Convienent and sexy, the iTMS is the love child between online shopping and instant gratification. Browse all you want — the catalog of over 1 million songs to preview, buy, and download should keep you in aural bliss for a long, long time. Oh, and did I mention it is fabulous when combined with the iPod. They’re just made to go together, just like Donny and Marie, Sonny and Cher, Eminim and Elton — ok maybe not that last one.
NOTE: these links will open in iTunes.

Kill Bill Volume 2 continues in the footsteps of Volume 1 (Also available on DVD) with a mix of Latin, Country, and Asian-inspired tunes. Where else could you find a mix of Johnny Cash’s “A Satisfied Mind,” “Tu Mirá” from Lole y Manuel, and “The Legend of Pai Mei”?

Van Lear Rose is perhaps Loretta Lynn’s greatest album since the 70’s. For the first time, Lynn has written all of an album’s songs, and her lyrics are as cutting and incisive as ever. On the powerful, biting “Family Tree,” she brings her babies to the home of her husband’s mistress, so that they can see the “woman that’s burning down our family tree.” Throughout she cunningly tackles tried-and-true honky-tonk themes of love gone bad, drinkin’, cheatin’, and murder. At 70, Lynn seems thoroughly engaged and delighted; at times she delivers some of the most emotionally potent singing of her career. A decade earlier, Johnny Cash turned to rock and rap producer Rick Rubin, and the move resuscitated Cash’s career. Now, Jack White has done the same for Loretta Lynn, another country legend whose music is simply too raw and honest for the contemporary country crowd. Van Lear Rose exceeds all expectations, a bold collaboration in which artists from two different musical universes forge a memorable work that neither could have created alone.

Aerosmith are one of the few arena-sized bands still capable of playing it down-to-earth when the occasion calls. For Honkin’ on Bobo, the boys return to their bar band roots (and fire a warning shot Jack White) with this set of classic blues and soul covers generously peppered with harmonica, horns, and boogie-woogie piano. For years, Aerosmith sprinkled similar ditties on their LPs, but devoting a whole disc to material associated with John Lee Hooker, Mississippi Fred McDowell, et al? That takes chutzpah—and they’ve got it to spare here. “Shame, Shame, Shame” is a finger-waggin’, hip-shakin’ romp, while “Baby, Please Don’t Go” starts out spooky, then escalates as Steven Tyler builds to a full-throttle holler with Joe Perry’s guitar blazing his backside all the way. Tyler even snatches one signature song (“Never Loved A Girl”) away from the Queen of Soul…at least for a few minutes.

America’s Sweatheart is Courtney’s eagerly anticipated solo debut, the follow-up to hole’s two gold certified major label releases, 1994’s classic “Live Through This” and 1998’s grammy award-nominated “Celebrity Skin”. The album is, in the main part, written by Love, with assistance from Linda Perry, the ex four non blonde whose writing has launched the likes of Pink and Christina Aguilera into the stratosphere. “America’s Sweatheart” is the most exhilarating album of her career to date. It’s pure and unadulterated, raw and relentless, smart, brassy, candid and uncompromising - just what you’d expect from ms love. The album rocks in a big way but is choc-full of great tunes, particularly the album’s second single “Hold On To Me” and the epic “Sunset Strip”.