new alphaville!

found this on youtube:



do i find this to be disappointing, a weak attempt? absolutely not...this is brilliant classic alphaville, great big echo-y keyboards and all, and i think i'll be playing this over and over this weekend. this alien is thrilled.

the single will be released mid-october, with a whole big new album to follow in the weeks thereafter.

happiness

regarding HURTS happiness:

i've been posting (in anticipation) about this album for months, all based on how much i love, LOVE, the lead single, "wonderful life".

last week i came across a preview version of the album (thrilled), and having given it a couple listens, now, have the following impressions:

"wonderful life" is still the stand out track from the album. favorite single to pop out in the past several months. too many of the tracks are similar to "wonderful life", with heavy-handed bass and beats (said with admiration), but, applied to what would otherwise be mellow adult-pop songs. some come off a little too...easy-listening...or something.

which is not to say that the album is a loser. just doesn't live up to (what i interpreted as) the promise of "wonderful life". and that's to be expected, i suppose.

other stand-out tracks are "sunday" and "feels better than love", with their string-like arrangement. and there's a duet with kylie minogue, if you like that sort of thing.

i've kind of held the impression that HURTS is like spandau ballet, without the jazzy influences, especially after they released, "blood, tears & gold"...but much of this album is actually more like a-ha, particularly later a-ha (not "take on me").

i still have this on heavy rotation, so my impression may change.

val emmich album leaks

i'm very much looking forward to the new album by val emmich...for the next several days, he's going to leak a song from the album up till the release date. you can listen to them at this link:

http://www.valemmich.com/contest/audioplayer.html

highly recommended...very highly.

terrible

from the "i'm a terrible person" file:

today i was supposed to attend the memorial of a former coworker / friend. i really, really didn't want to go, for two reasons: i hate funerals, don't deal well with them at all; and so many of the former coworkers are people i go out of my way not to associate with.

so about an hour before i should have been getting ready to go, i figured i'd take a quick nap.

and woke up 10 minutes after the memorial started.

terrible person.

Lights Out - Rick Astley

so rick astley has a new video, "lights out". i question my own obsession with this man, because not only is his classic stuff pretty dated, but his new stuff is pretty weak.



the video makes me dizzy. and the constant stretching out of his arms...who said that was an appealing visual?

still...i'll go far and wide (online) looking for new tracks from him. (this particular track has "no release date" as of yet. why do i keep stalking bands that have new music, but no distribution deal?)

here's a much better track from several years ago...

loser

i've been avoiding a subject, because i don't want to sound all braggerson on it...but it must be shared: i'm less than two pounds away from having lost 30 pounds since the first week of june.

seriously.

i'm going to go all jenniferhudson and get on tv, telling the world. actually, part of the reason i've not talked so much about it is that i don't want to go all evangelical. the husband has been subjected to my weekly weigh-in results, and very, VERY supportive...but other than him, i try to keep it to myself.

nobody wants to hear about someone's weight plan.

but yes...it's kind of incredible to me. i'd figured that "at my age", chances of slimming down were pretty low. but it's been working. and the best part of all this: i haven't had to sacrifice any food favorites...the whole point is to plan for them now. and be subjected to a weekly weigh-in, which is hugely motivational.

and it's been working for me. yay.