Excellent Citizenship (if not blogger-ship)

So, today I was an excellent citizen.  Which only really amounted to sitting very still for an awfully long time fulfilling my civic duty of jury duty.  More than happy to do my part, but my goodness it was a long day.  And they never even called my name.  Until 3:00, when they told me I would have to report to a different location tomorrow for juvenile cases.  Two days of being an excellent (and a little bit bored) citizen in a row.  We'll see.

In other news, I have noticed that I have become maybe the-worst-blogger-ever.  I was thinking of ways to jazz things up a little/give a little structure to my life and blog, so today is the first go of it.  I decided to focus on the things that I like the most, so from now on I will be featuring a different musical artist each Monday.  I'll be talking about music that I like, and hopefully you might find something that you like too.  

So here is the first installment of Sounds (that are) Good:

I happened upon Brooke Waggoner completely by accident a few days ago, and am totally hooked.  And here is something so exciting--she is giving away her EP for FREE on her website. Yes, you have to enter your email (which means you are signing up for a newsletter) so they can send you the link for the free download. But it's worth it, trust me.  And her new single is also one of the FREE downloads on iTunes right now.  So, all in all, two very good deals.  Here is the thing that is interesting to me, from a design perspective.

This is the album cover for "Fresh Pair of Eyes".  I really like the album artwork and think that it really looks like the EP's overall sound.  

And this is the artwork for her second album "Heal for the Honey".  The single that you can get for free on iTunes is off of this album, and clearly the artwork, the overall look and feel of it, are very different.  I like it, but it's a very clear departure.  But again, it looks just like it should sound.  Which is, I think, what the cover art should be all about.


The thing that grabbed me immediately about "Fresh Pair of Eyes" was the piano.  She is really amazing and it adds this beautiful, textural element to each of the tracks.  It's intricate and complicated and so much more than the strategically placed chord that you get from so many songstresses.  Apparently she studied composition and orchestration of classical music, and that training is obvious.  And she has combined that training with more modern influences without detracting from either.  They are both equally obvious and important.

"Heal for the Honey" is still refreshingly unique.  You'll still hear the interesting lyrics, the amazing piano, the complex arrangements.  Great if you like Feist or Regina Spektor.  It's more upbeat, more synthesized, more layered.  And really, really good.

Both are amazing and highly recommended.  I'll be adding some other new features to the blog this week, so check back if you'd like.

Oh, and the "Buy 2, Get 1 Free" print sale is still going on the in the Project 8256 shop so take advantage of it while you can.  Man, oh man, bargains all around.

xo,

Amy