Hope you don't mind, but I added you as a friend on the referral of a friend of mine.

Pffft. The first album is my favorite, and "Here" is the lead-off track.

Alas, I doubt I'll ever meet another human being who really shares my taste in music. Such is life!

Let's see... Genesis (with Peter and without), Midnight Oil, VAST, Pet Shop Boys, Yuki Kajiura (if you take no other piece of my advice, at least give her album "Fiction" a listen), Kotoko, The Police, BT, Daft Punk, Jethro Tull, David Bowie... that covers some of the highlights and gives you a basic idea, anyway.

I do believe I can help with that just a bit... bwahahaha...

Their second album, "Music for People," sounds altogether too much like someone told David Crosby, "We love that first album, but it's not very radio friendly and without airplay we can't guarantee sales, blah blah blah" so he went back to the studio and came up with a bunch of three-minute pop-rock songs that just happen to sound VAST-like. For all that, it's not actually a bad album. It's just not very interesting.

"Nude," however, comes in a solid second place for VAST records. Several of the songs are outstanding, and the rest ain't too shabby. The "Crimson/Turquoise" set is only useful if you're a completist and like hearing demo versions of songs, that sort of thing. (Oddly enough, I do fall into that category. Go figure.)

I'd never heard of the movie, either, but a couple of commenters liked it. I'm all about the song. :)

(and for the life of me I don't understand why they sell it like this on the package. "Like The Matrix! Only... different!")

Easy: Invoking "The Matrix," in marketroid-think, equates to "instant sales bump."

Perhaps I'm a titch jaded. Hmm.

'Equilibrium' is, according to my brother (and I agree), one of the "best underrated films."

And, I love 'The Matrix' - while there are some obvious parallels, there is definite character development in 'Equilibrium' that doesn't exist in 'The Matrix'.

Not to mention the movie is BEAUTIFULLY shot and is worth watching for only its visual design (in my very uninformed opinion!).