Got really bored of my itunes library today - which is pretty bad news as there's quite a few thousand tracks on there - like 12,000 plus. So I went shopping tonight for the out of the obvious and found some great albums kicking about that I meant to get at the time and forgot all about - such is life these days without record stores to plunder through:
Earlier this year, Finger Eleven released Life Turns Electric. I like Finger Eleven an awful lot - they're so under-rated it's untrue and without a major push here in the UK, they're likely to remain one of the best kept secrets around. There was almost a four year gap (seven if you take into account the UK release date) between their second album and Them Vs You Vs Me and apart from a couple of tracks, they had really twisted their focus and gone for a more commercial sound. Life Turns Electric sits well though - I thought they might have gone the whole shooting match but no. A little press on the rewind button and this has turned out pretty damn good all round. They have their own youtube channel here where you catch some decent previews of the album and find a link to the album on itunes - while you're there, if you're in virgin territory, you should probably check out the video to Paralyzer from Them Vs...
Ed Kowalczyk meanwhile has gotten himself caught in a war with his old bandmates from LIVE. Dumb all round really and the band are looking for a new singer… or maybe not. Ed's solo album Alive will do me just fine in the meantime. Truth be told, it's not that far removed from the last LIVE album (Black Mountain) and if you were into the band because of his lyrics and direction, you won't miss the rest of the guys much at all. I'm not holding my breath over it because I found something much better all round…
The Gracious Few self titled debut. Debut might be a bit of a misnomer though. It's not as though any of the guys in the band are short on experience. Chad, Chad and Patrick from LIVE are joined by lead vocalist Kevin Martin and Sean Hennesy from Candlebox - and the end result is the best album I've maybe heard all year long. Go find it - no disappointment to be had anywhere. Seriously grade A prime chops… both LIVE and Candlebox can stay buried based on this output.
So that should last me a couple of weeks or so. Roll on MCR's Dangerous Days… that Rob Zombie revamp album is calling my name as well.
As usual, couldn't resist a dig in the bookstore as well just in case I'd missed something - which I haven't - but I did pick up a copy of 1974, the David Peace book that became the first instalment of Red Riding. I missed the TV show completely which I'm kind of pleased about now as, even only a few chapters in, 1974 is turning out to be rather excellent and very different from the pages that normally pass through my hands.
Now, back to work...
