Just bought the new Radiohead album, In Rainbows. I always look forward to new albums by Radiohead as each album gets better. Nothing worse than band whose work regresses.
Radiohead let me pay what I liked for In Rainbows, so I dropped £10. If more artists did this, I might actually buy more music.
Scott is an editor living in Queens, New York, who enjoys language (specifically English). He is strangely fascinated with Web typesetting, if such a thing exists. Scott is married to Binita, for whom he once ghost wrote a blog about court reporting for almost two years. They have been married four.
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indeed. it’s much easier to get excited about buying an album when you know where the money’s going. jonah matranga used to have a quote on his site about “i think music should be less like a mall and more like a yard sale”.
as far as musicians regressing… i dunno. tom petty’s interviews around the time of “the last DJ”, he said that you couldn’t have the career he’s had today. Record Labels are killing experimentation because if you make one wrong step, you’re finished. I like great albums, but I also like awkward transition albums that don’t quite work, but show hints of great things to come.
Another artist I just thought of whose work I enjoy more at each album: Wilco.
And yes, as there seem to be fewer large labels, an amount of creative ’squeezing’ does seem to be happening.
I think that’s a very cool approach that Radiohead has taken but I’d be surprised to see it catch on.
I’ll also add that The White Stripes are a running favorite of mine. There sound is distinct, their songs diverse and they move seamlessly from album to album, providing something new to appreciate with each release.
@DSW - it might catch on yet.
NIN would also be on my list of long-running, evolutionary bands, with Mogwai, Pinback, and a few other metal bands that aren’t relevant here