This week my ears have been enjoying...

Seeing there's a new Incubus album out made me want to listen to some of their older stuff, you know, from back when they were good.  Their sound after Make Yourself seemed to veer too much toward radio-friendly, middle of the road rock, and to be blunt, was pretty boring.  Make Yourself was still interesting, although still softer than the two albums before it, and still rocks now, 12 years after it was released.

1999 wasn't Prince's best album; most of his hits, and the songs that people know him for, came later.  But it's still a fun album, especially the title track, and shows what he was capable of, even 20 years ago.  It would have been great to be able to see him play live back in the 80's when he was at his best, but until they invent time travel, we're stuck with the weird little midget he's become now.

Today is the Day were my Heavy Metal Friday pick for this week anyway, and then I found out on Saturday that they had a new album out.  What are the odds?  Pain is a Warning sees them move away from the non-stop intensity of the previous releases and sees a more melodic sound, at time almost hitting alt-country.  They never fail to surprise me with what they come out with, and constant line-up changes actually seem to work in their favour, as the sound never gets stale while remaining instantly recognizable.

It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back was Public Enemy's breakthrough album and it's easy to see why, with every track a winner.  This is more in your face politics than their previous album but they'd honed the production and sound by this point.  I think I prefer the version of Bring the Noise with Anthrax better, but possibly only because it sounds a bit less dated now than the original version.

Royce da 5' 9" is making a big call by calling his latest album Success is Certain, but I'm hoping it finally does bring him the success and recognition he deserves.  This album should go huge, but I've got a feeling that, like the 8 albums before it, it'll go largely unnoticed by the album buying public.  And that would be a shame because he does everything right here - the lyrics are smart, the delivery is tight, the beats are massive, and the whole album just hooks you in from the start.

Feel free to drop a comment below and let me know what musical delicacies you've been getting into over the past week.