Now, on one side of the argument, I'm definitely appreciative of the music industry for helping me out for a few weeks. This lack of releases has allowed me the chance to purchase Christmas gifts with ease and have money to pay for all the stuff I need with school having officially started back up yesterday ($90 for my half of the parking pass my brother and I are getting, $300+ for books, etc.). And it has certainly allowed me to (Possibly forced me to) enjoy some tracks in my collection that have been lacking their appropriate playing time. It is the blessing and curse of owning nearly 600 CDs...you have a lot of music to choose from, but a lot of it gets overlooked, not because it's not good, but because so much great stuff is out there that it's just impossible to give each track the time it deserves.
However, even with a computer that, as of the moment I write this, contains 6309 songs, it becomes a bit tiring to not have new music available. Rediscovering the classics and reevaluating the overlooked is all well and good...but you can only put them into so many different combinations before you start feeling like you've heard the same song for two straight hours, even though you've actually listened to 30 or 40 different songs in that timeframe.
I feel like I'm in a small musical rut right now. And the only cure is more cowbell! Okay, not really, but that's one of my favorite SNL skits, so why not use it? But the only real cure for this rut/funk/whatever you want to call it is some new music to sink my teeth into. Even with the two January releases, it will be yet another month (As of the release dates I currently know of) before another disc I'm considering purchasing, and even that will be a Grits remix disc (However, a little over a month later, they'll return with 7, certainly a disc I am excited for). After that, things start to get going...seven new releases in February, March and April I'm looking at (including 7), as well as the 10th Anniversary rerelease of the classic dc Talk disc, Jesus Freak (Yes, I'm a sucker for anything dc Talk...it could be simply a new cover and I'd probably pick it up...I guess anything that continues to bring hope for a reunion is worth it).
Hopefully I get out of this rut soon. There are some new bands out there I've got my eye on, and perhaps they can get me moving out of this funk. Maybe if I got out to a concert sometime this year, that would help as well...