I had something that HAD to get done at work today before I left. I got it done, but was then not able to leave work when I needed to so that I could get Darby fed BEFORE softball practice. I hate it when that happens.
After a really long practice, I took her to get something to eat (Shelby had already eaten after fencing), but it was already close to 7:30. She ate pretty quickly, so we started heading home, knowing that we still had to do homework and take baths.
But... then I realized. It's Tuesday. New music comes out today. New R.E.M. !!!
I was very conflicted. Hurry home, be parental. Or be selfish, swing by a music store to pick up the CD first, then go home.
I angsted over the issue many very very long seconds before deciding to swing by Best Buy. They sell music the week it comes out for $9.99 and then it goes to 13.99. I just can't stand paying four dollars more for the same stuff just for waiting longer. And with obligations every night the rest of the week, I was running a serious risk of dishing out that four bucks. Ugh. On the good side, I also picked up the new Good Charlotte for $9.99 as well. So, did I save $8 or spend $20 (when I probably shouldn't have)?
I feel like scum. Even though it only added 20 minutes to our home arrival time, I feel like I was outlandishly irresponsible and self-centered just then. The girls didn't get to bed until 10:00 after doing homework and getting baths. Did that 20 minutes adversly impact them? Not sure. But it impacted me.
And to top it off, I'm a little disappointed in the new REM thus far. All the "pop fans" have basically said that REM has sucked post-Automatic for the People. Well, I say poo-doo on that. AFTP was certainly one of their best albums, but the three albums after it were awesome as well. Now, their last album, 2001's Reveal, was a little odd by comparison, but there were some gems on there, too.
With this new album, however, almost every review I read in the lead up to its release (part of my excitement for getting the album so soon) said "REM is back" or "best album since AFTP" or something to that effect. I'm sorry, but I must poo-doo on that, too. It's not a bad album at first listen, but it's no AFTP. By a long way. It just seems to lack the energy that I felt was there up through 1999's Up. Like it would have been a star had it acquired a bit more mass to ignite. I'm still looking for a gem. In fact, if I were Monty, I'd say I got a raw deal. And this is coming from a BIG fan, that has all but two albums.
The Good Charlotte album is decent thus far. Not as good as their first two in my opinion, though it deserves more listens. They're clearly trying to "grow up" on this one, and it comes off well in some tunes. Though on others they moved past grown up and right on to old age. I swear one of the songs sounds like disco, which freaks me out, since I thought I bought a punk album. Okay, pop-punk, but definitely not disco.
I would have felt better about this whole thing had I gotten stellar albums out of it, while saving eight bucks to boot. I'll be the first to say that it takes way more listens than I've got in (maybe two each thus far), as I've recently been re-visting my Something Corporate CD, Leaving Through the Window, and I can't belive I put that one away for awhile because I thought it wasn't that great at first. But I really expected an instant classic from a seasoned veteran such as REM. Maybe it's a time-released classic. We shall see.
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