This is one of those times it really pays to be an eMusic subscriber. The latest from Daniel Wylie, The High Cost of Happiness, was added today, and here's why it's a big deal. Aside from the fact that it's a brilliant album from the man who was the creative force behind the Cosmic Rough Riders (who continue on without him, but it's not the same), the cd is not being released in the USA, and isn't even due out in the UK for about another 11 days. So instead of waiting a couple of weeks and paying an expensive import price, you can download it for roughly $2.75-$3.
If you're not familiar with Wylie or the Riders, the sound here is where The Byrds, The Beach Boys and Teenage Fanclub meet, or California by way of Glasgow. Although there's not a tremendous amount of stylistic difference from track to track, they're virtually all outstanding. Wylie has said this is the best batch of songs he's written, and I can't quibble with that assessment.
The best place to start is with the three songs from the album streaming at his myspace page. If those float yer boat, just go ahead and download the album from eMusic if you sub, or take advantage of the offer over on the right and sign up for 25 free downloads. The eMusic page linked above also will allow you to sample all the tracks in 30-second snippets, whether or not you subscribe.
Sweet blog! Thanks for the heads-up on Mr. Wylie, I rapidly re-subscribed to eMusic just to get ahold of that record. I think it's good but not on a par with Ramshackle Beauty.
ReplyDeleteAs to the Cosmic Rough Riders, it all went downhill after he left.
If I may recommend a couple of bands, make sure to check out Somerdale and Vinyl Candy. Unfortunately they’re not (yet?) on eMusic, they’re up on iTunes though and CDBaby also sells the CDs.