Just added: Royksopp/The Understanding

Norwegian duo Royksopp have a new album, The Understanding, coming out on Tuesday. Rhapsody subscribers appear to be getting an early preview; the album was added to the service today.


I was a fan of the group's first album, Melody A.M, especially the songs "Eple" and "Remind Me." Their playful brand of downtempo electronica grew on me, and from time to time I still break it out for a Sunday morning listen. So I was happy to check out their new one this morning.

It's quite different, falling much more on the club side/sound than I had expected. There are lots of guest vocalists and more straight-ahead club beats. Overall, I have to say I'm a little disappointed. But a few songs did stand out -- click here to check out "Follow My Ruin" (the one I'd be most likely to hear on a late-night dancefloor), the mellow, slinking "Someone Like Me," and the funky, expect-a-call-from-Prince's-lawyers-soon song "49 Percent."

New Order Remix-o-mania!

Among the 1,000+ songs added to Rhapsody today are a bevy of New Order remixes, including a digital-only compilation album called Best Remixes and multiple remixes of two singles ("Jetstream" and "Krafty") from the band's latest album, Waiting for the Sirens' Call. It's a nice little trove for the fans, and yet another example of Warner Music aggressively making the music in its archives available through online music services like Rhapsody.

Song of the day: Pulp/"Babies"

Last week I went dancing at SF BritPop club night Popscene, where the dancefloor was crowded with kids shaking it to some of my favorite tunes from the past 15 years. One song I didn't hear --but wish I had-- was Pulp's "Babies," a sultry Jarvis Cocker song about teenage sexual angst taken a few steps too far. Enjoy.

Song of the day: I Love You But I've Chosen Darkness/"Thoughts on the Floor"

I'm back, after a nearly two-week hiatus in which I unplugged and unwound after a long and fairly stressful couple of months. I didn't check email and didn't watch the news at all on my vacation, something unusual for a hardcore news junkie like me-- I didn't hear about the London bombings until the next day. I'm not sure I minded missing out on that depressing piece of news.

Anyway, in my time away we've added a bunch of good music to Rhapsody, including a new 12" EP by one of my current faves, I Love You But I've Chosen Darkness. Click here to check out the song "Thoughts on the Floor," which came out this year on the band's According to Plan EP on Artikal.


I saw ILYBICD 3x in March at SXSW in Austin; they're great live and have a very spacious, beautiful sound. Their first EP (a self-titled release from 2003) is great and I've been playing it a lot lately; sadly, it's not yet available in Rhapsody. BUT -- you can get the highly-recommended song "When You Go Out" from that EP for FREE from the band's web site. Just click on "catalog" from the menu on the top, then click on "music" at the bottom of the screen. Enjoy the music!