Comes With Music is Nokia’s fantastic all-you-can-eat music service that allows subscribers to download as much music as they like for free.
You can play it on your Nokia phone as well as your laptop. With that in mind, we’ve started to see how quickly the entire family can get to grips with the service and build the world’s biggest music collection – see how we’re getting on….
Day Three of our experiment into getting the most from Comes With Music and it seems we've already proven there are more tracks to download than anyone person can want, so getting the whole family involved is a great way to test the service.
The youngest member of our house is 12 and loves everything Disney TV and Nick Toons has to offer. First up is Miley Cyrus – not Hannah Montana, the Disney owned character but the ‘real’ star and her first solo album ‘Breakout’. Sure enough, that’s on Comes With Music so that goes in the library.
Next up we have another Disney TV act, the Cheetah Girls, who seem to have added a hint of Latin American chic to the otherwise mid-west appeal that is sanitised Disney TV. Apparently, the first album doesn’t cut the mustard, so that one’s ignored in favour of Cheetah Girls 2 and One World – most much more mainstream and catchy pop!
Final choice for the young lady of the house is Kelly Clarkson, who won some American version of Pop-Star-Factor-X show but has actually gone on to forge a career in her own right. With that in mind, My December and All I Ever Wanted get the thumbs up and are added to the list.
In complete contrast, the teenage boy of the house wouldn’t be caught dead listening to anything so mainstream or pop. With eyeliner firmly in hand, his choices for C consist of Cradle of Filth and Coheed and Cambria.
Cradle of Filth is an instant and easy win as Comes With Music offers 14 different albums and that’s not including some of the more obscure ‘Special’ or ‘Extended’ editions. Boy only owns one album so it’s a grab-fest for him, quickly picking Godspeed of the Devil’s Thunder, Thornography and Cruelty and the Beast before deciding that he’ll be back for the rest later.
Keeping up the laugh a minute quota, Coheed and Cambria have three of their four albums on offer on Comes With Music, including the elegantly long-winded Good Apollo, I’m Burning Star IV Volume One: From Fear Through Eyes of Madness, which takes longer to say than it does to download! Added to these are No World for Tomorrow and In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth.
With the Prince of Darkness safely back in his crypt, the lady of the house decides its her turn to put something less gruesome on the home computer. The Cure is a safe bet with their entire back catalogue on there. The Cure Greatest Hits is one of the best of its kind so that gets picked first, along with Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me and Wish. I’m sure we’ll find the rest getting downloaded over the next few weeks…
Next up we have Cake, who may have been something of a one-hit wonder with ‘The Distance’ but make a steady living selling music to film and TV shows. Most recently, one of their songs was the theme tune to hit US TV show, ‘Chuck’.
Fashion Nugget is a must, as is Comfort Eagle for anyone looking for an introduction to Cake. Then we go for an earlier album Motorcade of Generosity before adding them to the ‘Back4More’ list that seems to be getting out of hand!
Finally, it’s time for the kings of ‘Lion Pop’ to be added to the Comes With Music library – CUD! The entire world may have missed out on the mighty Cud fronted by Leed’s own Tom Jones, Carl Putnam, but in our house Lion Pop rules! Surprisingly, the two A&M albums are missing but the recent Anthology is there. Her in-doors also grabs Elvis Belt, Leggy Mambo and When in Rome Kill Me before deciding that she’s more than satisfied that Comes With Music does indeed roar!
In an attempt to make my collection a little more diverse, I’ve started with the legend that is Johnny Cash. With four pages of albums to choose from, Comes With Music could do with creating its own guide to all things ‘The Man in Black’. Cash, along with Elvis, seems to have been victim to more ‘Best of’ compilations than just about anyone else out there, so choosing the right ones is a little tricky. Love, God, Murder is a three boxset that covers most of the bases, along with The Sun Years.
From one hellraiser to another, we move on the The Clash. Now, this band, or was it just Joe Strummer, generated more passion in their brief career than just about any other band. So, the Singles is a good place to start, but you also need to make sure that London Calling and Combat Rock make it onto the playlist with Give em Enough Rope reserved for once you get to grips with the rabble rousers.
The final C I’ll pumped for is Cat Power, who seems to have become something of an alt-country institution in the last couple of years, largely due to her The Greatest album. Luckily, Comes With Music has her full back catalogue, so adding this to the download list is easy. Dodging Moonpix, which I’ve never liked, I also grab Jukebox and You Are Free before calling it a day.
Comes With Music seems to have hit its stride and with the letter C we’ve downloaded another 37 albums without even trying. To make the most of Comes With Music, we’ve also started to choose an artist that we wouldn’t normally go for. This shows Comes With Music in the best light, as it allows you to experiment with music you wouldn’t normally go for, as you won’t be charged any extra for it. With that in mind, we go for John Coltrane, A Love Supreme.
Letter C: 37 albums downloaded
84 albums and an assortment of singles downloaded to date