Some iTunes purchases.

I'm not the kind of person to go around telling the world what iTunes songs I buy and load onto my device. There are a few reasons for this.

First, I don't buy individual songs. Call me a bizarre hybrid, but I usually buy entire albums from iTunes. Haven't bought a physical CD in a long, long time. But I still enjoy getting the entire experience of an album, and on several occasions I've discovered songs that I really like -- but they wouldn't have been original picks if I didn't buy the entire album.

Second, I haven't been buying a lot of iTunes stuff lately. I've just gotten back in the habit in the last couple of weeks. So for quite some time there really wasn't anything to say on this subject.

Third, most of my purchases are Christian music. Beyond that, most of those purchases are worship CDs. Is this bad? Of course not. But there's a certain attitude among ministry bloggers about Christian music and such. I agree that much of it is weak and mediocre. But the same can be said of most mainstream music, too. Hence the success of American Idol.

All of this leads me to the last few days.

Here are the albums I've purchased recently (within the last week, basically). It truly is an odd mix:

Detours, by Sheryl Crow

Hard Candy, by Counting Crows

God of this City, by Passion

Relentless, by Natalie Grant

We Need Each Other, by Sanctus Real

Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto; Isaac Stern, Leonard Bernstein & New York Philharmonic

Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto; Berliner Philharmoniker, Joshua Bell & Michael Tilson Thomas

Yes, quite a diverse mix. Haven't heard much from Sheryl Crow in years, sounded like an interesting album. Used to be a huge Counting Crows fan in the mid-'90s but lost track over the years. Love almost everything from the Passion worship people. Natalie Grant's stuff sounded intriguing. Usually love Sanctus Real (and I've been listening to it almost nonstop since last night and I really love this one).

And why two versions of Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto? Each musician and orchestra interprets the work differently and I wanted to hear some new versions. I already own copies of the concerto by Jascha Heifetz and Kyoko Takezawa. Of these new versions, I really like the Bell interpretation. Stern is an incredible violinist, of course, but it's a slower rendition. Too slow for my tastes.