Wow. I never thought you'd really turn the beta thing to reality. Last.fm looked so nice, it was the greatest site and now it is grotesque and distasteful. What the hell went wrong? Why is everything so big? Why are the unnecessary things prioritized?
I hope this is a joke, and that you will very soon get the former layout back. This one isn't even worth being called a layout. Looks like crap. You will probably lose many members, and that's just a fact. Sorry, but that's the way it is.
"but i don't want easy. easy doesn't make you grow."
if you think it's distasteful, install a Greasemonkey script.. it will make Last.m black, but ugly as hell.. This design makes sense, looks good (can't wait till paint to black though) and will not be turned back to the old.