Musicpalooza.

The new Decemberists album. Is. Just. Plain. Lovely. On the surface it seems much simpler than their other endeavors, both musically and lyrically - but multiple listens reveal intricacies, complexities and melodies along the same lines of their previous albums. I would love to know which song it was that I heard on iTunes' Indie Pop Rocks radio station approximately one year ago that caused me to immediately buy all their albums to date. Whatever it was, I'm so glad I did. And I'm so excited to see them on Thursday.

The new Barenaked Ladies album is not lovely. It's a bit hokey and I'm hopeful that multiple listens will result in it growing on me. (This happened with Maroon. Maybe this is what they were worried about when they wrote Testing 1, 2, 3 on their last album.) I'm also worried that one or more of them are recently divorced, given the lyrics. Worried in the "hmm I should start stalking them" sense of the word, of course. I'm still excited to see them in November... I've not been disappointed yet.

The new Beck album is definitely going to take multiple listens - but they usually do, and I always end up loving them. I liked what I heard at the Download Festival and fully expect to like the rest just as much. And the album purchase came with videos for each song. The chance to stare at the hottest Scientologist this side of the Mississippi for over an hour? Sign me up!