so, what cds/tapes/records do you really like?  which ones do you wish you
never would have bought? this is the item for rating recorded music.

50 responses total.

Here's what's currently in my "take to the used record store" pile:
Dirty Three "Dirty Three"
EMF "Stigma"
The Prayer Chain "Shawl"
Nine Inch Nails "Further Down the Spiral"
Ann Magnuson "The Luv Show"
MC 900 Ft Jesus "One Step Ahead of the Spider"
Barenaked Ladies "Gordon"
Tori Amos "Crucify"
Candlebox "Candlebox"
Dada "American Highway Flower"

Not that I hate all these albums, I just don't lsiten to them and don't want
to start.

What I've been listening to a lot lately:  
311 "311"
They Might Be Giants "Factory Showroom"
Rage Against The Machine "Rage Against The Machine"

        You don't like that Ann Magnuson album?  Hmmmm bummer I haven't
heard it but I really like everything she did with Bongwater.

there's not a lot in my collection that i don't like, but i'd say the cure
, god i can't even member the album title now, but it has picture's of you
on it... that one, i don't really like it a lot, that's prolly my least
favorite that i own.. i used to have annie lennox "medusa" but that got lost
somewhere along the line, that was really good... thought i'd share;)

My new favorite (listened to it every day since i got it) is a talking record.
The Boxed Life, Henry Rollins.  Also revived "Pop Smear" by The Verve Pipe,
found I don't like it as much as I used to.

I don't listen to a lot of my earlier CDs (like "Best of REO Speedwagon"),
but I try to listen to all of them every now and then

The CDs on heavy rotation:
Sarah McLachlan - Fumbling Towards Ecstacy
Tori Amos - Little Earthquakes
Nine Inch Nails - The Downward Spiral
Philip Glass - Hydrogen Jukebox
Please Save My Earth image soundtrack

Lets see..........

The new Korn "Life is Peachy" makes my want vomit.....twice.

What I listen to most right now is:
NIN...Pretty Hate Machine
NIN...Broken
Milla...The Divine Comedy
Marilyn Manson...Antichrist Superstar
The Crow Soundtrack
and 
XTC...(can't remember the title)

Let's see, what have I been listening to lately???
These are probably my favorites right now:

Steve Vai, Fire Garden
Bush, Razorblade Suitcase
STP, Tiny Music...Songs from the Vatican Gift Shop
White Lion, Pride

ah, so you like razorblade suitcase?  i've heard bad things about it... but
i wouldn't be a very good judge myself.. i don't particularly care for most
bush..

 wow... sounds like what i did.. i  took out my old  old tapes nd listened
to them... things like early Elvis Costello, and ab unch of others... alot
of punk/ ska... brought back memories of myself in the bathroom trying to get
my hair the perfect shade of green, red, and yellow.... and other wonders like
that.  Hard to believe that i listened to ska/punk sometimes! but hey! that
is just me!  =P

        This past week in the CD shuffler was: Bing Crosby, Tempest,
Heather Alexander, Michael Longcor, and Best Irish Drinking Songs.
Of course, it was St. Patricks/ Celtic / Power Celtic  week.

  Hmmm..  Biggest pleasant surprise of last year,

  Mad Professor v. Massive Attack -- "No Protection"  Dub specialist
  Mad Professor re-mixes English trip-hop act Massive Attack's "Protection"
  album into something that I find more interesting than the regular work of
  either half of the equation.  Like many of my all-time favorite albums
  my initial impression of this one was vaguely negative but my initial
  disappointment soon gave way to a curiousity that eventually progressed
  to fascination and it hasn't been far from my CD changer ever since.

Newest fascination is Kim Richey's BITTER SWEET.  I hadn't expected to 
be interested in it, but it was being played at Schoolkids.
It's all the things I shouldn't like: a highly polished major label 
country album out of the Nashville machine.  But I find the songwriting 
and arranging very strong: it reminds me of mid-70s stuff by 
Bonnie Raitt and Linda Ronstadt.  Might not appeal to readers who aren't
over 35.  :)

Stuff that' been going through my players lately....
Dar Williams (ALL)
Rush(ALL)
Styx & Supertramp (best of)
King's Singers
Three men and a Tenor

Fish: Sunsets on Empire
Marillion: This Strange Engine
Marillion: Six of One, Half-Dozen of Another
Blue Oyster Cult: Secret Treaties
Black 47: Fire of Freedom

The recent biggies...
Rickie Lee Jones:  Naked Music, Live and Acoustic
Harry Partch:  Castor & Pollx and Even Wild Horses, mostly
Orb:  Orblivion
Forest For The Trees:  Forest For The Trees

More Fish: Vigil in a Wilderness of Mirrors
Please excuse me for excessive obsessing...  I'll get over it as soon as I
can...

Some recent album purchases that've turned out to be mistakes:

Various Artists -- "If Deejay Was Your Trade: The Dreads at King Tubby's"
I might once have thought that you couldn't do too badly buying an album
with King Tubby's name on it but this one proves me wrong, wrong, wrong.
I thought I was buying another King Tubby dub compilation but that's not
what this was -- instead I got recycled dub instrumental tracks marred
by unenjoyable (for me, at least) DJ toasting.  A waste of plastic as far
as I'm concerned..

Pixies -- "Doolittle"  Yeah, I know everyone else in my generation loves
them but after buying this one cheap while on a nostalgia kick I remembered
why it is that despite years of living with Pixies fans I'd never before
bought one of their albums.  In my opinion you could put together *one*
killer album if you took all of the best Pixies tracks and put them
together.  Unfortunately that material's spread out over five or so albums
and several EPs and the rest just does nothing for me.

Var. Artists -- "Sometimes God Hides: A Young Person's Guide to Discipline"
Has a number of good tracks but was a complete failure for me as a sampler
as I already seem to have the album of every track I liked and the other
tracks on the disc only convinced me to *not* check out the albums from
which they were taken.

Sneaker Pimps -- "Becoming X"
Tricky -- "Pre-Millenium Tension"
I guess the best thing I can say is that I bought the two of them together
from Schoolkids' used store for $5.99 total -- not sure it was worth it.
I don't really like either of them.  I'm still looking for a "trip-hop"
album I'll like as much as my benchmark for comparison, Massive Attack v.
Mad Professor's "No Protection".  I've heard good things about Tricky's
"Maxinquaye" but after "Pre-Millenium Tension" I'm not sure I want to try
it.  Recommendations pro/con?

Banco de Gaia -- "Last Train to Lhasa"
Perhaps slightly better than average for techno but still seems sterile,
soulless, and un-engaging.  Every once in a while I pick up a techno or
trance album based on an enthusiastic recommendation but I never seem to
enjoy them.  I guess I Just Don't Get It.

i got Ani DiFranco - living in clip, the live double album about a month a
go.. it's great, and i listen to it, over and over and over, and over some
more:) 

This Mortal Coil: It'll End it Tears, Filigree & Shadow
Moev: Head Down
Cranberries: Everybody else is doing it...
Cordelia's Dad: Cordelia's Dad. 
Getaway Cruiser: Phones Calling
soundtracks: Before the Rain, Mary Reilly
(that's all I can think of at the moment)

  Hmmm..  the single "Head Down" appears on a promotional compilation
  from Nettwerk but I never bought or listened to it because after a
  few other purchases from the compilation I learned that the compiler
  had done an excellent job of picking the only song on the album I
  liked..  You say the rest of the album is good?

well, I think it is good. It includes the song "In and Out", which was the 
real reason I got it. I had been hunting for that song for over three 
years. I was pleasantly surprised to find a copy of the CD NEW at Schoolkids
a few months ago. 

I really like the new P.J. Harvey "Is this Desire?"  It has the passion
of blues music but with much more interesting chord patterns.  The instrumen
tation is interesting too quitly intense piano & guitar pices alternate with
driving guitar and and almost electronica but with distortation backed
pieces.  Her lyrics are also very literate tales of desperation more
what you expect from a singer songwriter than from a rocking woman
who belts lyrical intensity.

        I got the recent Peter White CD at Borders, where it comes
with a bonus disk.

Just got the new Cry, Cry, Cry cd....wonderful stuff.  (It's made up of Dar
Williams, Richard Shinedll, & Lucy Kaplansky)

Neil Finn - Try Whisteling This  (Former lead of Crowded House)

  "In Gabriel's Garden" by Wynton Marsalis is getting a lot of play, and I
really like it.

I've been listening to a whole lot of barenaked ladies lately - but 
that's just in preperation for the concert on the 27th of next month.  
Woo Woo!  
Other than that, the usual Ani DiFranco has been getting a lot of play 
on my semi-new stereo, as have the beatles, and Red Hot Chilli Peppers - 
What Hits?  which I bought last night.

I Just picked up Sinaed Lohan's CD, N Mermaid....really good...sounds like
Sinaed O'Conner at times, like Sheryl Crow at others, but it's just a really
listenable cd.  :)

I was pretty pleased with the Sinead Lohan album as well.  Now, where did 
I put it?  :(   She has an earlier album, released only in Ireland, which 
I never heard; reviews I saw indicated that the the NO MERMAID album 
was a big improvement, so I probably won't hunt down the earlier
release.

Err, Ken, I have it. Grin. It's right by my hand (at work) as I type
this!

I just picked up Poignant Plecostamos' CD. It translates into "Touch the cow"
but I can't remember the record title in French. It's a great blend of fusion
jazz, traditional folk music, funk, and ska. I love it!

I went looking for it at Borders today.  The Borders staff said they 
wished the band would bring some over for them to sell.

I've seen copies at Tower Records. I'm sure you could contact Poignant
Plecostomus at poignant@cyberspace.org and get mail-order info.

I really like Bare Naked Ladies:Gordon (group:album)

I met them when they were touring small music shops for the
Gordon tour.
They were pretty fly for some white guys,

oh wowzers, I'm extra jealous now carla.  last time they were in detroit 
they heard from this girl who had cancer and couldn't make it to the 
show cause she had chemo that day, they canceled all their stuff for the 
afternoon and visited her.  Now if only they'd come back on a day I was 
in chemo.... <grin>

I just got a really cool album by Queensryche.  It's called Mindcrime, and
is a heavy-metal concept album!  The really amazing thing is that they pull
it off, and do it really well!

Yup, "Operation Mindcrime" put Queensryche on the map.  I still listen to it
once in a while.  It's a "rock opera"!  

Yeah, they even have a "cast" listing...

A few years ago in my life as a stagehand I worked the "Empire Tour" show in
Muskegan.  This was the last tour where they did the whole of Operation
Mindcrime.  It was a pretty cool show, with some projected animation.  But
the best part was when the band suddenly stopped and the lead singer asked
"...So who knows how Mary died?" (hears shout from front row) "Death by
electric pleasure toys?  No, but that would be a good way to go...".

- Backtalk version 1.3.30 - Copyright 1996-2006, Jan Wolter and Steve Weiss