Comes With Music is Nokia’s own music subscription service that allows you to download as much music as you like for a year, or longer if you choose to extend the subscription. With over six million tracks to choose from, and growing all the time, it’s a great way to build your own music library, which is precisely what we’ve doing. So, why not heck out what the Letter G has to offer on Comes With Music...
Getting a Comes With Music subscription gives us unlimited access to one of the world’s largest music resources online. Once you’ve got a Comes With Music phone, we’re using the Nokia 5310 XpressMusic, you can sign up and share music between the phone and your PC for a year.
Even if you decide not to renew your subscription after a year, you still get to keep the music, so it’s a pretty solid deal. We’re up to G in our rundown of building a music library and after a week away, the lady of the house is keen to find out what she’s missed.
First up she’s after checking out a bit of Garbage, Shirley Manson’s outfit from the late 90’s. Along with the first two albums, there is also Absolute Garbage, which is a Best of… that makes the most of digital remasters of all the early singles. Then there is Bleed Like Me, which was their last album back in 2007. It’s a good start and one that is backed up by nabbing a couple of Gorillaz albums.
We’re more big fans of Jamie Hewlett's artwork in our house (come on, make a Tank Girl cartoon, Jamie!) but Gorillaz and Demon Days are decent albums to have. There are also G-Sides and D-sides but the lady of the house isn’t too keen and gives them a miss.
Moving on to the youngest member of the household, Girls Aloud (to a pre-teen’s eye) seem to have it all, the songs, the hair, fashion and football husbands but can Comes With Music back it up with a solid back catalogue? Sure enough, everything you’d want from is on offer in the form of all six albums in various forms. All get added, with Tangled Up even being a Nokia Exclusive with an extra track, so that’s the version to nab.
If we were expecting it to be all pop, then the addition of Green Day not only get the green light from everyone but also a ‘oh, that’s one of mine!’ from teenage boy of the house! The kids grab 21st Century Breakdown, the follow-up to American Idiot, which is also downloaded, along with the live Bullet in a Bible. Then it’s time to have a look at the older stuff, was it really 1994 when Dookie hit the shops – where did the years go? We add Insomniac and Nimrod from their ‘lost years’ before calling it a [Green] day.
Staying in the American Punk Pop vain, the boy chooses Good Charlotte who seem to be more famous for being/not being the other half to Nicole Richey/Paris Hilton these days. The Young and the Hopeless and another early album, The Chronicles of Life and Death get added but the more recent stuff is ignored, could this be a sign that the band is no longer ‘down with the kids’?
The Gallows have been classed as the best British punk band to come along in years. They’ve released two loud and abrasive albums to date, the Orchestra of Wolves from 2007 and the more recent Grey Britain. Both were downloaded weeks ago but for the sake of keeping the books straight, we have to say we’re adding them to the Comes With Music library now!
For my choices I’ve decided to choose another fairly new band, The Gaslight Anthem, who are being hotly tipped this year, and an old favourite – Gallon Drunk. Now, The Gaslight Anthem have two albums under their belt, Sink and Swim and the latest ’59 Sound, which are both on Comes With Music and get added to the list. Just a pity that the Senor and the Queen EP is missing otherwise it would have been a clean sweep.
Sadly, the same can’t be said for Gallon Drunk, who seem to have fallen off the music map. Comes With Music lists only one album, and that’s the 2007 The Rotten Mile - no From The Heart of the Town, or In The Long Still Night, it’s a sad day for sharp suits and James Johnston fans all round.
RANDOM ALBUM: As part of our quest to try out new types of music, and making the most of Comes With Music, we’re looking at G, so a good place to start is with Gospel. How Great Thou Art: Gospel Favorites Live From The Grand Ole Opry offers 12 sample tracks recorded, as the title suggests, from the home of Country music The Grand Ole Opry, Nashville.
Letter G: 24 albums downloaded
173 Comes With Music albums downloaded to date