What sweet music...

So, to my greatest love; music. A little bit about my tastes first. I have what could fairly easily be described as an eclectic taste in music. That is to say I enjoy listening to everything from the rawest of bedroom black metal 'bands' i.e. Willing Feet to some ridiculously well produced pop that I really ought not to like, such as OneRepublic. Definitely a guilty pleasure of mine. Between these two extremes are my more usual listening tastes, which, currently, revolve around a bit of indie rock (Arcade Fire's new album, more on that later), a lot of the more progressive elements in metal; Mastodon, Planks, Primordial, Neurosis, etc... and finally some bluegrass/country and western such as Justin Townes Earle, Bela Fleck and William Elliott Whitmore. A mere smattering of what I enjoy listening to, but you get the picture.

I think it's probably best I only tackle one or two albums at a time, so with that in mind, I propose to say absolutely nothing new about the Arcade Fire album 'The Suburbs', other than to say it is spectacular and I cannot, absolutely cannot recommend it highly enough to everyone. Seriously, just give it a listen, even if you've heard their stuff before and immediately thought 'Eurgh! Whiney, 'emo', indie shit.' This is different. This is an album that the BBC dared to say 'You could call it their OK Computer. But it's arguably better than that.' And if that doesn't at least make you sit up and stare, then I don't really know what will.

The second album is Justin Townes Earle's newest album 'Harlem River Blues', which to my mind is an absolutely masterpiece of bluegrass, country, rock 'n' roll, soul and general all round brilliance. It's only 32 minutes long, so it's that perfect length for re-listening, which, trust me, I have (my iTunes play count is telling me I've listened to the whole album at least nine times) and I know I have listened to it at least that many times again on my iPod. So, my recommendation to you for today is to track down this album and at least give it a try. If you think that all bluegrass is Hank Williams-esque vocals 'Lord, I jus' don' know what to dooOoo' (thank you Shawshank Redemption for exposing the world to that particular soundbite) and banjos. Think again. This is alcohol steeped, soulful music that I for one seem to find absolutely essential.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I am getting the peculiar sensation that my arms are very long and I'm writing this from a great height, so I suspect I need some breakfast and a shower to re-awaken my sense of perspective and depth.

Joe