I’m not a great blogger, really - I’m not totally sure what’s relevant to posting here. For example, today I had to go for a walk for an appointment, and ended up buying the second part of the second series on Twin Peaks on my way home. Then, just as I was leaving the store, I noticed they had Puyo Pop Fever for only $20, and decided to buy that too. I’m not sure that’s terribly important, but it did make for a pretty good morning. Currently, I’m eating some rather delicious mettwurst and listening to the new Joel Plaskett album, La De Da. It’s super hot alt.country. Actually, that’s more or less what this update is about - when I’m not getting paid to write about the world of video games, I’m doing freebie work for local music magazine DB, so I just thought I’d point out that I have five reviews in the latest issue, and you should all read them.

Firstly, there’s this one for the new Maximo Park album, Our Earthly Pleasures. It’s a good album, but not a great one. That single ‘Our Velocity’ is pretty amazing though, isn’t it? I’d probably hate it if it weren’t so goddamn catchy.

Next up is this one for the début album from Old Man River, an Australian group who I gather are pretty popular or something of that nature. I found the album to be entirely insincere, which is something that really irritates me. Anyone who reads my CD reviews on a regular basis - and I’m assuming there must be at least one person, even if it’s only the editor at DB - would probably notice that I have a bit of a thing for “raw” sounding recordings. Old Man River’s sound is a little too considered and plastic for me. On a similar note, the latest album for New Estate, Is It Real?, was a desperate attempt to sound like something that the band are not, which made the whole thing borderline unlistenable for me.

Much better was the newbie for Po’ Girl, Home to You, which was some pretty nice alt.folk with some excellent female vocals. It did veer off track here and there, but I should probably stop expecting every song on an album to be great - that never seems to happen all that much, really. Finally, and possibly most important to point out here, is the new album for New Zealand electro group Sola Rosa, Moves On, which is pretty excellent, with the exception of a few ill-advised tracks with vocals. Unfortunately, for some reason, the second half of the review got cut, so I thought I would post it here for the sake of completion:

“The album’s closer and title track is also well measured and restrained, though perhaps a little too much so, as its late night flute tinged funk leaves the listener actually wanting more; it could have gone well beyond its 5 minute track length without feeling bloated at all.

That’s the beauty of the Moves On in many ways, though – while many albums in the genre can seem initially appealing, only to drag by the end, Sola Rosa’s 45 minute effort is exceptionally well paced, as well as being wonderfully soulful and effortlessly cool.“

That’s pretty much all. I’m going to get back to work/Puyo Pop now.