It's now April. A quarter of the way through the year. Three months into 2002. And I have yet to buy a CD released this year.

Before you drown yourself in tears, that statement's not quite true. I bought the excellent "Montreal Smoked Meat" compilation (released in January) but it seems different somehow. Compilations always do. As good as it is, a full length from Deadbeat or Akufen is worth getting far more excited about.

But still, it's already April and Music:2002 really hasn't started for me yet. This is extremely late in the year for that to still be true. January is almost always a dead month, but February/March always churns out a couple of gems each year. But not this year. Or I just haven't heard it yet.

It won't stay like this. The new Do Make Say Think album is floating around out there, as is the latest louder-than-a-bomb Six By Seven release (I'm waiting for copies to float across the ocean), as is the purportedly excellent Cornershop album, but I can't honestly say that I've been waiting with baited breath for them.

This was bound to happen. So many "big names" (IMO, of course) released records last year that it left a void of exciting new releases for this upcoming year. And unless MBV release something (I'll take a Primal Scream follow-up) I don't see a quick end to this.

I'll have to stick to fattening my techno vinyl collection.