I still owe you for the hole in the floor and the ghost in the hall

I've listened to the new Shins album twice through now. Very impressed. The free sticker it comes with is cool too. (When I own a guitar I'll stick it on the case). Favourite tracks at this early stage, besides Phantom Limb and Spilt Needles... Red Rabbits (see above for quote), Turn On Me, Sealegs and Girl Sailor. I'm sure by the end of the week I'll know all the tracks much more intimately. The idea of the 'cat piano' on Red Rabbits is also appealing- James Mercer said that he liked the distorted guitar sound he managed to produce and thought it sounded like cats meowing (it sounds like drops of water to my ears) so he called it 'cat piano'. Cute. Listening to him discuss the album, it seems to be a very carefully constructed piece, mostly put together by him or at least with his ideas being the driving force behind the album.

I kind of wish Triple J hadn't spoiled the surprise by playing it early and having it as their feature album last week though... it's not fair that they teased me by showing off about owning the CD before I could, and all the announcers even sounded kind of smug about it. I like having the actual physical product, being able to summon the tracks on my iPod at will and using it as my current writing soundtrack.

In Adelaide, Kat let me rip a whole pile of her CDs to my laptop. I'm sure some of these will be commented upon in future posts. But not until I've played the new Shins album a few hundred more times.