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Steely Dan, "Two Against Nature." Rock Album of the Century.

Bruce Springsteen's "18 Tracks" and Tracy Chapman's "Telling Stories". Both with HDCD encoding and have great acoustic music. These two recordings are spectacular!

Standing on the shouders of giants bij Oasis Rated (on a scale from 1 to 10) 6,7. And I bought Exterminator by Primal Scream, rating 8,5.

The Who's "BBC Sessions." Is it good? Well, quite British.

Last week I bought Eliane Elias's new album "Everything I Love". It's wonderful and a nice recording too.

Steely Dan- 2 Against Nature

Strange you should ask, as I just got back from the Montreal audio show and I managed to pick up a truckload of new music, both on vinyl and CD. I found the Classic LP of Lester Young's "Laughing to Keep from Crying," Chesky's LPs of Johnny Frigo's "Debut of a Legend" and Reiner/CSO's "Scheherazade," the JVC XRCDS of Bill Evans' "Waltz for Debbie," Bennie Wallace's "The Old Songs," and Terry Evans' "Puttin' It Down." All of them sound great, definitely money well spent.

Oscar Peterson, Ray Brown, and Milt Jackson, "The Very Tall Band Live at the Blue Note," SACD/CD from Telarc. Recorded 11/98. Good material, great performances, and excellent sound.

Greatful Dead:So Many Roads(1965-1995)

Tim Finn, Say It Is So

The latest CD by Steely Dan, "Two Against Nature." It sucks big time, musically and recording-wise, and I'm a huge Dan Fan from the '70s. Retire, boys, retire. Some nice lyrics, though, for what it's worth.

Conrad Herwig's "Osteology." Smokes!

George Jones' "Cold Hard Truth" (CD). Fabulous! Rimsky-Korsakov's "Scheherazade" (LP). Excellent!

Mahler Symphony 5, Solti/Chicago, reissue LP. Anonymous 4, "Miracles of Sant'ago." Both are solid performances of good sonics. Both were as expected.

The CD I purchased most recently was "32 More Gems From 32 Jazz". This two CD set has excellent selections (for example: Grant Green, Sonny Stitt, Hank Jones and Nat Adderley to name just a few). Although the literature does not disclose the technology used in making this compliation, the sound is very good. This collection is like having your own (high-end)radio station without commercials or "hosts".

Just one?!? CDs include Brahms' cello sonatas (Gerhard and Groh on Harmonia Mundi), French Piano Duets (Fromentin and Plancade on EMI Debut), Clerambault's Iris (Les Concert Spirituel on NAXOS), DJ Sasha, Ibiza (Global Underground 013), Sasha + John Digweed, Northern Exposure III, and Mouse on Mars, Niun Niggung. LPs include My Fair Lady (original broadway cast), Marlene Dietrich (concert recorded in London in '51 includes a spoken introduction by Noel Coward), Debussy Preludes performed by Walter Gieseking, and a collection of arias sung by Caruso. I bought the LPs for 25 cents each. I should probably take the money I saved and put it in an account for a new turntable.

Who only buys one CD at a time? Especially if they love classical, as I do? My last purchase included the Op.50 string quartets of Haydn by the Kodály Quartet, which are, like the rest of the series, excellent (audiophile sensibilities be damned). I also bought a good disc of a couple Malcolm Arnold symphonies, and an excellent disc of Stravinsky's "The Rite of Spring" and "Petrouchka," conducted by Pierre Boulez. I rounded out the shopping trip by buying some works for string quartet by Dutilleaux and Dusapin as played by the Arditti Quartet. Difficult but rewarding stuff. Oh yeah, I also got the Mobile Fidelity remastering of Duke Ellington's "Jazz Party." I will soon be out shopping again. After all, I just bought a Naim CD 3.5—I need more music!

MJQ- "Django". A classic remastered using JVC's K2 technology.

The Mobile Fidelity CD of Roy Orbison's "Only the Lonely," using their GAIN2 with DSD mastering. Sounds WONDERFUL!!!! R.I.P., Mobile Fidelity. I'm gonna miss you . . .

The Tzadik collection: "Remembering Tom Cora." Unreal!

In the past month, I have purchased either CDs/LPs from the following bands: Fu Manchu, Love Battery, Fireball Ministry, Drunk Horse, Karma To Burn, Sunny Day Real Estate, and Thin Lizzy.

Jazz Poll Winners, Columbia, on open-reel tape recorded at 7.5ips. It is the best I have ever heard Miles Davis, Brubeck, etc. This format can be awsome. It was new, sealed, and 35 years old!

I bought Propeller by Guided BY Voices. It is not as strong as Under the Bushes Under the Stars or Alien Lanes, but not so strong GBV is still better than most rock bands today. freshyoungfellow@hotmail

Soundtrack to the Sopranos. Great CD!

Peculiar Situation by Earl Klugh Not exactly an "audiophile" approved recording but nice easy listening music. I enjoy acoustic guitar music.

Oumou Sangare 'Worotan' Patricia Barber 'Companion' Big Sugar 'Heated' R. Desjardins 'Boom Boom' Ali Farka Toure' Talking Timbuktu' Duke Robillard 'Strethin'out live' Billy Bragg & Wilco 'Mermaid Avenue' Cecilia Bartoli 'Vivaldi Album' These are last mounth purchases, a mix bag as usual.

Looking Out the Fishbowl by Eddie From Ohio. I can't stop playing this disc! You guys should listen to this, it's great!

Cannonball Adderley (w/Miles Davis), "Autumn Leaves" b/w "Allison's Uncle" (Classic Records, 45rpm single)—a significant improvement over the Blue Note reissue of the "Somethin' Else" LP. I'll probably pick up the Classic reissue of whole record, but "Autumn Leaves" is my fave cut on the album, so having it on 45 is a treat. 45 rules!

I just bought the latest releases from Morphine, Steely Dan, and Santana (Supernatural). Sometimes you just have to buy the music, enjoy it, and try not to bitch about compression or other audiophile quality defects, etc. Or you could simply listen to "audiophile recorded" music that you personally hate. Your choice.

Reference Recordings HDCD63, "Big Band Basie." Highly recommended for anyone who likes large-ensemble jazz. All the RR stuff sounds great, especially the HDCDs. I just wish there were portable (Discman-style, to go with my Etymotics ER-4s) and car HDCD players. I've got about 20 RR CDs and HDCDs. Five left from my last order from www.referencerecordings.com—order three for $13 each.