Okay, so I was under the mistaken impression that today was when the new album came out… but evidently it’s been available for more than a week, and for longer than that online. Hmm. Maybe I should check their website more frequently instead of just going by what I “remember?”
In any case, I got it. Came home, listened to it all the way through. Still processing it, although I will say that the beginning of “Love and Peace or Else” rocks. I think I need a subwoofer to properly experience it, however :) More to come.
U2 is one of the few bands that I will buy an album from without having listened to any of it first. I think that attitude with regards to a band or an artist comes close to being the definition of a “favorite.” The only other artists/bands I’d do that for I think would be BT, Jars of Clay, Hooverphonic, Over the Rhine, and George Winston. What artists/bands would you do that for?
for the “world”
Rufus Wainwright, Caedmon’s Call, Jars of Clay, George Winston, and Bebo Norman.
I’m laughing at the last one:-) I have a slightly painful memory of a grad student inviting me back to his apartment, lighting a fire, and putting on a George Winston album. “This one’s my favorite,” he said. “It’s called ‘Love and Longing.'”–this last with a meaningful leer.
But I digress. I’d probably buy the new U2 w/out listening too, and also albums by Mark Knopfler, Tracy Chapman, Mary Chapin Carpenter, and maybe a couple of others that don’t come to mind. I used to be much more careless about this, but now, given the ease of listening to tracks online, I’m more cautious in general.
Ouch. Way to ruin George Winston with an inappropriate leer. Those kinds of approaches to romance (at least at a certain stage in a relationship) make my skin crawl.
I used to be the same way. I’d hear a song I halfway liked on the radio and buy the whole album without having heard the rest. Of course I also didn’t know how to handle disposable income at that point in my life, but I got lucky on a few albums.