Natalie Portman

After a few weeks without any new purchases, the last two weeks have been filled with new CDs. Some of it has been a last dash to pick up 2006's albums before I make my year end list, but more recently that's becoming new releases. Some of them are ones I've been waiting for months for, like the new albums from Deerhoof and Menomena. Then there's, well... the Shins.

See, I've got something to admit; while Wincing the Night Away, the Shins' latest, was the first new album of the year I bought, I actually haven't listened to it yet. And... I really only bought it because it was cheap. And I had a plan to get an HMV staff member to ask me if I'd found everything I was looking for so I could say no and they'd offer to order the ones I wanted for me. Couldn't I have just gone up and asked them to order something for me? No, because that would be too easy and you seem to have forgotten THAT I'M CRAZY.

I found out about the Shins though the same two avenues as most people did, Scrubs and Garden State. But they didn't change my life, even if "New Slang" is fantastic. I was feeling all warm and fuzzy and, smitten with a single song and armed with a good review, I bought an album. That's really all there is to say, I guess, because that's all there is. It's just there on my shelf and I really don't listen to it that much. It's under a Theory of a Deadman album, just to give you an idea of how long it's been since I looked at it. It's kind of charming, I guess, in a Silly Symphony kind of way. I'll probably listen to it eventually, but I just can't muster up the motivation.

Got any albums I should listen to? I need something to cover this one.