eMUSIC ROUND TWELVE

I closed out my first year of eMusic by screwing up. I had 23 downloads held coming into this last week, expecting that I would use most of them on a new release. That release, however, had 24 tracks. I spent some time trying to figure out what to do instead, sure that I had until the 10th to use up my downloads. I was wrong. I forgot completely that eMusic is on a 30 day cycle and it isn't always the same date each month. Oops. Needless to say, I won't let that happen again. And the good news is that the downloads I did managed to use were well worth it...

Sloan/Never Hear the End of It - I only had one Sloan album previous to this and liked it very much (One Chord to Another, which I downloaded a few months back). With this download, I have guaranteed that I will pick up everything they have done. This album is sprawling - 30 tracks long with short songs and longer songs, hard rockers and ballads and perfect pop songs, multiple songwriters, and many great songs which will be appearing on mixes I make throughout the year. Highly recommended.

The Broken West/I Can't Go On I'll Go On - The band formerly known as The Brokedown issues their debut album, following up on their great EP, The Dutchman's Gold. The album doesn't have as much country tinge to it, having much more of a power pop type of feel. There's nothing wrong with that. A must hear is "Down in the Valley" - check out their MySpace. Then you'll want to get the album too.