Christmas comes early for The Music Crumudgeon

You know I've been anticipating this when my reaction to seeing this in my hands is to literally jump in the air and say "WOW!" then proceed to drop it in my I-tunes and put it on an infinite loop. On the quick here, there are lots of great instrumentals like the spacey where's-my-bong of The Next Day, the lovely sax harmonies of the unlisted final song, or the cheeky retro 80's dance floor of Pillow Fight but, for my money, it's the songs that are like manna from heaven. Suprean's gift for melody, phrasing, and lyrics are all here. Drain Me (easily the highlight for me) is HOA at her lyrical best - wrenching stop the world on its axis stuff - and, without giving anything away, the way the song ends is nothing short of brilliant. Sister Stories has a sweet chorus that is nothing short of intoxicating. The pretty and melancholy Sad Dancing sounds like the sad counter part to ABBA. Sit Right Here shares themes of longing and anxiety that were a hallmark of best of the songs from Lemming Baby. The biggest curve ball is a guest vocal by Joe Mathlete on Versus which sounds like Suprean and Mathlete doing some fucked-up version Berlin era Bowie. But yadda yadda yadda, I need to get back to editing these photos for tomorrow's Jameson & Lonestar but I just had to share my excitement. Woo!