Much new music today as indie rock superstars Bright Eyes and …And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead released new discs (two in Bright Eyes case). I found the Trail of Dead on Rhapsody (a streaming music service I subscribe to) this morning, and then I went ahead and burnt nearly my entire iTunes gift card on the two Bright Eyes. This was my first purchase through the iTunes store, and while the buying process was very slick, how come I can’t get files at a higher quality than 128 AAC? And I’m sorry, but 99 cents per song (or $9.99 per album) is just a little too much to pay. I just looked and I could have gotten the Bright Eyes discs from Barnes & Noble.com today for $8.38 each and the Trail of Dead for $11.18, complete with case and booklet and higher quality files. Rhapsody lets you burn tracks for 79 cents each, which seems more reasonable, but they have a funky interface that requires that you burn tracks to a CD, *and* I’ve also heard that the new iPod software doesn’t let you play tracks downloaded from Rhapsody. The digital music revolution has been fun, but why is it taking so long to fix problems like these? Oh well, maybe this is the answer. Get here please, future, thanks.
I could never be a music critic—it usually takes me at least 5 or 6 close listens to really judge how much I like a particular album, and these days the car is pretty much the only place I can listen to things at full volume. And even when I feel like I “get” an album, I have no idea whether it will stick—whether I’ll be pulling it out in the months and years to come. I could probably make a pretty good 2002 music top ten list now, but I tried to make one for 2004 last week and utterly failed.
That said, I really enjoyed my new music today. My brain still thinks Trail of Dead are posers, and their lyrics are bad. But dammit, they rock out, and they come up with some mighty memorable tunes. The new disc probably isn’t as good as the punishing Source Tags and Codes, and fans of ToD’s “harder” output will probably be disappointed, but the airy arrangements, prog rock feel and operatic sweep simply make me giddy. It’s a risky album, but it’s progress, I think.
I don’t have as much of a handle yet on the Bright Eyes discs, although the acoustic one is clearly the most accessible music Oberst has ever made, and the “electronic” one isn’t really all that electronic—just straight ahead indie guitar rock for the most part. Lifted is one of those albums that “stuck” for me—I wasn’t too impressed at first, but I kept coming back—so I’d be really surprised if these discs can surpass it, but I’m looking forward to finding out.
And, because we’re fair and balanced here at f.s.m.c., here are two high-profile trashings of the above albums.
And this looks fun, though it will take a few months to become really interesting.
And while I’m linking, please I need this.
