It is ON, Petey

Its that time of the year where I look at my CD collection and go, wow, there is so much here I have never listened to. And then I force myself to spend some serious time with each (half-assing it is only an option for a new CD.) There have been some fabulous results. I finally listened to the Arcade Fire Funeral which I bought probably almost a year ago, downloaded to the iPod which adds some shame. Since it was on EVERYONES top 10 list, I thought I would give it a shot. As everyone but me already seems to know, its a great album. The exciting part of it though was discovering 'Wake Up'. In addition to being a fabulous song, it is one of the songs U2 plays right before coming out on stage. Having seen them several times on this tour, I was very jazzed about finding that song as I loved hearing it in the stadium.
And now, for the controversy. I also started listening to Mercury Rev's Secret Migration. And man, do I love that album. I told Petey, who asked if I listened to Deserter's Songs, wildly held to be their best album. I hadnt so I put that in the mix as well. And I have to say, Secret gets my vote. Of course, Deserters has some really REALLY great songs. But as a whole, Secret delivers the goods for much longer than Deserters does. And any album that almost gets me to reach for the curling iron 'microphone' while I am already singing and dancing in the bathroom is just genius.

Other winners in this endeavor include Fiona Apple's Extraordinary Machine and most of the mixes The Swinger brings home.