'Sell out with me, oh yeah...': White Lies and Weezer attempt to answer the question of how to make music pay

The music industry is in trouble. A bold statement? Not really. It seems to be the stock phrase with artists, labels, music journalists and media analysts everywhere these days.

People are not paying for music to the same degree as they used to, and are accessing their music in other ways, mainly for free, and mainly illegally. Industry experts are looking for the answer, but at the moment, have had very little success. Despite this having been a hot topic for a while now, it has been driven home to me over the past week, with the coming together of a couple entrepreneurial  experiments that I felt failed terribly.

LOST? I am, especially when mapping the workings of Rivers Cuomo's mind.

Firstly, I popped to a show last week with my good friend James (or The Popscener as he is known to the blogosphere).

Here's Lookin' At You Kid: The Gaslight Anthem @ Hammersmith Apollo 21.10.10

Photo: Exposure Promotions

I went to see The Gaslight Anthem a few weeks ago and reviewed it for Subba Cultcha. You can read my review here.

Jimmy Gets Old: Invented album review

The obligatory, over-used apology of the not-so-seasoned blogger "it's been a while" tarnishes the screen once more as I begin yet another entry that follows the previous one by at least 2 months. After the last, overly political essay, I thought I'd take this one back to basics with a simple CD review to try and tempt readers back in at a nice accessible level.

The CD in question is the latest release by one of my favourite bands, and one who I’ve gone on record as saying cannot write a bad album. Don’t worry, you won’t get the massive shock of Steve Anderson eating his words here (a very rare event), but I am afraid to say that seeming emo-pop untouchables Jimmy Eat World’s new album Invented (Interscope, released 28.09.10), for me, doesn’t quite cut the mustard in the way some of its predecessors did.

For me, JEW’s musical timeline has seen the Arizona boys go from strength to strength, with an exponential melodic growth between each release, driving the albums forward to poppier and more singalong-laden territory in more recent years. Granted, there was usually the odd track on each record that you couldn’t help feeling was a bit of a filler, but on the whole you could guarantee a quality feel-good, play-loud, experience when blasting out a new JEW album for the first time.