Soundtrack to My January

Roisin Murphy's second solo album, Overpowered is more streamlined than anything she ever did with Moloko, and lyrically more personal as well. Artful and totally transcendent dance-pop from one of my favorite divas.



Ministry goes out with a bang. Al Jourgensen's got a fine band of co-conspirators here, including Tommy Victor of Prong, the late, great Paul Raven (Prong, Killing Joke) and Burton C. Bell of Fear Factory. Ministry has fortified my life for many years and it's a little sad to see them go. But boy do they make a racket on the way out.




Speaking of making a racket. MC5's live Kick Out the Jams is a record that for some reason I've never owned til now. Generally cited as one of the sparks that touched off the punk rock firestorm, KOTJ is a gloriously messy blur of fuzzed-out hard rock that is so pungent and humid it makes your speakers sweat.



Chronology of a Love Affair is an album of cover songs, circa 2001, by the veteran goth band Love Like Blood. For me, LLB were at their unparalleled peak when guitar virtuoso Marc Wheeler helmed the band way back in the early '90s and they've never recaptured the magic of albums like An Irony of Fate and Oddyssey since. Still, it's a kick to hear these guys pay homage to their heroes, predictably including Bauhaus, the Sisters, and Fields of the Nephilim (and not-so-predictably, Type O Negative, Tiamat and Marilyn Manson).



The new Cocteau Twins compilation Lullabies to Violaine is pure heaven. It collects all their EPs in remastered form and strings 'em together in chronological order. Music very rarely gets better than this.



Big Black. The very name strikes fear into the heart, doesn't it? This collection basically takes the crushingly seismic Atomizer LP and adds some singles and stuff at the end. I wouldn't be surprised if the aforementioned Jourgensen heard this album in his formative years.



Ren and Stimpy. Every bit as funny as I remembered them. You EEEEEEDIOT!!