A decent day for music. Imogen Heap is out with a new album which kind of sounds like most of her old stuff. That's not necessarily a bad thing since I like her sound. Alternative band Mew dropped a record that has a couplet as a title. (At least, I think that's a couplet.) Rockers Jet keep on keeping on. I never got into Matisyahu's stuff but he too has some new material out there. If you are into electronic music, Sally Shapiro seems to be getting some solid buzz. The xx is also getting some solid reviews and is one of the top selling albums on the UK alternative music chart.

For the tryout, I decided to go with Arctic Monkeys, a band that came out with the kind of hype that would make you think they were going single-handedly revitalize rock'n'roll. That didn't happen (although their album was quite good). So now they are back with their third album, trying to avoid a slump (aka Sam's Town). Unfortunately, what they might have done is even worse as it seems like a step sideways. The music is different and OK but it's certainly not anything that is going to make people sit up and listen. The fans will like it and the oblivious will remain happily in the dark. It's one of those situations in which the band never wanted all of the attention... and now they probably won't be getting it. But who knows, maybe you'll like it so give it a try and tell me what you think.