Free of the best

"The best things in life are free". A completely stupid phrase as nothing's completely free! However, some things don't cost any pennies. Often I find 'free' albums, but upon playing them realise they are complete nonsense and have hurt my ears!! This of course is not always the case and more importantly this is not the case (in my opinion) of the albums in this post. They're all completely free and legal to download, which makes it all the better.

Exits - The Boxer Rebellion
(http://www.last.fm/music/The+Boxer+Rebellion/Exits)
The Boxer Rebellion are a band I saw years ago in Nottingham when they supported the Raveonettes. At the time I was suprised to find I actually enjoyed their music, which is quite unusual for a band I'm hearing first time round at a gig. They had a perfect blend of distorted guitars and slower stuff (I'm sure there are proper musical terms for this!). It wasn't until about 6 months ago that I got round to getting their album, Exits. As I remembered from 3 years previously, their sound was varied and captivating. The true masterpiece on this album is 'We Have This Place Surrounded', a track that continually builds and adds many contrasting layers, but never feels cluttered. Other notable tracks being 'Cowboys and Engines' mainly for the intro and erm....well to be honest, all of it!!!

The Seldom Seen Kid - Elbow
(http://www.last.fm/music/Elbow/The+Seldom+Seen+Kid)
Not strictly a download, but you can listen to it for free from last.fm. The Seldom Seen Kid got awarded the Mercury Prize this year. Of course this doesn't necessarily mean it's any good, as I can think of plent of albums awarded prizes in recent years that sucked. The album has several high points such as The Bones Of You, with it's tasty bassline, Mirrorball and it's lovely plinky plonky piano and The Fix with guest vocals by some other guy that isn't Guy (Garvey)! I do find the albums tails off towards the end with nothing to really look forward to in the last 3 songs, but the previous 9 certainly make up for it.

State Of Ruin Bonus Disc - Alter Der Ruine
(oops)
At this point I was going to talk about a free remix CD distributed by Alter Der Ruine, however it seems the link has expired. Ah well. This is a great album despite being based on only about 4 songs, which is proves the excellent work done by contributors. Especially when you consider that the track 'Morning Sobriety' has both incarnations as a roarry bassline in the One Level Down remix and a much more chilled outing with the Embodi remix.