On the playlist, or no Kylie X FTW?

I went on a writing binge this past weekend, knowing I’d be getting a new influx of listening material. I used up this month’s eMusic quota, and the last few weeks have been bountiful (for me, at least) in the retail sector.

I am, however, disappointed that the US release of Kylie Minogue’s X was bumped without much prior warning. It was supposed to hit stores on Feb. 12, 2008. It didn’t. An unconfirmed report on Wikipedia says the release was pushed back to March 2008. I’m skeptical — a release pushed back by a month usually has a more specific date. That vagueness makes me think it’s pushed back even further.

Well, Amazon has an import version for a reasonable price anyway, so there’s no onus for me to wait. Till then, I’ll be occupied with all the following stuff.

  • Adam Joseph, How I Seem to Be Joseph’s contribution to Music with a Twist’s Revolutions wasn’t the most striking track on the compilation, but this entire album actually holds together incredibly well.
  • Alexander Grechaninov, Passion Week, Kansas City Chorale, Charles Bruffy, conductor Won the Grammy for Best Engineered, Classical and was nominated for Best Choral Performance.
  • Anton Webern, Works for String Quartet, Emerson String Quartet I’ve been meaning to upgrade the Artis Quartett Wein MP3s I got from eMusic to CD, but when I saw the Emerson disc, I opted to get that instead.
  • Bob Mould, District Line Not as good as Body of Song, but it still covers a lot of ground.
  • Darren Hayes, This Delicate Thing We’ve Made Double albums are always so risky.
  • Duke Quartet/Andrew Russo, Steve Reich: Different Trains/Piano Phase; Marc Mellits: String Quartet No. 2 After hearing the Duke tackle Kevin Volans’ quartets, I wanted to see how they tackled this particular Kronos commission.
  • eighth blackbird, Strange Imaginary Animals Won the Grammy for Best Chamber Music Performance.
  • Fuji Fabric, TEENAGER I didn’t get into FAB FOX, but this one, I like.
  • Kicell, magic hour I think the major label studio budget makes a big difference.
  • Joan Tower, Made in America, Nashville Symphony Orchestra, Leonard Slatkin, conductor Won a slew of classical Grammys, so eh, why not?
  • John Adams, American Elegies, Orchestra of St. Luke’s I bought this album on cassette back in 1991 because it had a really compelling cover, but it ended up introducing me to Charles Ives’ The Unanswered Question.
  • Leo Imai, "Blue Technique" I broke down and bought this single. I’m fairly sure I’m getting Fix Neon when it comes out.
  • Michala Petri, Movements, Danish Symphony Orchestra, Shui Lan, conductor Nominated for Best Contemporary Composition Grammy Award for Northern Concerto by Joan Albert Amargós.
  • Nakamori Akina, Cruise This album bored the hell out of me when I bought it 1991, but when I listen to it again, I actually like the really subdued performance.
  • NICO Touches the Walls, "Yoru no Hate" I liked the name of the band, but really, they’re riding the coattails of ASIAN KUNG-FU GENERATION.
  • OBLIVION DUST, OBLIVION DUST A decent comeback, but it doesn’t quite erase the memories of Butterfly Head or Reborn.
  • Quruli, Philharmonic or die Dreams Come True had Sing or Die, Buffalo Daughter had "Health or Die, Song for Karen Carpenter" — what’s with this "or die" imperative in Japanese titles?
  • Terry Riley, Salome Dances for Peace, Kronos Quartet I really have to figure out why I’m not fond of the quartets Riley has written for Kronos.
  • Tracey Ullman, You Broke My Heart in 17 Places When Ullman debuted with The Tracey Ullman Show in the late ’80s, I actually recognized her from the video for "They Don’t Know", which had Paul McCartney making a cameo.
  • Soundtrack, TV Animation BLEACH Original Soundtrack 1 "On the Precipice of Defeat" is the primary reason I wanted this soundtrack.