So many recent acquisitions ... first, a shout out to the enriching power of black vinyl. Now, I can finally spin Starfish Pool's "Offday" at my leisure (and hear "Dead Acid Society" as it was meant to be heard ... oh my holy G-d is this a revelation, I can finally hear the echo and ringing in the background, it's a two dimensional recording suddenly inflating into three. This is exactly how I felt when I bought Philippe Cam's "Karine" on vinyl) and dance around the apartment to the synthtastic tones of M83's "Run Into Flowers".

The Low tribute album, "We Could Live In Hope", is absolutely brilliant in spots, whereas other parts leave me scratching my head. It is the year's foremost Verve Release, perhaps excepting The Magnetic Fields' "i". First and foremost is Mark Kozelek's jaw-dropping rendition of "Lazy", which completely overhauls the song into a laid-back alt-country footstomper, resulting in the most impressive cover version hijack job I've heard since Johnny Cash's "One". Except he did something even Johnny didn't do -- he took a song I didn't even like much to start with, and transformed it into something sublime. Daniel G. Harmann succeeds in a very different manner -- he stays very faithful to the original "Words", but that song is so gorgeous that it couldn't be ruined even if one belched the lyrics. A Northern Chorus (whose 2003 album "Spirit Flags" is now mine, long live Lake Ontario Shoegaze) pull off the amazing trick of slowing down "Slide" to sub-Low levels. Beautifully done. On the other end of the spectrum, we have Kid Dakota, who somehow forgot that the best parts of "Lullaby" are the ones without lyrics. Overall, Low fans will want to check this out, although it is certainly worthwhile to wonder why they chose only the songs on their ten-year old debut album. Non-Low fans (particularly ones who fancy themselves allergic to reverb overloads such as those on said debut) should find lots to chew on as well.

I'M A DUMBASS, PART 583: I remember browsing through Donnacha Costello's "Together is the New Alone" when it first came out, and I was unimpressed. Glitch, pop, meander around, etc. Well, I got this last week from my crack dealer (Sonic Boom, duh), and ... what was I thinking back then? It's a beautiful album, and as heartwarming sentimental glitchy albums go, it's surpasses Neina's "Formed Verse" as the best of it's kind that I've heard.