Bane Macleod

Music for July/August

When I was thinking of various things to blog about last night I thought that I really need to share the constants in my life with people... Well, the constants other than work.

Probably the only thing that has been a solid interest throughout my whole life has been music. I work to music, I relax to music, hell, on the off occasion when I make love it's usually accompanied by music. I am possibly the only person to threaten to quit his job if he wasn't allowed to wear his iPod. The interest is there, so why not talk about music?

My tastes, though not complex, are somewhat eclectic. From folk to pop, rap to metal, and everything in between, there is really very little I won't give a listen to. It seems like every few weeks I have a new favorite artist in my ear, so I thought every now and again I would share some music I am paying special attention to at the moment.

A word of caution. Listening to so many genres can have a downside. Sometimes I don't get to music until long after others are done with it. A fine example is me getting into Tool about 100 years after their last album was out (but conveniently a few short months before the release of their newest).

The month of July has found me listening to a few albums that I found quite good.

After being exposed to Ok Go's "Get Over It" on my copy of Madden 2003 they were promptly forgotten about until I was browsing around on YouTube and came across the unbelievably cool Treadmill video for Here It Goes Again and popped them on the iPod. Tracks like "A Million Ways" and "You're So Damn Hot" got lots of plays quickly.

Pharrell is on the other side of the spectrum as far as artists I'm familiar with. His work as a producer, writer, and part of the now defunct N*E*R*D have all made their way into my collection. His latest offering was pretty much going to make its way in regardless. Production on the album is obviously fantastic, and his singing actually is a lot of fun. His rapping is little more than average, but being a Kanye West fan as well, that's sort of par for the course. The Gwen Stefani collaboration "Can I Have It Like That?" is probably my favorite track on the album.

Thom Yorke was another destined for the iPod. Being a big Radiohead fan left me waiting for this album... and I'd have to say I wasn't disappointed at all. It's one of the few albums I've had that doesn't have a disparity in plays between tracks. I'm perfectly content to sit through it. If I absolutely had to pick favorites "Black Swan" and "The Eraser" would be the tracks I'd pick. Though the music on "Harrowdown Hill" is likely to become my ringtone soon.