Is music getting worse?

I think it is.

Over the last month or so, I've aquired new albums from the following bands: R.E.M., Jose Gonzales, Eddie Vedder, Thursday, Radiohead, and PJ Harvey.

From these six albums, I think I really like two songs - Jose Gonzales' cover of the Massive Attack song "Teardrop", and the Radiohead song "All I Need". Not a good success rate. And yet if you were to ask me what kind of music I like, names like R.E.M, Pearl Jam and Thursday would probably get bandied around a lot.

I'm not sure if these bands are getting worse, or my taste is changing. If it's the latter though, shouldn't I be liking new and different music? Probably the only new band that I've added to my listening rotation in the last year has been The National. And that's mainly because they sound like Nick Cave and Leonard Cohen, two artists that I've liked for a while.

So if anyone has any suggestions, I'm open to them (Paul, I've heard of the Foo Fighters, and Michella . . . the Michael Buble thing is not going to happen. Sorry)

Anyway, while I'm on the topic, here are a few quick thoughts on the above albums, just in case anyone is interested in checking them out.

Jose Gonzales - In Our Nature
This is OK, although not much of a development from his last album, Veneer, which is great background music, and always makes me feel suave and urbane when I listen to it. The best song as I mentioned is the cover. Because he has such a unique style he generally does covers pretty well, his version of Springsteen's "The Ghost of Tom Joad" is the best I've heard.

Eddie Vedder - Into the Wild
This is a soundtrack to some movie, so it kind of gets a pass, because who knows, maybe it works as background music. But overall I just found this a little dull.

Radiohead - In Rainbows
This is probably my favourite Radiohead album since OK Computer, which isn't saying much. They released it via their website, and told their fans they could pay what they wanted. I chose nothing. But given some of the crap they've released the last few years, I kind of feel like they owe me money. What's even funnier than this sliding cost schedule though is they are also releasing a deluxe copy, with all this extra crap, which sells for $80 or something. So they are simultaneously looking after their fans, and trying to completely screw them over. Weird.

PJ Harvey - White Chalk
Instead of playing the guitar, she sticks mainly to the piano on this album. And instead of singing in her normal voice, she sings mainly in an unusual falsetto. Why? I have no idea.

Thursday - Kill The House Lights
This is a collection of live songs, demos and unreleased material. The overall quality seems to be pretty bad - the band broke up earlier this year so I think they just grabbed whatever was still lying around and threw it on here.

R.E.M. - Live
This is a live album from their last world tour (which Alen, Narelle and I took in at the Entertainment Centre a few years ago). I actually quite like their last few albums, so this is OK - the tracklisting includes "Walk Unafraid", "Drive", "I Took Your Name", "Boy in the Well", and of course the hits like "Losing My Religion" and "Everybody Hurts". It's just that there's nothing really here to distinguish the songs from the studio recordings - they're not really reworked, and there's not an overabundance of energy. Worst of all, "Country Feedback" is somehow ommitted, which is really inexcusable.