MUMBAI: Apple iTunes has finally released CalPOP's "Best Record in the World" albums available now as MP3 music downloads from Apples Itunes store! Not since Pink Floyd released "The Wall" or The Who released "Tommy" has there been so much fuss over a concept record. This is the album that has the "missing song" and the frequencies of sound adults can't hear - it even has a diet plan on it called the "The Live-it Diet". Oh, and supposedly at least one song is supposed to keep mosquitoes away and a few commercials

However, lately, it's not just the "missing song" that has been missing, the entire album was recently banned at Lala.com. And it had been difficult to find because it was only Lala that was selling both parts of the the record! Until now, you would have to go one place for one part, like Amazon.com, and another place for the other part- like Rhapsody.com or Emusic.com. Thank God for Apple iTunes! iTunes makes for instant, unlimited, world-wide distribution for even the rarest and hardest to find "banned" album. Now you can get CalPOP's "Best Record in the World" parts 1 & 2 from one place - Apple's Itunes store.

Originally, CalPOP's "Best Record in the World" was scheduled to be released by iTunes and other download outlets such as Amazon.com on Thanksgiving of last year, but the album was mired in controversy and eventually banned from some of the only places it could be downloaded like Lala.com. Apparently, the "missing song" was making it difficult for music download retailers to provide.

Thanksgiving and Christmas came and went...but then Lala seemed to have the whole thing... for awhile...until they "banned" both records and removed CalPOP as an artist altogether. Lala.com clients can't even share the songs anymore or put them on playlists. However, now that Lala has "banned" CalPOP, apparently for it being too popular and overrunning their website, Apple iTunes has now made the entire album available for download which consists of both "Best Record in the World Part I" and "Best Record in the World Part II". They aren't stupid.

CalPOP's "Best Record in the World" is a concept album about a Linux hacker who sells his soul to get a girl he meets on MySpace. In fact, one theory about why this album was banned from Lala.com is that CalPOP was promoting MySpace.com - a competitor of LaLa.com. The story goes that a profile of "Tom" was posting messages about how much he liked the song "MySpace Shelia" by CalPOP all over the Lala.com website.

What makes the album unique, besides it being a concept album, set in modern times, is the way it blends humor and what seems to be some subconscious elements through the characters of Barley the Wonderhorse and Little Honka. The album plays like a fantasy movie as listeners hear how Lynn Tracy, sells his soul, gets turned into a parrot, wins his soul back, and loses the girl. And there seems to be snippets of several languages on the album including Japanese, German, Croatian, Spanish, and Russian.

Meanwhile the two album set is chock full of great songs which although they are mainstream rock, they seem to have wide demographic appeal. There really does appear to be something on it for everyone. Originally, 1,000 CDs were made but good luck finding one. For now, the only way to hear this masterpiece is to download it. It's worth every penny just to hear what all the fuss is about - or just to hear something a little different and new. The recommended listening method? It is recommended that you download both album parts into your iTunes account and then into your iPOD but remember to take your iPOD off of "shuffle" mode so that you can hear the songs in order. Apparently listening to entire albums in order is a lost art form. The CalPOP album is Epic in it's scope, very enjoyable and, as one LaLa fan said complaining about it being withdrawn, "It's the greatest thing since the hearing aid".