No Gods no Masters:

Perhaps it was to be expected, but the best song of the new Garbage album, No Gods no Masters, was titled 'No Gods no Masters.'  So basically the point of this album was this song.  And it shows.  Some songs showed a little life, but there's no way they'd be worth listening to 100 times.  Most came off as bitter, angry, and rambling.  This was the only one that rose above to the typical artistic quality I expect from Garbage.

I figured I'd give this album a shot, even though their previous album, Strange Little Birds, didn't earn a single berth in my music hall of fame.  Clearly they're over the hill, but I love Garbage so much I thought they deserved another chance all the same.  As a reward I got one nice new song, which gives me a much rounder number total, 5485, for my music hall of fame as a whole.

One way I made sure this song was great, not just decent, was comparing it to 'Shattered' by the Cranberries.  'Shattered' is one of those songs that almost made the music hall of fame, so if 'No Gods no Masters' is better than 'Shattered' in a straight competition, it must be music hall of fame caliber.  It turns out it was, so case closed.

Still, one good song in two albums is a pretty terrible batting average.  This is the last time I lend Garbage an ear even if they release ten more albums.  I'd do better searching through old Grandia games if I really wanted new songs that desperately.

But I don't even need any new songs, I'm full up to my gills with songs I need to clear their 100-playthrough threshold with, so the last thing I need is a dumptruck full of new music.  I've already wasted a day listening to this Garbage album that could've been spent furthering my hall of fame project.  No more!

I've finished Shinobumonogatari. It's excellent.  Funny, intriguing, punny and witty, exactly what you'd expect from Bakemonogatari.  Plenty of our favorite characters get great scenes, like Mayoi and Shinobu.  It just goes to show that the further Hitagi is from the plot the better the series becomes.

Strike Witches S3 is out in blu-ray thanks to [Dmonhiro].  My only objection is it's in 720p, but beggars can't be choosers, there is no 1080p bluray available, so 720p it is.  It was great that I reached my Full Clear anime rewatch objective, but I do feel bad now that all these shows are coming out in bluray and I've already rewatched them.  It means I'll have to watch all these shows a third time for no good reason, to justify downloading the bluray in the first place.  Oh well, these are great shows so it shouldn't be too much of a bother.