Albums I should have listened to on Spotify first....

Wednesday afternoon, 'readers'. At work but with no fewer than three potential distractions...

1. Blogger. I wanted to get this post written this afternoon if possible.
2. Cricket. West Indies v England starts in just over half an hour. Am very tempted to try and listen to TMS without anyone noticing.
and the biggest distraction of all...

Spotify.

T&G is well and truly in love with Spotify. As detailed in previous posts I am very much opposed to file sharing and the like but Spotify is something different. Its a throwback to the days where I would ask the staff of 'Sounds Good To Me' or Andys Records to let me listen to an album so I could decide whether or not to buy it. In the last couple of years, I have probably been purchasing 50% more music than in the past, all because I no longer have a local record shop where I can test things out. Spotify is one big online jukebox where I can listen to those albums that I'm curious about, but not totally decided on buying. Superb.

This will only punish those artists who make albums that aren't good enough. I have no desire to listen to music on a computer so anything that I hear on Spotify that I like, will be purchased on LP or CD for 'proper' listening. My view is that Spotify will actually encourage artists to try to make better music!

Anyway....a couple of albums that I bought recently that would have benefited from a pre-purchase-spotify...

Bruce Springsteen 'Working On A Dream'....'The Wrestler' is not at all representative. Much of the rest of this album is throwaway pop/rock. Whether or not some of it is tongue in cheek is debatable but also irrelevant. I'm sure Bruce and the guys had a great time making this record, but I had a terrible time listening to it. 4/10

Animal Collective 'Merriweather Post Pavillion'....I sort of knew I wouldn't like this. Just not my sort of thing. But the unbelievable amount of hype and excitement made me think this might be some sort of new 'Yoshimi'. Not at all. It makes your head spin certainly and some of it sticks in your mind, but to me it is no more than reasonably pleasant background music.

Am still assessing the J Tillman LP. Check back in a few days for my review of 'First Love' by Emmy The Great.

now, Cricket, Spotify or Work??

what's playing on the T&G stereo this week...

With virtually nothing new released yet this year, T&G have been listening to some (recent) old favourites this year:

- Everything Fleet Foxes! Still stunned by the brilliance of this band. The LP has had several plays along with the under-rated 'Sun Giant' EP and their superb Daytrotter session.

- Innocence Mission 'Street Map'. Their beautiful new EP has had several plays, especially 'A Thousand Miles', which sees them at their most upbeat and life-affirming.

- Various Broken Records 7" singles.

- Pavement's absolutely superb 'Live Europaturnen 1997' live LP, given away free with pre-orders of the 'Brighten The Corners' reissue and essential listening, not least for the extra verse about Kula Shaker in 'Range Life'.

- Animal Collective 'Merriweather Post Pavillion' - only arrived yesterday, so more on this soon.

Come on record company people...let's have some new releases...