You Get What You Pay For
January 23, 2005
I just got on iTunes and downloaded the self-titled release from Franz Ferdinand, the vaguely (and sometimes unambiguously) queer group of Scots that are such media darlings at the moment. No, I’m not here to give my review of a nearly-year-old album that everyone’s already heard. I finally bought it because I was sick of listening to my crappy MP3s I downloaded from Gnutella. File sharing is fun and all, but one song in particular, Come On Home, was so corrupted that I couldn’t even get a jist for how the song goes. Another, Tell Her Tonight, sounded like a 10khz encoding of a demo recorded in a basement. I got fed up tonight and fed iTunes the required $9.99 for a “Special Edition” of the album with five bonus tracks: This Fffire, Van Tango, Shopping for Blood, All for You, Sophia and Words So Leisured.
Getting the extra stuff is great, but I can’t believe the difference in quality. MP3s always seemed “good enough,” and usually they aren’t that bad. I suppose the benefit of downloading the MP3 first is that once you get the real thing, it’s like getting all new music. So I guess I’m sold, then.
As an aside, I’d like to quote this post on the songmeanings.net entry for Michael.
Look, don’t get me wrong. I heart vagina. But this song is just really, really good. Honestly, I wish it weren’t so difficult NOT to sing along. Funny thing, that one of the best songs on the cd has the most divisive lyrics. Just imagine a girl named Michael. Have you ever met a girl named Michael? No? Well, tell yourself she exists, and she is hell of beautiful.
And has stubble, I guess.