March music

March was sort of a slow month for music. Not a lot of new discoveries that I'm really excited about. Here's some stuff that I picked up however

The Church el momento siguiente The Church continue to amaze me with their vast collection of albums. El momento siguiente is their second "unplugged album". One of the things I love about The Church is that their music is amazing electric or acoustic. Electric they create a beautiful ethereal sound that transcends into haunting beautiful soundscapes, but acoustically they create a very intimate feel that is best listened with candlelight. This was actually a rare find. Previously the only way to get this album was through the band's website for $30. This was one those brilliant discoveries I made while looking through a local record store. I saved about $10.


Joy Electric The Otherly Opus I had heard Ronnie Martin stumble through some of these songs a few month's ago in Portland. I'd say they sound much better on the album, but that's because Ronnie wasn't familiar with them live. This is a vast improvement over his last album Ministry of Archers which I never cared for that much. It is along the same lines, but this time it just works better.

Peter Murphy aLive for Love The former led singer of Bauhaus brings a middle eastern feel to his solo catalog. Some of his more recent work has leaned heavy towards lots of middle eastern sound, but in this concert he changes the arrangements of such alternative gems "Indigo Eyes" and "Cuts You Up" to fit his current style. The album comes off as intimate candle light music.

U2 The Rare Collection Even the rabid U2 fan that I am, some tracks eluded me. No more. I have to admit, I didn't not obtain this album through conventional means. To due so, I would have had to spend $140 through itunes to get the 10 new songs I don't already have. Stand out tracks include "I Love You Like Mad" which could have been a decent B-side, "Leviatate" and "Flower Child" both outtakes from "All You Can't Leave Behind". "Beautiful Ghost" apparently didn't fit on the "The Joshua Tree". It's a beautiful opening song that could have taken the place of "Where the Streets Have No Name". It's a organ song with that builds with Bono speaking poetry. The high light for me is their cover of Cole Porter's "Night and Day". Previously this song was impossible to find except on the charity album "Red Hot and Blue". Bono puts so much passion into this song that comes across as pure bittersweet desperation. This song is really special to me since it marked a turn in musical direction for u2 while rumors of their break up floated around.

Innocence Mission Befriended Instead of buying their new album "We Walk in Song", I decided to take a chance on some older stuff. The opening song "Tomorrow On the Runway" is one of those songs that I can't get past. It's such a beautiful song about being left behind while someone else moves on to better things. The album got a lot of subtle keyboards which gives the album more of a organic feel than previous albums.