Is it possible to have too much music? Well, with Comes With Music – Nokia’s all-you-can-eat music download service – the answer is No!. With over 6 million tracks to choose from, it’s one of the most comprehensive services around and we’ve been putting it to the test. We’ve reached the Letter R and have so many albums to download. See how we get on with building a library of Letter R acts using Comes With Music…

We’ve reached the Letter R and hoping for a great haul of albums – largely due to there being a whole host of bands starting with the letter (we’re still a smarting from the real lack of talent with Letter Q).

Lady of the house steps up first and firmly hits the ground running with Michael Stipe and R.E.M. (you need to add the dots for the search to show up). While Comes With Music doesn’t have all the albums, Monster is missing for instance, there is more than enough to get you up and running. Green and Document, the big early albums get added, before the more well known Out Of Time, Automatic For The People and even the latest Accelerate gets added.

Going old-school punk for her second choice, we check out The Ramones. All the albums are on there from The Ramones, through to later Acid Eaters and Brain Drain. If you want to go the whole hog, then the 84 track The Chrysalis Years is on Comes With Music and up for grabs. That’s enough Ramones to truly prove that Sheena is a Punk Rocker, while Judy is [just] a Punk.

You know when a band has been around a long time when someone you liked in your youth are still going and your off-spring like the new stuff but haven’t heard any of the ‘classics’. In our house that would be the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Teenage boy likes the later albums Stadium Arcadium and Californication while for me its all about the Freaky Styley and Uplift MOFO Party Plan. Comes With Music has a fair spread of RHCP but there are some gaping holes – no Blood Sugar Sex Magic, no Mother’s Milk – where are the true ‘classics’?

We may agree on RHCP but teenage boys is on his own with his appreciation of German industrialists Rammstein, far too much metrosexual denial going on! Boy picks up Mutter, Reise Reise and Sehn Sucht.

For his final choice, he picks up on Rancid, another band who seem to have been around that long the ‘kids’ have begun to dig em again (as we used to say). These US punks seem to like the idea of 1977 but without the UK power cuts, strikes and bad nylon clothes. By adds Let the Dominoes Fall, Rancid and Life Won’t Wait.

Rocket From The Crypt were one of those 90’s bands that never recovered from having a hit. Most people know them as ‘that band who did ‘On A Rope‘ but there was so much more to them – as my RFTC tattoo will attest! Sadly, Comes With Music only has a taste of what was the band at their height, not even offering Scream Dracula Scream, the album with On A Rope on there…

Instead, we get a single official album, the follow-up RFTC, was it really called Run For The Caves? Then there is a 20 track RIP recording of their final show and a more recent compilation, The Name Of The Band Is Rocket From The Crypt, which is essentially a re-packaged The State of Art is on Fire and a couple of singles.

Staying in the mean gee-tars and quiff vein, we come to the Reverend Horton Heat, the finest guitar picker this side if Dick Dale. Comes With Music has them down twice, adding ‘The‘ to the name gets you the most recent We Three Kings and Revival albums, while typing in Reverend Horton Heat gets you a mixed bag of back catalogue, including such gems as Smoke ‘em If You’ve Got ‘em, Liquor in the Front and The Full-Custom Gospel According to… Then there is the 2002, Lucky 7, which is pretty much for completists only.

Proving that not everyone in the house has plenty of artists starting with the Letter R, pre-teen daughter comes to the table with only one name – Kelly Rowland. Solo from Destiny’s Child, she’s managed to produce the Ms. Kelly album, which gets added to our download list with a ‘that’s all I’ve got’ from girl of the house.

Still, Letter R has proved a bountiful haul on Comes With Music, pulling in 30 albums and the promise of even more.

Random Album: Choosing a music genre we wouldn’t normally go for, there are (along with Rock) Reggae and Rap. We opt for Reggae to find that the Editor’s Pick for the week is Queen Ifrica and her Road to Mobay EP that consists of three songs. Completely new to us we check it out.

Letter R: 30 albums downloaded
420 Comes With Music albums downloaded to date