New Sigur Rós, and another fancy box set.

Yay, new Sigur Rós album!

Rather reminiscent of the release of Radiohead's In Rainbows album, Sigur Rós recently announced their new album "Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust" just over a month before it was released. Personally I like this approach to things, as it means not having to wait ages for the new album to be released (and I assume it doesn't give much time for the new album to be leaked either). And even better, they've let everyone hear the album before it's release themselves by streaming it via their Dót widget thingy (and it's up on Last.fm too). My thoughts on the first listen of album were that I liked it, it didn't blow me away but I did like the fact that it sounded a bit more 'up beat' (at least the first couple of songs). Having listened to it a second time a short while ago I was into it more, I think this one could be a grower...

The other thing that the new album has in common with In Rainbows is the formats, notably the box set. I've always gone for limited editions of albums whenever I can (Björk's Post CD in a plastic handbag is pretty cool), but these usually cost only a small amount more than the regular releases. Now they're getting fancier... and much more expensive. Thankfully they're not too common as yet, however they are pretty fuckin' cool. In Rainbow's box set had the extra bonus of a second CD, a book and records, so you're getting your money's worth. Sigur Rós's box set sounds even better (and so it should be, seeing as it's £60): it's got the album on CD, a DVD on the making of the album, a unique cell from the Gobbledigook video, and a large 200(?) page book. And you also get the album via MP3 on release, as well as the regular CD earlier too. Nice! I also got the Portishead box set for Third too, so I'm starting to get a collection of the buggers...

One final random thought: Foo Fighters + Led Zeppelin = awesomeness!

Oops...

So I finally managed to get a week off work (first proper break since Christmas, and I think I would've gone a bit loopy if I didn't take some time off), it was nice to relax a bit and not have to do much, however looking back it's ended costing me a bit of cash. Oh well, it's not my fault that loads of CDs I wanted to buy were in the shops is it? Bought a couple of Cat Power albums (The Greatest and You Are Free), both of which I've been listening to loads, Moby's new album which is quite good too, Martina Topley-Bird's The Blue God which ain't bad, Rage Against The Machine's eponymous album which also ain't bad and The Future Sound Of London's From The Archives Vol. 4. which is pretty good (FSOL are really churning out the albums at the moment, I also got the Pulse EPs CD a week or two ago as well which is excellent, old-skool stuff).

I got the soundtrack album to Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull too, which I also saw in the cinema (took advantage of not working and saw the earliest showing, and being in the morning on a Thursday when most people are working meant that there was no hassles getting a seat). I did like it a lot, definitely not the best Indy film however. The film being set in the 50's instead of the 30's takes some getting used to, and the Russians just aren't as menacing as the Nazis from the previous films. I think it could've done without so many nods to the previous films too. Shia LeBeouf's character Mutt is a good addition though, it's good to see Marion again (the best 'Indy girl' in my opinion) and Harrison Ford can still handle the action of the Indy films.

All that, and my car needed it's first MOT, which it failed, so I had to get the horn fixed to get the MOT sorted. And a new tax disc too. Ouch! Maybe working's not so bad after all...