my favorite new spin over the past week was undoubtedly Erasure-Pop! TheFirst 20 Hits . Made me smile from start to finish. Your results would be the exact opposite.

jc