WTF, I'm not the first?

GH is Supergrass

Fun stuff.  Never heard of these guys.  A lot better than what I thought I was in for, no offense Ken, but you and I have pretty different taste.  This was something I could listen to. 

Deep Purple – Burn – 3.5

Burn is my favorite DP song, I wish that the rest of the cd was as good.  I listened to this one a lot because it was the only cd that gave me more than a week to review it.  Ian Gillan’s voice is one of the all-time greatest hard rock voices but David Coverdale is no slouch either.  There was no bad DP vocalist.  You fool No one was very Santana-ish.  I’m sure that songs like Sail Away and Coverdale had a huge influence on Chris Cornell.  I like the heavier stuff better, but this was a really good cd.      

Rush – Clockwork Angels - 5

By far the best Rush cd of the past 20 years.  The theme albums seem to work really well for Rush.  It’s rare that I really listen deeply to lyrics and knowing that Neil Peart is consistently voted the worst lyricist I was shocked that these really were pretty profound.  I couldn’t stop listening to this disk.  It didn’t hurt that they pre-released three of the songs over a year in advance of the actually CD.  Getting a taste of what was to come was a great marketing strategy, plus it paid off because I paid twice for three of the songs.  I’m placing the Garden as a top 10 all time best Rush song, so far removed from anything else they’ve done.

DB’s – Falling off the Sky – 3.5

Late entry so I didn’t have a lot of time to listen, but I loved it.  Usually it takes a few times to like something, but this clicked right away.  The bass tracks and the drumming really complimented the orchestration.  Really easy to get lost with songs like She Won’t Drive In the Rain Anymore.  Geeky vocals that perfectly matched the music.  The singer either sounded like the They Might Be Giants vocalist or Ernie from Sesame Street a little, but not in a bad way.  Maybe they can redo rubber duckie.    

Ministry – Psalm 69 the way to succeed - 4

There’s no way you can’t get an adrenaline rush when you listen to this cd.  I’m not sure why Ministry didn’t hit the mainstream, they have more talent than most of the other similar style bands.   It might be the vocals.  Regardless, this a kick ass cd and should be on every gym radio.  This is a Greatest Hits cd all on its own.

Discussion:
Vinyl is gone and soon the compact disc will join it as a thing of the past. The audio file formats that you can now choose from to store your music is becoming staggering. 
1. Do you feel that these compressed digital files are giving us inferior audio quality. Do you care? Is it just too convenient?  Even with a high end stereo I really feel that most people would be hard-pressed to tell the difference.  I live to listen to music and my car stereo can compete with the best and I still struggle to tell.  I miss vinyl, but I’m good with having my entire collection of music on a 2” x 5” iPod in my glovebox.   
2. Do you feel the price to download these digital audio files is reasonable.  $1.00 per song and the ability to purchase individual songs is worth every penny.  If I love a band I get the entire album, if I only like one song that’s what I get.  As an artist, a buck is a pretty good deal.

3. If D'Arcy's favorite guy (Mr Neil Young) comes up with a superior audio format- would you be willing to pay extra for better sound quality? How much extra- if at all?  Not sure what this is about, but I’m willing to listen to anything then make my call.  I never thought I’d convert to digital copies of my music either.  It would be nice to not have to keep re-buying all of the music I already have. 
4. Do you still buy cd's and/or vinyl?  Fewer and fewer.  Especially since the pdf files that come with the digital downloads give all of the extras that I used to buy the cds for.