I recently discovered Ann Peebles.

I'm really enjoying Lady's self-titled album and Ghostface Killah's Twelve Reasons to Die lately.

I've been listening to Donizetti's L'Elisir d'Amore.

Chromatics
Miike Snow
Trails & Ways
Yellow Ostrich

Icona Pop - I Love It
Carmen Villain - Lifeissin

Oh, also I've been listening to Kitajima Saburo a lot.

An old one Depeche Mode: It's No Good
I like singing these 80s dramatic baritone songs.

Spacehog's new album, especially this song.

I've been having a hard time sleeping since I got sick, so a lot of what I've been listening to is designed to help me doze off.

The Felice Brothers' "Tonight at the Arizona", for instance. That and some Neko Case, and sometimes, Phosphorescent's "To Willie".

Also, hearing about Richie Havens' death reminded me how long I'd forgotten to listen to him! I hate it when it takes a loss to remind me that I enjoy an artist's work, but...whattaya gonna do? So I've been listening to his first couple records some. I really wish there were more recordings of him with just his guitar and voice; they were both so unique.

I've also checked out Jim James' new solo record. It's pretty decent. I'm not a giant My Morning Jacket fan, but I love that dude's voice.

Oh, and last night while I did the dishes I listened to this.

I'm going to dive back into Sibelius. We got to hear Hilary Hahn, who was extraordinary, play his Violin Concerto last night.

The Bioshock Infinite soundtrack! It has all these "1912" covers of pop songs!

God Only Knows
Fortunate Son
Everybody Wants To Rule The World
Girls Just Wanna Have Fun
Tainted Love
Shiny Happy People

The five albums I've been playing the most the past few weeks are all 2013 releases.

OMD - English Electric - I was surprised at how damn good their new record is. Great synth pop that recalls the best of their catalog as well as some serious Kraftwerk inspired bits. Here's the audio for "Helen of Troy".

JACCO GARDNER - Cabinet of Curiosities - Pyschedelic baroque pop from a Dutch multi-isntrumentalist. Sort of like Syd Barrett meets the Zombies and Curt Boettcher. Here's the "Clear The Air" video.

WIRE - Change Becomes Us - Taking unfinished song ideas and fragments from 1980 Wire return with one of their strongest releases in ages. Here's the audio for "Keep Exhaling".

WAVVES - Afraid of Heights - For some reason I thought Waaves were some ambient electronica band. Boy was I wrong. This is super catchy toe-tapping American indie rock and I'm pretty sure will be one of my albums of Summer. Here's the video for my favorite song on the album, "Afraid of Heights".

PALMA VIOLETS - 180 - A current "it" band in the UK at the moment - this band reminds me a bit of Swedish garage pop band Caesers (aka Caesars Palace or Twelve Caesars). There's nothing revolutionary here, but they deleiver a bunch of very catchy, high energy songs. This video for "Step Up For The Cool Cats" is my favorite song on the album, but it's a bit more downbeat than rest of the record.

Other recent releases I'm really digging are SUEDE's Bloodsports, JOHNNY MARR's the Messenger, BOWIE's the Next Day, EDWYN COLLINS' Understated, and, even though I originally made fun of it for too much dicking around, Thurston Moore's new band CHELSEA LIGHT MOVING has really grown on me.

LADY and the new SPACEHOG are both also on my list of things I need to check out soon!

If anyone's on Spotify and is curious about more 2013 releases, I diligently updatate my Spotify playlist of "2013 Albums of Interest". There are currently about 150 tracks, one song from each album that for some reason of another I decided I needed to hear. Tracks with stars are for albums that I really like and could be possible Best-of contenders.

oooh, slack - I shall have to check those out!

lately I've been listening to Gym Class Heroes don't judge me!!

Drink Deep by Laura Veirs came out of nowhere and stuck a knife in my heart recently.