Overwhelming Excitement

(Or, Mid-Week Day Off With Nothing To Do But DL New Music)

Rejoice. It's a sunny Thursday. The kids are outside screaming and causing a fuss, geese are mating (seriously...since 11:30pm...it's driving me nuts!), dogs are barking and I have the day off. So with all this loveliness spinning around the universe, what am I doing in my apartment?

To tell you the truth: I'm in mourning. In the mid-morning hours, I finished the final episode of The Wire (a.k.a. "the greatest show ever") and I need some time to recuperate. I'm still devastated by the abrupt and unapologetic deaths of [name removed] and [name removed]. My tears are still drying after [name removed] and [name removed] parted ways, especially now that [name removed] is on the junk now. The feel-good snapshots of some beloved characters' hopeful futures wasn't enough for me. I'll throw in my undying-affection-and-fandom vote (especially Season 4...best eva). Now I need to find my next fix. I've apparently learned nothing about the ills of addiction...

So after setting my education level back 5 years by watching First Sunday, the new Ice Cube opus (granted, worth it for whatever Tracy Morgan I can get in this 30Rock drought, but otherwise completely insipid), and Alien Vs. Predator Requiem (poof! all of high school just disappeared too), I had to take a quick catnap to really contemplate what I had just cost myself. Waking up to the soothing sounds of the new Portishead, I realized the true point of this day.

Music. What else? In recent days, I've had a few epiphanies, most important being: 2008 is actually shaping up to be a pretty fantastic year for music. 2007 has officially been filed under "memories and hindsight" and I've had time to actually consider the quality of those as-of-yet-unpublished 2007 Top 20 Lists. While still pretty good, 2007 was indeed not the year that music would save my life.

Take time to contemplate some of the fruits that will have been released by the time 2008 is done: Metallica, Oasis, Weezer, U2, Coldplay, NIN, Ours, The Vines, Franz Ferdinand, REM, Moby, Madonna, Janet Jackson, Mariah, Jewel, The Breeders, My Morning Jacket, Alanis, Sheryl Crow, Death Cab For Cutie, The Roots. So many heavy hitters, only 12 months to strike. And I'm pretty sure there's hundreds more I'm not aware of...

While the love for 07's new class is still fresh in my iPod (Bat For Lashes, Kate Nash, Paramore, The National), I'm already on the search for more. Duffy. Vampire Weekend. And my current fave, Santogold. Check out the video for "L.E.S. Artistes." I don't know why people have dubbed her as the new M.I.A. (because they're both unique and brown? I don't know either...), but she's fantastic on her own. Lest you think it's just going to be a weird Missy Elliot-inspired video, be patient for the end, when it just gets weird in general.