I'm Now Part of The Solution

Like most college students, I get stuck in playlist autopilot from time to time. I often feel like my music collection resembles that of my married friends: you can tell the year they got married by the contents of their iTunes library.

To make matters worse, the few times that I have embraced new music in the past couple years has been through illegal downloading and burning CDs from friends. Well that all changed earlier this year, with a little help from my good friends Stafford and Pell.

Stafford and Pell have been known to fund my schooling over the past couple years. This ends up spilling over into them funding recordings of some of my songs as well. Anyway, thanks to their support, I have been able to once again become part of the solution, and pay for music, the old-fashioned way. Here are the top four albums I have purchased, with my own money, in 2008:

1) Against Me!, New Wave: Probably one of my favorite bands to emerge in the 2000's. This record manages to combine punk and pop in a perfect way that somehow manages to not be "pop-punk".

2) Weezer, Red Album: Classic Weezer. Rivers Cuomo is once again owning his insecurities like the badass nerd that he is. "I am the greatest man that ever lived," need I say more?

3) Beck, Modern Guilt: One of the more melodic Beck albums. 60's soul meets Danger Mouse beats. Good stuff.

4) Jack's Mannequin, The Glass Passenger: I just barely got this one, and like Everything in Transit, I expect this Jack's Mannequin record to grow on me. Which is a good sign, since I already like this one a lot. I think I just need to listen to it as the soundtrack to every possible day-to-day situation first to fully appreciate it.