Before Manson, before Ozzy, before KISS, there was Alice. And at 60 years old, he is still getting it done. Like other albums in his discography, this album tells a story. A serial killer (”Spider”) is seeking to collect 8 legs, one from each of his victims. Problem is, he falls in love with the final victim. Typical Alice, and, in my opinion, another winner.

Bright Eyes’ Cassadaga was a favorite of mine last year, and I was anxious to hear Conor Oberst’s new album, bearing his own name. Although only released yesterday, I’ve been listening to it for a couple of weeks now via his website. It has truly been better with each listen, and I will be listening to it daily for a while. If you’re not familiar with Oberst, I’d highly recommend checking this one out.

I became acquainted with The Hold Steady after seeing them on Letterman recently, about the same time their album was high on the eMusic download charts. Enjoying the performance, I checked it out and later downloaded it. This is a pretty solid album and I’ve enjoyed this a lot so far.

The Avett Brothers are just great. I downloaded both this one and the first Gleam EP on the same day. After last year’s excellent album Emotionalism, I worried I might be disappointed by these EP’s. However, that fear was unfounded, and I have not been disappointed in the least. Not a bad track on either album.

I was pleasantly surprised by the new Third Day disc. As I’ve stated before, all of their recent work has sounded like the same album over and over. This one is not a huge departure from that pattern, and their lyrics remain in the standard Third Day/Christian rock variety, but I’ve always liked their sound and I’d have to say that I’ve enjoyed this album more than anything they’ve done this decade.

I find this kind of power-pop fun to listen to every now and then. I discovered these guys via eMusic’s “free track of the day” several weeks ago. It reminds me of a couple of albums that I got last year (Relient K, Plain White T’s), and is nice enough when you’re in the mood for it.

I first listened to Thrice a couple of years ago (Vheissu), and was looking forward to some new material. Thankfully, eMusic has provided. These EP’s – Fire, Water, Air & Earth – are a diverse collection of songs, each set a musical manifestation of the element after which it is named. This is probably not for everyone, but there’s some good stuff here and I’m enjoying it quite a bit.