I buy a lot of music, it must be more than I need given the size of my waiting list of unheard music, but it’s a habit I like. I don’t think I’m just a marketing man’s dream, or possibly those marketing types are cleverer than I think. I do love a bit of hype, I love to think I’ve found a great new band first, but mostly I just like buying and consuming brilliant music. And that makes me buy music, often music that I really don’t know enough about. I only have an inkling based on one song or interview that I’m going to like it. How often have all of us bought an album, to find that the one song we’ve heard on the radio and loved really is the only good song on there (no names mentioned…). Buying a new album by a band I already like is small risk – even if I find it disappointing, I had to know, so I had to hear it. But new artists, ones I’ve heard once or twice and then read a good review or two in places I trust – somehow I can’t resist. Now of course itunes, and similar sites, are very useful, I can go there and listen to bits of all the songs and feel a little bit informed but once I have the thought of buying an album in my head, and so long as nobody I trust gives me a good reason to stop myself, it’s fairly inevitable that I’m going to part with some cash sooner or later.
All of which is likely to be good news in the near future for some or all of Black Kids, the Hold Steady and Lykke Li.