CDs

Since I've come to Australia I have bought:

Jeff Buckley - Grace. I don't know why it's taken me so long to actually own this CD.
Jeff Buckley - Sketches from My Sweetheart the Drunk. It's also about time I got this. I haven't listened to it much, but the inlay card waffles about how the songs weren't finished. I'd have to repeat what Herbie said about Miles a week or two ago - I think most singer/songwriters would have been delighted to have recorded some of Jeff Buckley's mistakes.
Easy Star All Stars - Radiodread. This is so much fun! From the start of Airbag you can just feel the subtlety with which they've changed it, only moving what they had to. The Jamaican edge to Fitter Happier makes me smile.
The Flaming Lips - The Soft Bulletin. A friend lended me this CD in April last year and I loved it from the beginning. Sadly when my MP3 player died, so too did my rip of this album, and there was no time to re-rip it. Now I've bought it I realise I was missing the first track, and now I've fallen in love with the album all over again.
The Flaming Lips - Clouds Taste Metallic.
The Flaming Lips - Transmissions from the Satellite Heart. Haven't listened to these yet. The weight of expectation bears heavy on them though.
Simon and Garfunkel - Old Friends; Live on Stage. They sound older, slightly more out of breath in some of the quicker ones. The songs sound brighter, looser, more fun. Somehow that takes something away from the earnestness of the original recordings. I haven't heard the Central Park album, but I imagine it to be similar. Still, they're the two voices and the one songwriter that are the most enduring listening in my collection, and I'm still taken with this new take on the old material. I'm still kicking myself for not having made the concert in 2004 in Hyde Park.

I've realised I haven't bought a bad CD yet since I left the UK. Maybe on a traveller's budget, I'm being more careful, or maybe as I get older I'm just finding more and more joy in all music. Maybe I've just been lucky. Anyway, more brief CD reviews will follow next time I get some spare cash!

And I'll buy some jazz next time too.