I Heart iTunes

I decided to do some purchasing of music yesterday on iTunes and it reminded me of the incredible perks of buying music this way--like being able to sample each and every song on a disc before buying. But, even more, I got two really great albums that I just had to write about today. The first is James Blunt's Back to Bedlam. I think this man is my new music love, and he may be the first to bump my lifelong obsession with Dave Matthews back a couple of notches. This album is incredible. He's one of the few artists who can put together both a great beat with very meaningful and good lyrics. This really means something because a friend and I were just talking last week how, if you're paying attention to a song's lyrics, how you can pick up on a kind of half effort in weak rhymes. Granted, it's sort of entertaining to find those types of things, but I think James Blunt really creates a new level with which the music world will have to contend.


The other purchase that I made which I am loving is Jack Johnson's In Between Dreams. The reason I looked into his albums is because people have been coming into Borders, raving about the new Curious George soundtrack, which Jack Johnson does with some others. I sampled the soundtrack and it did not particularly appeal to my tastes, however his album (the first I mentioned) is fantastic. What he and Blunt both offer is a fresh sound. There are so many artists to enjoy out there, I just love having iTunes to take full advantage of this.

And as a funny aside, I have to mention the fact that I watched the end of Napoleon Dynamite last night, which has a song by When in Rome, called "The Promise," from the 80s. I immediately ran to iTunes after watching the credits to see if I could get it, but the good version (I think the original) is only available on the soundtrack, and you have to buy it in full to get that song. What a great song, though! Gotta love good 80s songs...I was obviously a child during that decade and am just catching up on what was available.