On the playlist, or this year is taking off too quickly

I can usually zone out during the first quarter of any year. Releases generally don’t pick up till about March, and the holiday slumber takes about half of January to shake off. 2008 doesn’t seem to be conforming to that pattern.

Last night, I made a trip to Waterloo Records to pick up a number of releases from the last two weeks, and I’ve dropped quite a lot of change over at YesAsia for some new releases, which should be arriving in my mailbox in the next few days.

So the items on this list also join the items from my last post for hours and hours of auditioning. At some point, I’m going to have to write about them.

  • 10,000 Maniacs, Blind Man’s Zoo Despite Natalie Merchant’s dark writing, producer Peter Asher managed to coax out the band’s most emblematic performances.
  • ACO, ACO BEST ~girl’s diary~ V, you’re right — ACO’s early albums are a frakking bore.
  • Ari Gold, Transport Systems I have to figure out what annoyed me about Space Under Sun, because I’m actually warming up to this one.
  • Bulgarian State Radio and Television Female Choir, Le Mystère de Voix Bulgares, Vol. 2 I originally thought I was going to buy this one digtially, till I heard the 30-second samples and realized I wanted the disc itself.
  • envy, Abyssal and All the Footprints You’ve Ever Left and the Fear Expecting Ahead Young man, use your indoor voice.
  • Hey Willpower, PDA I can’t seem to find Dance EP anywhere, but luckily, all four tracks appear on this album.
  • Joby Talbot, The Dying Swan Saw this mentioned on aworks, and the Duke Quartet is on it.
  • Kronos Quartet, At the Grave of Richard Wagner I let go of a number of CDs for cash when times got tough, so I’m initiating a Kronos Re-Acquisition Project.
  • K.U.K.L., The Eye The reviews on emusic warn this album might be hard to digest. Maybe if you don’t listen to enough eX-Girl.
  • Love and Rockets, Love and Rockets A friend back in high school tried to convince me this album was really good, and while I didn’t make the leap back then, I’m willing to give it another shot. I also had a jones to listen to "So Alive."
  • MASS OF THE FERMENTING DREGS, MASS OF THE FERMENTING DREGS OK, the year must really be looking up because I feel an urge to put this album on the 2008 favorite edition list. It’s not even February yet!
  • Nagai Mariko, Washing I’ve had this album for years, tried selling it various points with no takers. Now I don’t think I want to let it go.
  • The Magnetic Fields, Distortion Wow, this album lives up to its title.
  • Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Sinfonia Concertante/Rondo in C major/Concertone in C major Netherlands Chamber Orchestra, conductor: Yakov Kreizberg, violins: Julia Fischer and Gordan Nikolic, oboe: Hans Meyer What’s all this about Julia Fischer now?
  • Yorico, Negau and second VERSE Negau seems more like her debut Cocoon, but now that I’ve revisited second VERSE, I’m finding it a lot more charming than I first imagined.
  • Various composers, Sonic Rebellion: Alternative Classical Collection I despise the label "alternative rock", but I must admit a big motivation for listening to 20th and 21st Century works is because the mainstream classical audience scoffs at it.