Is there anything more exciting than a notification announcing that the Album you pre-ordered on ITunes has finally become available and made its way to your ITunes library?
Online shopping has taken the world by storm, if you have an internet connection, credit card and a street address, you can order almost anything using a few quick clicks, and sometimes you can even pay for next day delivery, that is if you don’t have the patience to wait the usual 3–5 days.
Virtual Music stores have taken online shopping to the next level
With a magnificent magical musical catalogue available to me at the click of a button. Needless to say as a music enthusiast, groupie, fanatic, or fan, ITunes is by far my preferred online music store, I can get lost in there for hours. My Favourite ITunes banners are “New Music” and “Hot Tracks”. But the one true test of my patience can be said to be that enigmatic “Best-selling Pre-Orders” banner.
Alan Gray released an advert a few years ago with the tagline “Always look for potential and then have the patience to wait for it”, so when browsing through the pre-orders, I repeat this tagline to myself constantly, and try to put the disappointment of having to wait days, weeks or months for my order to one side.
June was a busy time for my music library, and my patience was rewarded with the release of several new albums in one go, imagine my excitement as the email notifications popped up on my phone. Amongst my newly delivered music, there were a few items that stood out above the rest and two in particular that left me spellbound:
The masterful complexity commanded my attention from the very first beat and held it throughout the fourty four minute duration, the compilation of tracks on this album has blown me away. Their solid foundation in music theory can be felt in the song writing and arrangement, all the material was completely self-produced, mixed, mastered and recorded in their very own studio Tokoloshe Records. Although the Kongos sound is clearly influenced by their African roots, to put them in one genre box would be a crime, my unbiased opinion gives them five thumbs up out of a possible five.
My first foretaste of this this blues-rock band came earlier in the year when I shazamed their single “Way Down We Go”, during an episode of Blindspot. Kaleo is an Icelandic rock band that recently signed to Atlantic records, they share a producer with Kings of Leon and James Bay. These guys are really something, the only Icelandic song on the album Vor í Vaglaskógi is hauntingly captivating, nevertheless each and every song on this album warrants a proper listen. But don’t take my word for it, just go see for yourself.
Although June’s purchases have kept me relatively busy, my excitement for the July’s pre-orders has already commenced and with that virtually zero patience. July promises to be yet another delightful month, several new albums by some well-known artists have been scheduled for release including albums by American Authors, Blink 182, Magic!, Good Charlotte and Biffy Clyro to name a few, and that’s just in the first week.
Thankfully the cold winter nights encourage evenings in, and with July being my birthday month I will be suggesting ITunes vouchers as perfect last minute gift ideas to all my friends.
Written by Margaret Whitfield • DJ Magpie • our in-house Music Maven
