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I’m : a programmer, writer, podcaster, geek, and coffee enthusiast.

Music experiment bonus

These won’t count for this week’s music experiment, since they’re from old bands that I already had in my collection, but I’ve bought two more albums:

R.E.M. - Accelerate. This was a nice surprise — R.E.M. has rediscovered their energy, and this is better than everything they’ve made in the last decade. Sidenote: This album is $14 and DRM-only on iTunes, but $10 DRM-free on Amazon.

Ultimate Santana. I admit that I came upon this while searching for Black Magic Woman so I could get to know the song better and maybe, just maybe, finally earn 5 stars on Guitar Hero. But Ultimate Santana is a great way to get a wide selection of his music, including his relatively recent collaboration tracks with modern artists, for those (like me) who didn’t previously have any of his music legally. This is also a great deal — it’s 18 tracks, coming in right below the 74-minute limit of standard audio CDs.

UPDATE: OK, this isn’t such a good buy… Black Magic Woman in Guitar Hero is actually Black Magic Woman/Gypsy Queen, a 5-minute merged song, but Ultimate Santana’s version fades out and ends at 3:16! It’s missing the awesome latter half! Shit.