This Year’s Music
I was trolling through the 2005 music entries on MetaCritic the other day, and it dawned on me: I’ve only bought 2 new CDs this year. It feels like I’ve been constantly overwhelmed with new music in the past 4 months, but amazingly, only 2 of those CDs were released in 2005. That doesn’t seem right.
This is due, at least in part, to seasonal release cycles. One well-hyped CD comes out each month during the first part of the year, as consumers recover from (and catch up on) their holiday purchases. Last winter brought Loretta Lynn, Modest Mouse, and Franz Ferdinand; this winter brings LCD Soundsystem and Bloc Party.
Obviously, I’m missing a lot of great music. I’ve intentionally neglected the Decemberists, Bright Eyes, M. Ward, Of Montreal, Brazilian Girls, and numerous others. But a quick scan of the major indie music sites reveals a scarcity of critically significant releases.
My major problem is that I spend the winter catching up on last year’s best-of lists. I typically run 2-6 months behind the new releases - the critical consensus lag. My purchases run this way throughout the year, but in the winter when I’m overwhelmed by the wealth of critics’ year-end lists the lag grows.
Being an active music consumer - who actively seeks out new music by new artists - takes a lot of time. It can be risky and limited resources play a major part in these risky purchasing decisions. To deal with this I’ve adopted a new strategy. In order of cost (from cheapest to most expensive): I combine EMusic (covers new and classic indie stuff), BMG (recent and classic major label stuff), and retail stores (Amazon, Border’s, or our excellent local shops) exclusively for hot new releases.