Just the other day my sister went out and bought the latest Powderfinger CD on my behalf, as you really can't wait for good music to enter your ears. It's not a bad record, resembling Odyssey Number Five rather than Vulture Street in style. But I suspect I'll have to listen to it a few more times to let it grow on me.
But what would you rather have from a band you like, more of the same excellent familiar sounds which brought you to them in the first place, or something new and innovative? With each new CD I buy, the answer is never really so simple. A friend of mine recently gave his assessment of the new Linkin Park album by saying it wasn't as rock heavy as previous efforts, and that kind of took away from his opinion somewhat. Though the songs are not all as heavy as those on Hybrid Theory and Meteora, the overall quality is still very good, possibly the best body of work they have ever put out.
On the other hand, I was listening to the new Travis album which is the opposite of what Linkin Park have done. Their previous disc 12 Memories was a departure from their traditional sound, and on that occasion they alienated enough of their audience to result in it being a relative commercial failure. On the new one, The Boy With No Name, they returned to their traditional sound, which I'm sure old school fans will enjoy. While I don't mind the new CD, I actually appreciated the direction in which 12 Memories was going, so much that I found it disappointing that they didn't continue to explore this new realm.
I guess the new versus old sound in bands varies greatly, mostly depending on how successful the album is rather than the aural intentions of the band. Though peddling the same sound can get very boring for fans and critics who like to snipe. Something For Kate's Echolalia and The Official Fiction are both very good albums, but sound remarkably similar to the extent where you could play them back to back and it would come out sounding like it was from the same album. Fortunately the record following that, Desert Lights, was a lot more raw in nature, reproducing in part the excellent sound they are known for at live gigs.
I hope to have at least another shelf filled out before the year's out. Wish me luck!All of this does lead me to the title of this little entry, which is getting less and less little by the second. My new found fortune has allowed me to do a lot more, in particular buying stacks of CDs each month. It is lucky I don't pass by a record store on my way to work, otherwise I would have no disposable income to speak of. In fact, I would probably end up working there if I wasn't careful. Something tells me I should keep a track of what I'm buying in case I need an intervention performed on me. Maybe I need an anti-CD buying patch to stop my cravings, much like that pole dancer from those Nando's Chicken adverts which have next to nothing to do with selling chicken at all. Hmm, I suddenly feel like eating chicken at a strip club. That's what advertising does to an impressionable ex-youth like myself, I'm afraid.