At a personal level, honestly can't remember. I do get a strange buzz out of the Now CDs coming out as it's usually a good half hour or more of potential DJ earning in one box, and I do check track listing pre-release, but certainly don't rush home to play them back to back.

I've stumbled across albums (having heard tracks I liked on radio or at pub etc) and been pleased, in some cases, to secure a copy for myself, but only really with hindsight, good examples being MGMT and Courteeners in relatively recent times. Don't think I've pre-ordered or deliberately pounced first day on anything this century though. Generally I've always been pretty 'cautious' of wading in on bands. Usually takes me at least a couple of singles or albums to truly appreciate, even with Rats. 

Pretty sure I got everything Rats did in UK very first day from and including Mondays. Never been matched by any other artist in that respect.

Closest in answer to this question was probably Carter or Pogues, which I'd snap up swiftly, from 30 Something onwards for Carter and from If I Should Fall From Grace for Pogues, having got 'into' both from their earlier offerings.

Before that, probably only Jam and Madness that I actively sought pretty much on release. 

Think/hope it just my priorities that have changed down the years rather than my appreciation of what's coming out. 

I have been asking myself for the last number of years do I still have the same passion for music. Listening to music is something I have always done, and I have always been fascinated about how music effects ones emotions eg both reflects and sometimes creates feelings etc. I suspect that like a lot of things in life our earlier exposure is going to be a lot more affecting than more recent samplings. A law of deminishing emotional returns? That's my theory anyway.

I have been meaning to get Clinic's album Bubblegum for the last number of years. I have all their other albums. I'm not willing to pay Eu 16 in HMV Dublin for it. I could order it online for a lot cheaper but I'm l just too lazy. I know that a few years ago I would have done just that or paid the full whack to HMV. Clinic rate in my all time top ten bands- a  totally original sound.

Most of the cd's I get are second hand either from record shops or charity shops. I can get cd's from Dublin city library (currently listening to Goldfrapp's Felt Mountain(f from library!) and a lot of my listening comes via  library borrowing.

Maybe your question ArrGee should have been about just hearing a new album, rather than deliberately paying for one. I like being surprised by how good something is, especially when it penetrates through ones jaded cynicism. Overall I am less impressed by modern music. I get to hear a lot of so called trendy new NME type bands and most of them sound pretty dull, especially compared to the punk era. Most of this new music is third or fourth generation duluted punk type rubbish, you know 'the sound of now, 2012.' Jesus wept,and with good reason.

One band I would like to hear more of is a band called Broadcast. Maybe wild, unbridled enthusiasm is for the young. I keep meaning to write a list of all the new good music I've heard in the last say, ten years, but I never seem to get 'round to it. A basic test is would I like to hear another album by x band or is the one I just hear enough. Sadly very few acts pass a second album test for me. Probably The Libertines were the last great British band of the last ten years.

noelindublin wrote:

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Maybe your question ArrGee should have been about just hearing a new album, rather than deliberately paying for one. 

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 No, not really.  The question was about looking forward to an album that was due to be released without having too much idea of what it would be like.

With Tonight by Franz, the first single was a let down, but I caught a snatch of Bite Hard in HMV, so I really wanted to get the album.  And after I got a proper copy it was great to get it out an play it.  I had similar feeings about Surfacing, Mondo Bongo and V Deep.  I had pretty much heard Tonic for the Troops before buying it,and  In The Long Grass didn't seem to get properly released, it just happened to be in the shop one day with no fanfare at all.

Down the years I have always looked forward to new albums, but lately I find I don't really care.  I just wanted to know if it was just me.

Earlier this summer, Dexys and One day i'm going to soar.

First album in 27 years and not a letdown at all. Good songwriting from Kevin Rowland and nice brasswork from Jim Paterson. Most impressive.

Rats-wise, was very very excited about any release but particularly Surfacing and then Mondo Bongo, after appetite whetted by Banana & Guilty. Troops was already out by time I got into the Rats. Less but still excited about V Deep, but I knew it would not be up there with the first 4 albums.

noelindublin wrote:

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Even Ultravox are back on the road.

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These days, it's more of question of who isn't on the road.  In one form or another pretty much every band I have ever heard of are touring.  Even bands where most of them are dead and there are no original members.  Some even have multiple incarnations.

I can't think of any band who have absolutely given up.  McCartney still plays The Beatles and Morrissey still plays The Smiths. David Bowie seems to be the only one who can't be bothered.

ArrGee wrote:

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noelindublin wrote:

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Even Ultravox are back on the road.

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These days, it's more of question of who isn't on the road.  In one form or another pretty much every band I have ever heard of are touring.  Even bands where most of them are dead and there are no original members.  Some even have multiple incarnations.

I can't think of any band who have absolutely given up.  McCartney still plays The Beatles and Morrissey still plays The Smiths. David Bowie seems to be the only one who can't be bothered.

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 Have seen Midge Ure a couple of times, but would be interesting to see him with the full sound rather than just acoustic set.  He was good though ...

Re: Bowie, thought he had health problems? 

Morrissey included a song by Sparks called Barbecutie on a free cd he did for the NME  a few years ago, and this got me interested in hearing more. I had totally forgotten about them, being too young to remember their output in the early seventies, but I can just about  remember articles about them in various music magazines from the late seventies- and their unforgettable image.

I just about remember When I'm Near You being played on Radio Luxembourg in 1979 and this sounds brilliant now. Beat The Clock, Number One Song In Heaven, Amateur Hour, la Dolce Vita, Angst In My Pants- just so many good catchy songs with great lyrics. Sometimes good music is just lost on the masses, hence Sparks are little known, while so much dross gets to the top.

Interesting that the Mael brothers had to come to Britain from America in the early seventies because the could not get a deal in their home country.

Mark L wrote:

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Beat the clock is too clever by half (entered school when I was 2, phd that afternoon) - now you've rekindled interest, their CD is coming out in the car for a long drive to Peterborough tomorrow!

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 Hope you get to Peterborough on time - you gotta beat the clock. Was listening to Tips For Teens last night by Sparks-sounds really great, and I think When I'm With You is my current favourite song. On good speakers the songs sound really well produced for songs largely from the mid to late seventies. Great band.

Vinyl records tended to get scratched and could only be listened to in a sitting room/bedroom situation. Cassette tapes, despite their portability were very prone to getting stuck in the mechanisml and who can forget having to get a bic biro or something to unravel the cassette. Many's a tape was eaten up. Maybe this was a music business conspiracy to make us keep buying tapes? And I hated more than anything no being able to access a track quickly, but having to guess when it starts by fast forwarding, and in the process missing the start,  or hearing the end of the previous song more than once as I 'fine tuned'.

With cd's you could access the tracks almost instantaneously, and the sound quality was way better. With any sort of care the tended to last. The only real problem was/ still is the flimsy cd cases which always seem to break off the hinges. Singles on cd tended to look a bit sad.The artwork could never match that of the vinyl single, a case of size mattering.

I periodically match the right discs to the right cases. I was fed up of selecting what I wanted to hear by case and then halfway down the road finding out it wasn't Blondie but NOW 23 etc by disc!