Anyone who knows me will be familiar with my love for music, I've already written a couple of posts about new music that I was introduced to during the summer - Imogen Heap and then subsequently Frou Frou.
I'm still really enjoying those albums, but didn't want to risk over playing them so went in search of some similar music, as well as anything else that I might enjoy.
My first stop was Last.fm - If you haven't used this site, you really should. It's basically a player that creates a custom radio station, playing artists similar to those which you already know. It's amazing what new tracks you'll end up hearing and new artists and groups that you'll discover.
I also listened to Chill, a radio station that started off on DAB in the UK, but now has a web stream as well. If you'd like to try it out, you can use the website, which has a java player, or you can click here for a direct link to the stream.
So, now onto the albums that I bought having discovered them on either Chill or Last.fm...
Empathy, by Mandalay.
This album is very high quality chill out music, from the minute you listen first listen to it, you can tell how well it has been produced.
Apparantly, Madonna said that Mandalay was her favorite group when she first heard this album, which I'm sure helped their record sales.
Mandalay do have a second album, called Instinct. Both of these albums were only released in Europe, though in the US, they launched a double album called Solace, which contains most of the tracks on these two albums.
Unfortunately it is pretty difficult to get hold of, only being available from Amazon sellers, rather than Amazon directly. I did see that HMV have some copies pretty cheap though, after I'd paid quite a bit for it!
Highlights for me are track 4 - Another, and track 8 - Beautiful; though the whole album is good.
I Megaphone, by Imogen Heap
It's only natural that I should want to listen to Imogen's first album, but it is an absolute nightmare to get hold of. Amazon in the UK don't have any copies, and the sellers are asking a lot of money for used ones. I think I may have to order this from Amazon US and wait for it to be delivered some time between now and Christmas.
I Megaphone isn't as good as Speak For Yourself, but it is still a good album. I can't stop listening to track 9 - Come Here Boy at the moment.
Interestingly, Frou Frou is a collaboration between Imogen Heap and producer Guy Sigsworth, both English by the way! Mandalay was produced by Guy Sigsworth, and one of my other favorite artists, Alanis Morissette is now recording an album with Guy - I'm looking forward to that!
Scouting For Girls, by Scouting For Girls
This self titled debut album is a non offensive soft rock / pop album that I think sounds similar to Athlete, Coldplay and Keane.
It's nice to here something that sounds similar to these guys as I'm desperately waiting for the next Keane / Coldplay release.
It's not a bad album, but I can't see it being one of my favorites, but who knows, some albums do just grown on you don't they.
Their hit single is track 2 - She's So Lovely, and this is really the highlight of the album.
That's it for new CD's this month; I'm still committed to buying CD's of every album that I've ever downloaded, which is costing me a small fortune, but I'm very pleased with the leap in sound quality that I can now get by making perfect FLAC lossless rips of the originals, and there is a certain pleasure taken from the tactile handling of discs when you want to sit down and listen.
I might post another time an update to my house AV system, and how I go about ripping and playing back FLAC files in better than CD quality, that's a long post, and I'm tired now. I will give a brief mention though to my headphones which are truly amazing. They're called Shure e4c, here's a link to them, don't be put off by the price, they are well worth the money. They're also a huge step up from the e3c and e2c below them in the Shure range.
Have you ever listened to Brandi Carlile? She's more folk/rock as opposed to electronica, but her music is fantastic. Also, if you ever have the opportunity to see her live, do it - I've seen a lot of concerts in my day, and hers rank right up there. Her voice is amazing on her CDs, but they don't even compare to hearing her in person.
Posted by: NMS501 Group Project | 10/31/2007 at 12:50 PM
Whoops, I didn't realize that I'd posted this under my other blog account...pay no mind, it's just a group project for my graduate school class! In case you were confused, it really was me posting. :)
Posted by: Just_Ruby | 11/05/2007 at 11:41 AM