Music publications, both on-line and off-line, have a purpose to inform and educate their readers about music. In the case of new releases they have to quickly digest and assess the music then publish a review. This rarely gives true insight into an album, because one’s opinion of that album can (will?) change with time. It’s invariably this long term view that’s most valuable at gauging the artistic merit of such music.

I fortunately have luxury in being able to (mostly) defer reviews for a year or more, which is why my end of year albums reviews normally turn up a year late! Individual track reviews are more appropriate for the instant hit required.

Stephen Trossé, writing in his review of Joan As Police Woman’s Real Life, today:

Maybe all records should only be reviewed a year after they come out

Emm Gryner has just landed in Los Angeles to start work on her new album. Her first journal post on this is here. With photos!

There’s been a lot of discussion over the previous months regarding the possible extension of musicians’ copyright in the UK from its current 50 year limit. Yesterday the UK government rejected its increase to 70 years, indicating that it wouldn’t actually benefit the musicians that much. Part of the rationale behind this conclusion cites the Gowers Report published in December 2006. But this post isn’t about the validity of the claim. Instead it’s about one chart contained within the report that summarises where our cash goes when we buy music:

Is it any wonder that major labels are in trouble when they so obviously devalue the people they are reliant on? If you’re a musician and you want to sell your music, my advice is to set up your own website, a Last.fm page, a MySpace page and network furiously. It works.

Here’s a quote from a post of mine from August 2006:

Surely it’s possible and likely that some enterprising music loving person will put together a website that plays music videos back to back. Who needs MTV?

This week, Last.fm launches video on their music-based social networking site, with the aim of having “every music video ever made on the site, from the latest hits to underground obscurities to classics from the past.”

Last.fm really understands the music in the context of social networking – and believe me, music is such a great way to bring people together. If this move to video develops successfully, it could mark the end of video on TV and could seriously dent YouTube’s ubiquity in this area.

Apple and EMI announced at 1pm BST today that EMI’s entire digital catalogue is going to be made available on iTunes, and other stores, without DRM from May 2007. EMI are obviously hoping that this gives them an advantage over other record companies, and Apple expect this to drive more traffic to their online store, away from their competitors. The former is a temporary advantage, because other labels will follow, and they have time to. The iTunes Store will be the first online store to sell EMI’s content DRM-free, which could cause many people to permanently switch to using iTunes.

The DRM issue that Steve Jobs raised in an open letter released in February is a trojan horse. You see, it’s not DRM that’s killing the major labels, it’s piracy carried out by those who don’t value music. I’ll say it again: it’s not DRM that’s killing the major labels, it’s low quality audio downloads. But those who don’t value music probably don’t care about low quality audio. EMI are however going to be selling their DRM-free music via iTunes at double the audio quality. But this comes at a price:

Individual tracks that are encoded at this higher quality will be more expensive: $1.29 per track, rather than $0.99. Although, curiously, entire albums will not incur the premium. You can upgrade previous purchases for the $0.30 per track difference. Furthermore, you’ll still be able to buy DRM’d content at the lower price. Can anyone not spot this as a move to higher pricing? Therefore, how does this stop piracy? The truth is that removing DRM helps Apple alone, not just in more iTunes purchases, but enabling everyone to play that music on iPods regardless of where they purchased it from. Remember – the whole purpose of the iTunes Store is to sell iPods.

The whole interoperability issue – people wanting to play all their music anywhere and on anything – is a red herring. If someone can’t be bothered to re-rip and import a DRM protected album into their player of choice, then they clearly don’t think that the effort is worth it: so the music must be poor, or maybe music just ain’t that important.

Some passing notes: What the industry needs is a wholesale replacement of the CD: this means high quality, DRM-free music with high quality artwork and readable sleeve notes. Music should be released from the confines of its CD heritage, and opened up. It’s time that music got genuinely sociable (imagine how great a last.fm / iTunes integrated store would be) and it’s time that music got decommodified.

Yesterday was Sleater-Kinney Saturday. My first opportunity to listen to their seven albums, back-to-back in sequence, rather than in the order that I purchased them. This experience proved invaluable – allowing me to assess their career, and to conclude that, yes, they were indeed much better than I thought. Better even than the unattainable benchmark that is Throwing Muses? Read on.

Their 1995 eponymous debut smells of the birth of music. It sounds like my Babes in Toyland T-shirt. Their instruments turning out the most basic melodies, but basic is enough because there’s energy and an obvious maturation from their riot grrrl background. The Last Song exudes this perfectly “You said this would be the last time I’d ever cry / last time I didn’t know / how was I supposed to know / this time i found it / I know how to scream.” This is a group who had spent the previous three or four years learning their skills in other bands before congregating around the S-K moniker.

However, it’s hard to distinguish between their first six albums, when listening to them in one session, because the evolution is so seamless and natural. Call the Doctor is where their legacy begins. There are new complexities to the melodies and songs. It’s a real pleasure to listen to something that’s so damn sonically interesting. You can delve into each track and dig out something new each listen. This album also marks the start Carrie Brownstein’s harmonies (maybe almost as legendary as Muses’ Tanya Donelly), and they learn something else: never let an issue get in the way of a good tune.

Dig Me Out is where I came in. With new drummer Janet Weiss, and their continually heightened confidence, they finally break away from their influences, providing an intellectual and emotional post-punk sound whose surface is shiny because it absolutely must hide the passion and pain within. Their next album The Hot Rock continues this, becoming more personal and more experimental musically and vocally – with dualling interplayed lyrics. There’s tension here, and tension is vital in all art forms. Corin’s vocals are more constrained, and Carrie gets further opportunity to showcase her songwriting talents.

If you’ve ever done a Sleater-Kinney session, you’ll know that by now you’ll be grinning from ear to ear, and playing drums with an empty wine glass. Sorry, no photos. It only gets better, because All Hands on the Bad One marks a gradual focusing of their sound. For those unfamiliar with the band, it’s probably the best place to start. The singing is sweeter (check out the harmonies on The Professional), the riffs more obvious. And the songs? Opener The Ballad of a Ladyman has handclaps – listeners gasp. You’re No Rock ‘N’ Roll Fun is a Charlotte Hatherley song with Throwing Muses tambourines. Finale The Swimmer is a remake of Two Step. It’s quite obviously my favourite S-K album (apart from One Beat, which is also my favourite, oh, the dichotomy.)

At this time the Sleater-Kinney fan base grew more irritable, because this is clearly not the same band that they started off with. Which kinda screws around with my ‘seamless’ hypothesis. Heck, just consider the first six albums as one seventy-three track album. Now let’s move onto that sixth album.

One Beat overlays the confidence and accessibility of All Hands on the Bad One with the vitriol and raw energy of their earlier albums, blossoming early on Far Away, then turning popwards on Oh! It is, to quote a cliché, a perfect storm, that demonstrates so obviously what is missing in a genre now dominated by bland, neutered or plainly comical acts. A glance across the music channels will confirm this point.

Seventh and final album, The Woods, is both a rebirth and a natural progression. You can see this coming in One Beat’s Hollywood Ending and Sympathy, but it could be called an evolutionary jump. First track The Fox is shocking. Their sound is louder, compressed and beautifully distorted into sheets of almost white noise that can peel wallpaper. Jumpers takes the ‘last song’ and rebuilds Dig Me Out’s Jenny. The whole point about Galaxie 500 was the setup: guitar solos masquerading as songs, and the 11 minute Let’s Call It Love just wants to be a guitar solo. And you know what? It is. Of course, all this was missed by Q Magazine. But then, it would be.

Time now to answer my question: Sleater-Kinney – better than Throwing Muses? Probably, but I’ll know for sure in sixteen years’ time.

[Sleater-Kinney: A Pitchfork Magazine Retrospective]

The leakiness of information regarding Tori Amos’ forthcoming album, American Doll Posse, gathers pace. We have the first review (although it’s more of a description), and most lyrics. There are some audio snippets around too.

I will however be restraining myself on all counts, because an album isn’t supposed to be experienced in pieces. First impressions invariably influence your whole life’s experience of an album, so any of this will permanently damage my feelings about the album. You’ll gather from this that I don’t like lead singles from ‘album’ artists either.

Don’t believe me? I first listened to Rainbirds’ second album Call Me Easy, Say I’m Strong, Love Me My Way, It Ain’t Wrong when I was hopelessly drunk, although obviously not too drunk to forget that I listened to it. It’s never been quite the album I expected or hoped it would be.