The 7 albums I’ve been listening to recently, no matter when they were released, in no particular order:
1. Explosions in the Sky – All of a Sudden I Miss Everyone
Yep, I’m never going to stop mentioning that I watched Explosions in the Sky play before leaving Paris. Give me a break, I’m now exiled in Qatar, where the most happening musical event is something called “Dunestock”, lovingly pirated from the Woodstock festival, sans alcohol. Anyway, you all probably know how much of a fangirl I am, and how I cried during the concert because they were so damn good, and how this band never fails to bring me to the depths of depression and the highs of marijuana just by listening to their melodies. Amen.
2. The Good, the Bad and the Queen
Suggested by my good friend Jessi, who introduced me to Broken Social Scene and The Most Serene Republic and even more; in short, Jessi the Great! 
I picked up the cd several weeks ago at Virgin Megastore in Villagio Mall in a mad panic to get Arcade Fire’s Neon Bible. Alas, they didn’t have Neon Bible so after sulking a bit I got this one instead. This is Damon Albarn’s latest effort and I still need to listen to it a bit more. It didn’t really grab my attention at the first and second time, but then there is always the third, then the fourth, then the fifth…
3. Arcade Fire, Neon Bible
Well, a few days after The Good, The Bad and The Queen we finally got ourselves a copy of Neon Bible, and whoa, it is truly, truly amazing. It’s not as powerful as their debut, but the 11 tracks they’ve come up with is enough to assure us that Arcade Fire hasn’t lost their touch. Quieter, more inquisitive, Neon Bible, like its name, comes across like a small-town community prayer session under the lights of neon signs during a rainy day, with Win Butler as the angry, passionate pastor standing on the pulpit, blaring out this week’s sermon. Suggested tracks are… well, pretty much everything, but I really love Antichrist Television Blues, Intervention, the Bowie-esque The Well and the Lighthouse and Keep the Car Running.
4. My Bloody Valentine, Loveless
Lately I’ve been listening to MBV again; perhaps a psychological ploy to escape the drudgery of Qatar life. Loveless, for me, is a great way to escape the present and be transported back to the wanton days of college, where I had the record on repeat 24/7. Shoegaze classic, MBV’s screeching feedback and endless looping is a testament to the fact that in noise there is always beauty.
5. Placebo, Without You I’m Nothing
Before leaving France I ripped all of our old cds on my computer so I wouldn’t have to bring the discs along to Qatar, and the other day at work I found myself face-to-face (ear-to-ear?) with what is probably the most memorable album of all the Rafters (the now-defunct Placebo chatroom that brought many-a-great friendships together, some lifelong). This album is the ultimate Time Machine. I always get swept up in waves of nostalgia when I come across this album. Placebo suck now; but listening to Without You I’m Nothing is a reminder that once upon a time, they were really fucking good.
6. Sean Lennon, Friendly Fire
Because I’ve loved Sean Lennon ever since his ‘98 debut album, because I saw him play a mini-concert in an FNAC branch in Paris a few months back (starstruck!), because the CD comes with a dvd, because he wrote this album after being two-timed by his girlfriend and his best friend, because they got into a huge fight and never made up, because his best friend actually died before they got to patch things up, because he sings verses like ‘Love is like an aeroplane, you jump and then you pray, the lucky ones remain’…
7. I love you but I’ve Chosen Darkness, Fear is On Our Side
Listen to According To Plan and if you’re not convinced that this band is the Cure with more anger and darkness then I don’t know what you believe in.
Thank you Houseband00 for this tag, this is one tag I completely enjoy doing. My only complaint is, why only 7?! I have a million more albums to mention, hehe. For all musicheads out there, you can answer this one too.
In other news, there are so many things happening which I will probably tell you about later on. We finally have a phone line and are trying to survive on dial-up while waiting for the ADSL to be installed. In Qatar, things take time. I hope you are all well, though, and I evenly distribute some rays of sunshine to all of you out there, just because there’s too much sunshine here, enough for sunstroke.
Currently listening to:
Arcade Fire
Neon Bible
