Album of the Month
Sometimes, even I get a bit overwhelmed and burned out by political news (which might be a surprise to my wife). But rather than turning to mystery and sci-fi novels, I turn to my quest to discovering new music. So I thought I'd share some of that with ya'll with an Album of the Month feature (which you may have noticed begin to appear sometime in January).

This month is the new Thievery Corporation disc, Cosmic Game (available via Amazon in old-school CD format and the Apple iTunes Music Store in new-skool download format). If you're not familiar with TC, they started out as DJs in Washington DC who tapped into a Latin/Cubano/Brazilian groove with dash dancehall reggae in a dub stylee, and first gained attention with their remixes (as on the great compilation Abductions and Reductions).

With their last full release, The Richest Man in Babylon, they tipped a bit more to the side of Jamaica than Brazil, and they continue in that vein with Cosmic Game with added focus on Middle Eastern rhythms. It's quite a melange of sound and beats, but it's quite engaging throughout. They've also enlisted help from Perry Ferrell (of Jane's Addiction and that other crap band he was in afterward), Flaming Lips, and David Byrne, who collaborates on "The Heart's a Lonely Hunter," which may be the booty shaking single of the comming summer of 2005 (at least in this household). Other items I've found myself listening to lately:

• Bye Bye Beaute by French chanteuse Coralie Clement--a little more poppy/rocky than her last, but still quite nice
  
• Both Faces Down and Two Way Monologue by Norwegian Sondre Lerche--Beatlesesque folky pop with a dash of Brian Wilson thrown in from time to time
  
• Voices by Hall and Oates (downloaded from Apple iTunes)--I can't stay away from that infectious early 80s soul-tinged new wavey pop
  
• The Art of the Fugue by the Emerson String Quartet--great chamber music, and very helpful in getting me to concentrate on the work I need to get done