Digital Sextant

emusic downloads:

• Flogging Molly, selections from Whiskey on a Sunday — I already own copies of most of the tracks on this album that mixes live and acoustic rerelases of other songs. But I was able to get one new song, the delightful “Laura,” and several acoustic renderings of old favorites, the best of which is “Drunken Lullabies.”
• Aquabats, the rest of The Return of the Aquabats – solid mid-90s ska. The best of the remaining songs is “Tarantula,” a boppy little number.
• Johnny Cash, American Recordings — “The Beast in Me” works really well, as does “Thirteen.” Every now and again you really need to listen to Johnny Cash to remind yourself what amazing singing sounds like.
• Jonathan Coulton, selections from JoCo Looks Back — “I crush everything” and “The Future soon” were the only songs on this album that I didn’t have already. The former is about a sad Giant Squid.
• Tim Booth, selections from Bone — the lead singer of James made this nice solo album. I downloaded four of the tracks and enjoyed them.

Jamendo downloads:

• Ben’s Imaginary Band, Nocturnal Fables and Illusions — Ben’s light, lithe vocals dance along above his ethereal music and solid light guitar work. It reminds me of the more dreamy tracks from groups like Belle and Sebastian. My favorite tracks are “Nostalgia, In Retrospect” and “Life in a Cave.”
• Hunt Club, The Hunt Club EP 2006 – decent recording of metal-infused pop/punk. It’s fine, but didn’t do much for me. I particularly don’t like “LAmerica.”
• Nexus, Love Technology — Nexus is a group in the vein of Crystal Method and other house/techno ensembles. The music is solidly put together and enjoyable enough, but honestly it all just sounds like Dance Dance Revolution to me. Worth checking out if that genre’s your thing, though, as there are several albums available on Jamendo.

No Jamendo next month, as I have a couple store bought albums to listen to.

Here’s a video of JoCo singing “I Crush Everything”