Greetings! I'm up WAY past bedtime, watching I Love Lucy and finishing up some holiday gift CD burning. Evian wrote "I wanna ask people's opinions of The Bedroom Tapes. I really enjoyed it, although it took awhile, and it still doesn't live up to Letters Never Sent or Coming Around Again, my two fave Carly albums" I LOVED "The Basement Tapes", and though the disc certainly doesn't live up to the polished perfection of "Coming Around Again", I find it to be a more personal and musically interesting recording; as far as "Letters..." is concerned, I think "Basement" blows it right out'the water. With the exception(s) of "Like A River" and "Touched By The Sun", with that beautiful intro piece by Ben Simon, I found "Letters" to be choppy and difficult to listen to and enjoy. Unfortunately, over time, I didn't find that it improved with wear. On the strength of your humble opinion, I will continue trying. But "Basement" is wonderful, and didn't make it to my top 10 2000 mainly due to a number of very strong surprise releases toward the end of the year (BSN didn't make it, either, now that I think of it...). Tracks like "Big Dumb Guy", "Actress" and "We Your Dearest Friends" (my fave track on the CD) show Carly trying new avenues with her music, even if the themes of (like betrayal and fantasy) are recurring in her writing. "Scar" is a beautiful way of communicating about her health crisis, and "Our Affair" an all-Carly straight ahead radio rocker. I was quite satisfied with the disc, but I know several folks who reacted like your wife. Wonder what bugged them so? Jason asked me where I'd heard of Lazy Dog, the ongoing DJ project of Ben Watt (from Everything But The Girl) and Jay Hannan, his spinning partner. I frequent the EBTG website, Jason, and have been a big fan of theirs since "Eden" was imported when I was 14. I'm not much for the DJ/mixed-style releases myself, but this IS special...lovin it! As for the Cocteau Twins compilation, I'm a long time big fan there, too, and am only sorry it doesn't look as if there's any new material coming. I think the twins may be defunkt. (sigh!) Finally, I have to say how much fun I'm having here in my little CD factory...burning in and of itself is a bore, but playing with artwork and labelmaker is a blast! Between images on the internet and my scanner, I'm enjoying the career in album cover art and layout I've always wanted but never had! Merry Merry, Chris. PS.Thanks, Evian, it's nice to see someone else mention their kitty in the 'NP' slot!
