It was an unseasonably warm day two years ago. I was researching a coupe of jazz musicians for some interviews I had landed, so I rode my bike to Tower Records on Clark Street to buy some cds and get some exercise in the meantime. I found what I was looking for and was browsing around the new releases when I came across an album on sale for $8.99 that looked like a perfect impulse buy. You know, something that you don't really need, but it's cheap so you're not wasting that much money on it anyway. If it turns out to be a good buy, you made a wise purchase. In the case of buying this record, if the album sucked I could always take it to the nearest used record store and recoup a couple of bucks from what I spent.
That album was Come Away With Me by an unknown singer named Norah Jones. Two years, millions of records, and eight Grammy awards later we know how that story turned out. I wasn't really thinking about that until I was reading Jim Derogatis' review of Jones' sophomore effort today in the Sun-Times. Seems he doesn't understand her success. I'm no expert on these things, but I'm guessing that EMI's decision to put it for sale at $8.99 was the catalyst, followed by the good reviews, then the buzz.
Come Away with Me was one of those albums that sold stronger as the word of mouth spread about it. The fact that Jones had great chops was a bonus.
So I bought the new album today and it looks like Blue Note/EMI isn't taking any chances. Tower had it for sale at $11.99. It's solid. Haven't really listened to it yet because I've been busy listening to today's impulse buy.
Probot , Dave Grohl's underground metal project, fucking kicks it. This takes me back to living in Tennessee as a high school sophomore when David Anglin was the coolest kid I knew because he owned a copy of Venom's Welcome to Hell and had a morphine habit. Hard to believe there was a time when I thought my soul was condemned to eternal damnation because I dared to listen to Mercyful Fate.
And at $9.99 it was an absolute steal.
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