My birthday was last Friday, and my mother-in-law and my grandma gave me some money to buy some CDs... so I did.

Emma and I went out on a little date and before getting some nice Thai food we stopped at Sonic Boom and I picked out the new tunes. It was nice not being in a hurry and taking my time to browse around for a while. There were many I was very tempted to buy, but was able to narrow it down a little. Some titles I considered but didn't end up getting were Common's "Be", The Flaming Lips' "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots" and India Arie's new album (which they didn't have) among numerous others.

So the first one I was sure about was Abbey Road by the Beatles. This is obviously a little strange that I didn't already have it being the Beatles freak that I am, but this is the one album my parents didn't get me when I was in middle school and I have been putting it off WAY too long. So it's good to finally not be lying when I tell people I have all the Beatles albums (I always justified it by telling myself I would buy Abbey Road soon...). It's obviously a classic and a must have for any respectable record collection. Go buy it now (or at least tell yourself you'll get it soon...).

My next choice was the new release from Wilco "Sky Blue Sky". It's my first Wilco record and I do plan on buying their old records, but I'm a sucker for the new ones (always cheaper). Its a very good record, very alt-country, very laid back. Its not quite as abstract as I was expecting. My friend Nathan Tang says it's missing the mystique of the previous albums, so this makes sense. The song writing is very good and the lyrics seem fine as far as I've listened to them so far. The most standoutish part of the album is the guitar solos. The band apparently added a new guitarist who makes his presence very clear on the album. The solos are all over the place and have quite a range, often seemingly out of tune, yet perfectly fitting.

Finally the last album I bought that day was "Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer?" by "of Montreal". I had heard about this record on Relevant Magazine and on a blog by Chris Thile. It's definitely my token 'weird' album. It's different from almost anything else I have. It is mostly electronica-like, similar to Ratatat, with vocals that range from quite and introspective to a high-pitch screech. It sounds at times like 70's disco and new age dance rock at others. It is very happy sounding with very strange, often somewhat depressing lyrics. It will take a while to get used to, but it has some very cool sounding stuff.

Ok, one more. My brother Chase got me the new Modest Mouse album "We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank". Its a bit weird too, but also very good. I like their songwriting and their guitar work. It'll take me a while to get used to the singer's voice but I'm not worried about it.

I'm greatly anticipating the new Jimmy Eat World album which I think is supposed to arrive around the end of the year.