New CDs in my collection in 2026
(Work in progress as the year progresses, so remember to check every now and then if anything new popped up in the meantime.)
Faithless, "Forever Faithless"
I bought Faithless' the best of, "Forever Faithless," because I like them, and there was "Insomnia" (the most known thing from them), "God is a DJ" (the first song I heard and liked), and "We Come 1" (in a version from the video, not the LP version, which is slightly different). Honestly, there is not much more to say here. As this is a compilation, there were tracks I didn't here before, and which sounds closer to trip-hop than what I usually have Faithless for. I think I might expand my collection with some full albums.
R.E.M., "Automatic For the People"
I read about R.E.M.'s "Automatic For The People" in an article about the x best albums of 1990s that you should listen to. I chose a couple of them, downloaded them, and listened to them; and this album turned out to be my favourite. I like how acoustic it is at times and kind of easygoing. "Drive," "Everybody Hurts," or "Man on the Moon" were the singles, but I also knew "Star Me Kitten" because the X-files CD had a version with William S. Burroughs. And now, finally, it's here, physically.
Eels, "Souljacker"
And the last so far, Eels' "Souljacker." I liked Eels for their second LP, "Electro-Shock Blues," which I listened intensively to in 1999 and later when my grandmother died, as it was inspired by death of Mark Everett's mother and sister. "Souljacker" has a completely different sound, it's much more harsh, more more rock, compared to a mixed and more experimental "Electro-Shock blues." And unbeknownst to me, it turned out to be a 2 CD edition, with 4 B-sides on the second disc. So, nice.
The interesting backstory to "Souljacker" was that, having been a fan of "Electro-Shock Blues," I watched Eels' live performance on Viva Zwei, and one of the songs was "Souljacker," about which I told my friend, also a fan of Eels. He replied to me that he never heard about this song of theirs before, but I insisted, and he did more research, and finally found it somehow. Mind you, it was 1999, and the Internet didn't have that many things on it; though, it's making the full circle.
So, for some time, all I had was an mp3 of live performance. The song is officially titled "Souljacker Part I" (there are two on the album), and I was a bit surprised when a couple of years down the line, a clip dropped for this song. In a moment, it went from a curiosity caught during a concert, televised but still, to a video by Wim Wenders.
And then there's "Jehova's Witness," which the aforementioned friend would find out on his own and was crazy about. I never really caught the hype, but the song remained known to me over the years. Now, having bought "Souljacker," I noticed that the B-sides disc has this song. So, yeah. Maybe I should reach out to my friend and share with him what I found on a flea market.