Number 1400, Pizzicato Five's The fifth release from Matador (2000).

See also number 1000. Yes, only that long ago. Terrifying, isn't it ?

The best way to work off a bit of stress is to shop. So when Steph said she was gonna go up to Greville Records to buy the new Art of Fighting album, tagging along seemed like the most optimal course of action. I'd been holding off on buying the new (such as it is) P5 album for a while - reviews had pointed out the relative lack of surprises, and the price over here ($35 ! the new "normal price" for imports, it seems) seemed a little prohibitive. But as I surveyed the endless rows of CDs[1] in the shop, it poked up a little, as if to say "hey, pick me !". I paused for a while. "who, me ?" "Yes. you." It's just too hard to fight this sort of thing on a Friday afternoon - after all, maybe a bit of happy retro Japanese music's just what I need to lift this mood - so I gave in and had a quick listen to it in the shop. It all started off just fine, but as the songs started to slow down a bit, I thought "hmm. maybe this can wait".

As I walked out of the shop though, I spied the new Steve Kilbey album. I'll buy his stuff on general principle, because I'm just a hopeless completist, especially for bands I "grew up with" - I still remember seeing The Church sounding very English, and Steve Kilbey's nice purple shirt, on Countdown back at the start of the 80's. I've no idea what this CD's like, and I was only vaguely aware it was coming up soon. So I'll say more about this later on, when I can put it into a bit more perspective.

Of course, on the way home I just happened to pass by Second Spin in Balaclava, and picked up another 3 CDs (hey, when you're on a roll...) -

• Unchained, by Johnny Cash : Yes, the one with "I've been everywhere, man" on it.

• Under the western freeway, by Grandaddy : a complete random coincidence thing - I saw a video of theirs the other day, and then remembered that CDNow's recommendation system had been pushing their album at me. Hey, maybe that stuff does nearly work ?

• New Morning, Changing Weather, by The (International) Noise Conspiracy : They usually have a killer track or two, and the rest of the album is just ok. But we'll see. (again, see the other day).

[1] Which reminds me. In both New Zealand and Singapore, I noticed a common trend in some shops (not all of them) of having the CDs in the racks on their side, so you can read the spines at a glance. Imagine that ! No more endlessly flicking through rows of CDs (sometimes one row with each hand if you're trying to save time...which almost works...occasionally), leaning perilously over the shelves trying to read the front covers. If only they'd pick up on this in Melbourne music shops...