Spring Cleaning Two Seasons Late

I've been called a lot of things in the past.

Things like: Disorganized, self-sabotaging, modest, devastatingly handsome, ironic, Steve, immature and really awesome at making lists about myself.

But "tidy" has never been one of them.

So when I heard on the news that fall is here, I got to thinking, "Crud. I should probably get to that spring cleaning." (Keep in mind, this is Spring Cleaning '08. I'm not getting a jump on next year. Spring Cleaning '09 is penciled in for sometime around November of 2011.)

I ventured into my hallway closet and felt the sweet agony of 73 CD cases cascading from the top shelf onto my skull. I had a few minutes while I lay stunned on the floor to look at the jewel cases a little closer.

When I came to, I decided to give most of them a shot.

So here's the best of what I somehow let slip by me in the past few months. If I'm a little off in my recommendations, it could be that I might have a mild concussion.

Lower Definition - The Greatest Of All Lost Arts

Ever wonder what Incubus would've sounded like if they'd just said, "You know, this song 'Drive' is radio-friendly and all, but don't you think it's weird that it'll probably be on Now That's What I Call Music! 9? Ferret's Lower Definition might be living out that alternate timeline.

Bloc Party - Intimacy

In 2005, I actually couldn't finish a sentence without uttering the words, "Bloc Party." It's true. It's not funny. It was a problem. I saw three speech therapists for it. Okay, none of that's completely true. (Disregard the sentence where I said, "It's true.") Still, you get the point. I loved Silent Alarm. But I was so underwhelmed and disillusioned with the follow-up A Weekend In The City, that I somehow let the online release of Intimacy sneak right past me. Now that I'm giving it a fair spin, I think I Bloc Party...

...shit...

Ed Laurie - Meanwhile In The Park

Somewhere along the line, my unnecessary teenage angst was replaced with unnecessary post-collegiate melancholy. It's true. (You can believe me when I say "It's true" this time.) I don't think I have the energy to really be angry anymore. Instead, I jump straight to forlorn. This CD, possibly the saddest effing album ever recorded by man, will be perfect for the next time I feel like the world has conspired against me. Which should happen any second now.

Metaform - Standing On The Shoulders Of Giants

All my life (or since 1996), I've been looking for an instrumental hip-hop album that could compare to DJ Shadow's Endtroducing. Apparently I'm not the only one, since every press release I receive now for any DJ of any sort contains the phrase: "For fans of DJ Shadow." After the first 642 instances of this, I kinda stopped believing and somehow this disc made its way from my desk at work to my closet without a play. Little did I know my closet housed so much awesomeness (not even including that N64 Mario Kart cartridge or those tax forms I needed last year).