Is it weird that all the news about this say only that it's coming in October, without a specific date? We're down to a release month, but nothing more specific than that. (And, as others have said, we've gotten release months for this album before.)

Heavy Soul is a very good album - just a small step down from the two masterpieces - Wild Wood and Stanley Road - that preceded it. It in no way should be included in the discussion for why these weeks were so awful - except as mitigation.

I'm still a CD buyer and have a collection of about 1200, dating back to 1986. Not a one of them has ever had had a case of "CD Rot" and I can count on one hand the discs that I've had to dispose of or replace because of flaws. Is this really a widespread problem?

I was an adult (27) when Sorcerer's Stone came out and paid no attention to the books until they started becoming a phenomenon and my wife started to read them. I had to chose whether I was going to be in the conversation or out, so I decided to jump in and read the first three books over about a week. I was hooked. …

Maxell 110s were the way to go. 55 minutes to a side so most albums fit, good for a 30 song mix tape and not as thin as the 120s so breakage was minimal. I still have my tapes from the mid-80's to late-90's on those.

Strange coincidence that AV Club used Tabitha Soren's R.E.M. playlist, because my only personal brush with the band was getting to be on the set of the Strange Currencies video in fall of '94, and she happened to be there for MTV that night ("Monster" had been certified gold that day, if memory serves). In any event,…

Agreed. One of my all-time favorites. I saw Paul perform a couple years ago and those songs still pack a punch. He's continued to out out pretty good stuff over the years but it would be hard to ever top that. Let Me Into Your Life and Don't Wait Up For Me are two of the best power pop songs ever.

I got Yuck's "Stranger Things" in February and watched Netflix's "Stranger Things" last month. I enjoyed both - but I will listen to Yuck's album again (in fact, I'm listening now) and I doubt I'll watch season 1 again. Advantage: Yuck

I'm 48 - old enough to have been into Midnight Oil in college - and her album was my favorite of last year. Just because you can find echoes of other artists in he r sound doesn't mean she's wholly unoriginal and without a singular voice. Taking what's come before and incorporating into what you do can make for…

A few people have mentioned the two versions of "The Ugly Truth" on Matthew Sweet's Altered Beast album, but the obscure one that came to my mind was "Sun" and "Sunset" a rock and acoustic version (respectively) of the same song on Azxtec Camera's Frestonia album.

This is why I lament the passing of music in a physical format. There used to be a sense of discovery and ownership when you found something cool at the record store. (And yeah - getting those early U2 and R.E.M. albums was very cool.) There was something great about swapping records, tapes and CDs with friends -…

I never gave this much thought, but it's really tough to rank them. There's a lot to love about each THS album, and I can listen to any of them in any given day. So my ranking as of this minute is:
1. Boys and Girls in America
2. Stay Positive
3. Separation Sunday
4. Heaven Is Whenever
5. Almost Killed Me
6. Teeth Dreams

I thought Big Jim did everything for this town! (He's said so several dozen times.). Now he says he did everything for his family? I just don't know what to put my faith anymore if Big Jim can't have a consistent motivation for his wholly irrational actions.

I think U2's "Achtung Baby" is brilliant, but the line from that album that I just can't stand is "A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle" from "Tryin To Throw Your Arms Around The World." I remember seeing that phrase on T-shirts and refrigerator magnets in the late 70s and early 80's. It was mildly…

I always thought it was "a very small voice talked to me". Have I been hearing it wrong all these years?

Here's another - why would Barbie know Joe's e—mail address? There's been no signal since the dome came down and I can't imagine Joe would tell him his e-mail just in case something like this happened.

Am I the only one who hoped that when people got out of the dome, they would look back on their terrible decisions since the dome came down and realize that the thing actually made them unbelievably stupid. "Wow, I was gonna partner with the guy who tried to hang me a few days earlier, what was I thinking? And that…

OK, so that delivery was replicas of all the departed from the town, right? The GR ordered them from that company we learned about during the Nora-centric episode and are going to display for everyone during the Memorial Day festival. That's why they took all the pictures of the departed during the Christmas dance. …

Shazbot!

Was James telling his kids how he met their father supposed to be a callback to when Ted's dad told him how he met his mother? ("It's a great story - we met at a bar.")