Well, mostly about this day, the less said the better. Other than being my only day off, it didn't have much going for it. The trip to the park with Sarah and the dogs was very nice. This evening I shlepped over to Loco Pops and tried the Mexican Chocolate flavor. Outstanding! Definitely one of my faves, so far. I think the chile flavors I've tried may just edge it out, but not by much. And, to wrap things up on a big positve, I listened to 2 outstanding CDs: the Understanding by Röyksopp and Dimanche à Bamako by Amadou & Mariam. Reviews of the Röyksopp seem pretty mixed, with lotsa people comparing it negatively to Melody AM. Strangely, there's a lot of buzz about how on the new one all the songs sound the same. Which is how I felt about the first one. I think Röyksopp have showed a lot more variety this time out. There's maybe, on early listenings, no one song that stands out like "Eple" or "Poor Leno" did from Melody AM but overall I'm enjoying the Understanding quite muchly.
As y'all can see, sometimes when I'm trying to review a CD for XDU I'll go out and see what others have written. And sometimes I won't, usually when I just love everything about a CD. Like Dimanche à Bamako. I mean, Amadou & Mariam + Manu Chao... how could it not be killer? I particularly like the way it stays true to their sound, but adds the whole extra level of Manu Chao's off-kilter raggamuffin style. So of course, after I'd written up my little blurb for the station, I went online to check other reviews only to find lotsa sniping about how it all sounds the same. Or how it's really a Manu Chao record and not an Amadou & Mariam record. Both of which opinions are, of course, wrongwrongwrong. But, y'know, that's how it is. You start paying people for their opinions and they starting thinking they know things...