A lovely little package from Amazon dropped through the letterbox this morning. For just £8.49 they had sent me Iron Maiden’s new Dance of Death within a week of its release, and with free postage I’d also got A Perfect Circle’s new opus on the day of release, all by 8am. Not bad going, really.

Although I was rather apprehensive about the new album after hearing “Wildest Dreams”, Maiden were the first to hit the CD player. Skipping over that first track “Rainmaker” started. And suddenly I realised. Maiden were back! There’s a great feeling when you realise that the first single is actually the weakest song on a new album, so the CD stayed on for three back-to-back repeats. Read my Dance of Death review.

Then A Perfect Circle. The album was not what I was expecting at all, bearing little resemblance to the debut Mer de Noms or the single Weak and Powerless. It was actually rather disappointing at first, but realising how quiet much of it was, I turned off the hi-fi, dropped it into my computer and listened through headphones. Suddenly I was hooked. It is a new sound for them, but filled with undeniable genius. Read my Thirteenth Step review.

After coming down from that high, I was off to Croydon. Bumped into Zaki and Anna who kindly took care of me while I was blind (having my glasses’ lenses refitted). There’s nothing quite like that sensation when you put a new pair of glasses on and suddenly everything is perfectly sharp again. Crystal clear. There’s a similar feeling whenever you put them on, of course, but it’s different when it’s a new pair with a perfect prescription. Even stains on a window look cool because now the stain has perfectly crisp edges. The moment always reminds me of Barry White, “oh baby…I love it when the drugs kick in.”