Album of the Year

And it's a live album at that. The Pet Shop Boys' "Concrete" seems straightforward enough (it's a concert recorded for BBC Radio 2 with the BBC Concert Orchestra) but when I played it in the car, every track blew me away and I couldn't wait to get back into the car to hear more. Okay, it's partly because many of the songs, including "Left To My Own Devices", "It's A Sin" and a brilliant arrangement of "Rent", bleed with so much nostalgia of a simpler time gone by. But it's also the surprises on the album - like Rufus Wainwright singing "Casanova In Hell" and Robbie Williams on "Jealousy" (which, I've realised now, is my favourit-est PSB song by far).

Speaking of which, I bought Robbie Williams' controversial new album Rudebox, on the strength of it being a crazy-weird electro 80s throwback thing. It's the first Robbie CD I've ever bought and I kinda like it actually :)

Speaking of firsts, I also bought my first ever Creative gadget!! The Creative Xmod is supposed to make MP3 ripped to your computer sound better by restoring the quality lost during MP3 compression. Its "X-Fi Crystalliser" may sound like a machine from a tacky B-grade sci-fi thriller, but it damn well works. I'm such a sucker...