Late to the party - The Avalanches

One great thing about recorded music, perhaps the greatest thing even, is that since it is recorded, it can be discovered and enjoyed by the listener at his or her convenience. No duh, right? Well, in a time when most albums are leaked months prior to their release dates to enterprising downloaders clamoring to put some tracks on their blog or brag to their friends, it's nice to know, for the rest of us, the music will be there when we get to it.

Case in point: The Avalanches fantastic album Since I Left You, which was released in 2001, and which I am just now getting around to enjoying.

As most of you probably know, this isn't some obscure record that went unnoticed and has just recently garnered some praise. It was pretty much unanimously heralded as a masterpiece and wound up toward the top of many a 2001 best albums list. Add to this I was very aware of the album, and at one point even had the album in mp3 form on a disc full of other mp3 albums. Needless to say, it never got burnt onto a disc in music form, nor did it find it's way onto my first generation iPod. And that is a shame. But it waited for me, just like whole bunch of other bands and albums did, and as many more will continue to do.