Traitor's Knot the book which has been delayed since last November finally began shipping last week, so I took a trip out to Border's "We play the worst new age piano music ever" Bookstore but didn't find any copies. I did come away with three new CDs though: Dave Matthews' Stand Up, Coldplay's X & Y, and Jem's Finally Woken. My initial impressions: Stand Up is more of the same, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. It's a fairly mellow Dave Matthews album with nothing as edgy as his original offerings from the late 90s. X & Y contains the infamous single, Speed of Sound which was to become the first song to open at #1 in the UK since the Beatles, but which was beat out at the last minute by a ringtone which is apparently driving Brits crazy . The orchestration is much thicker than on Parachutes and A Rush of Blood to the Head which makes it slightly tedious, but the songs are upbeat and catchy. Apparently Chris Martin is not so moody and dark now that he's married to Gwyneth Paltrow and naming his kids after produce.

The final CD is one I picked up on a whim based on some singles I'd heard on XM. It's a very eclectic mix, and reminds me of Dido meets Butterfly Boucher meets Tali. Here's a couple samples, hosted by Amazon.com:

If I'm still listening to these CDs in a few weeks I'll post deeper reviews of them. Have comments of your own? Post them using the Comments link in the upper right corner!