Natalie Imbruglia album disappears (again)

nThe new Natalie Imbruglia album – Come To Life has been delayed at the last minute.  It should have been out by now but is, in the UK at least, now shelved until at least February 2010.

Record companies delaying releases is nothing new of course but Natalie's musical career seems to have been particularly blighted here, resulting in just 3 studio albums being released over the last 12 years.  

The reasons are not clear and other than a few seemingly throwaway and awkward comments made by Natalie in interviews citing promotional reasons concentrating on other territories there has been utter silence from her 'people' and no justification for it at all

This is an album I've been looking forward to like all her others.  To have it pulled only a matter of days before the release is irritating to say the least.  After all we've had a run of promotional activity in recent weeks leading up to it.

A 'pre single' video was shot for the (admittedly awful) Wild About It in July, live shows including the V Festival in August, a video and single proper release of Want in September with press and TV appearances, a one off show last week at London's Heaven – all leading up to Come To Life's release.

The album was trailed on iTunes, Amazon and elsewhere with pre-ordering available.  

I only heard that the album had been delayed by Amazon, not by Natalie, despite subscribing to her RSS feed on the website (which had been constantly updated with news about her appearances) and her Twitter account which had become more active.

Although the CD was pulled some people have it, including fans in Europe.

On Monday (October 5) the album appeared on digital download sites in the UK (including iTunes, Amazon MP3 and 7digital).    But 24 hours later, it was gone. As I type this it remains on Spotify but I suspect it will disappear from there soon too (UPDATE - it has)  The Japanese version has an extra track and that seems available at a price.

A total mess.

The official website confirms the new release date but there has been no mention on the RSS feed, and nothing in the news section.

Fans posting on the official forum are in the dark and nothing is still being said.

Natalie might not be the most popular singer these days but she does have a fanbase and they are almost universal in their state of being mightily pissed off right now.  I know I am.

So what has happened?  The most likely explanation is that the promotional work has not paid off as the label / management had hoped.  Want was not a big seller and had limited airplay.  Fans have argued that it was not a good choice for single, citing the monotonous nature.   I love the track and feel it is a good pop single, but is is a little unrepresentative of the rest of Come To Life and certainly not the strongest track.  This is the same company that thought Wild About It was worthy of promotion after all.

Releasing the album now with a lowly chart position and no follow up single could lead to the album being lost in the run up to Christmas.  Maybe it is felt the album will have a better chance in the New Year with another single released and a fresh batch of promotion.

The album is not as electronic as interviews have suggested and while this is not necessarily a bad thing I am disappointed that the version of Scars which appears is an acoustic one and not the uptempo version which was leaked as a demo last year.  

Fun would have been my choice for the single.  This is one of the Chris Martin tunes and has all the soppy sentimentality of Coldplay at their best (for some their worst) and suits a female voice like no other Martin song.  It is gorgeous.  

The album is really strong if you ignore the last track, which I'm still trying to.

If it ever does get released in the UK I'll write a full review here but I'll be damned if I'm going to review something which isn't officially available.

If the album bombs so be it.  I want it to be successful of course but surely rule 1 of commercial success is to not piss of your most loyal customers -  Natalie's long term fans.

The CDs are ready.  They've been pressed – the artwork is complete and packaged.  Some lucky people have already received theirs.  Some shops outside the UK have them in stock.  It was on digital download for a couple of days.  Now it has gone.

The die hard fans (not those fond of Bruce Willis – old joke) have been led down the promotional excitement path and are ready for the final candy delight. 

This all looks suspiciously like a record company or Natalie's management acting out control freakery.  No-one expects a commercial company to act with altruism but the music industry is still clinging to the idea that they hold all the cards when it comes to content distribution.  They don't and they still can't adapt.
 
You may have noticed that I've commented on the album.

How is this possible?  The interwebs.  Perhaps no-one has told Natalie's label that this is 2009, not 1989.  File sharing is a concept they maybe should have heard of.  

Ironically, the album leaked online almost to the day that its official release was put back 5 months.
It is out there. Delaying it is a nonsense.  

People who really want this album can get it now.  For free.  People who really want this album are Natalie's biggest fans.  Natalie's biggest fans are the most likely to want to purchase the album to support her.

Q, E and effing D.

So now I'm left in the ridiculous situation of having an album that I want to pay for but can't!

People access their music differently these days, and for the better.  Cross promotion, recommendations on sites like last.fm, and freetards who seem to like browsing on YouTube with all it's poor quality audio. All choice. If you like a song you have the option of buying it a la carte on digital download.

This is now a world of immediacy.  Spur of the moment impulse buys can happen at any time now.  Natalie was on ITV's This Morning earlier today, performing Want.  Anyone interested in her music might, just might have gone to iTunes after seeing her on TV looking not just for Want but for her album.  On not finding it there what's to say they may have then downloaded the leaked version.  This is madness.

Whatever the rights and wrongs of the album being leaked (ok they are all wrongs) Island Records can't ignore that it is there.  Record companies should learn to distribute their music digitally once it has been leaked however hard to swallow this is.  Marketing and promotional schedules have to, in the digital age, become a secondary priority.  

As an artist, Natalie is entitled to pull the album at the last minute for whatever reason she chooses, even if she doesn't want to make that reason public.  If this is the case Natalie, I apologise here for speculating and damning your management and record label, particularly if there are personal reasons for the delay.  

Fans do not have a right to demand their favourite artists release their music and my post here is largely a rant and an uninformed rant at that.  Like the best of the internet.

Muse - The Resistance (I'll Resist)

Their first two albums were listenable if a little patchy. Bends era Radiohead-ish stuff.

The Absolution album moved things on. Exaggerated but still inventive and ambitious in production quality, notably on the standout singles like Hysteria when they suddenly became major league rock stars.

Detractors pointed out their overblown grandiosity, that they were little more than Queen impersonators for the 21st century with pompous song titles and snazzy light shows. All things I loved about them.

Come the new album – The Resistance - and all those things still apply. Yet curiously I find myself hating it because of them. Everything I used to like about them is now why I can't stand them. I knew I was in trouble when I tried to convince myself I liked the album when I clearly didn't. Have I just got bored with them or was I just always wrong?  

Spotify - like DRM never went away

Why am I so energised by the culture of ownership, DRM, and interoperability?  Heaven only knows but every press release or feature I read about Spotify sparks something in my head.

I have issues with the service - a whole raft of them.  Had Spotify launched 10 years ago I suspect my views would be wholly different.  it would have been  the official, legal, alternative to Napster and the music industry's antidote to file sharing. But now, a decade on from Napster in the age of broadband I'm suspicious of motives. 

It doesn't help when Spotify come out with comments like:

"We want to hand out consumer data we have to give to labels so they can target consumers better and communicate better."

 Their privacy policy appears fine until you get to 7:

"Spotify reserves the right to make changes to this Privacy Policy. If we make any material changes to this policy we will notify you by posting the new version of the policy on the Spotify Website. It is your own responsibility to check the website for such postings from time to time."

I've never liked how they barely mention that it is (partly) supported by p2p - the default is to take up to 10% of your hard drive space (with encrypted / obscured data you can't access). A service that uses your storage and bandwidth should be very explicit about this.

Almost everything the music industry has done since Napster has been 1 step forward and 2 steps back.  They gave us legal downloads but wrapped them in DRM, which meant us consumers never actually 'owned' the music, just a licence to play them.  The brief dalliance with copy protection on compact discs just hammered home the point - we weren't to be trusted.  We would copy and share our music willy if not nilly, all of us, unless we were prevented.  

The downloads we were allowed were initially crappy quality 128 kbps in either DRM wrapped AAC or WMA and we could only play them on specific, licenced devices.

The faith between consumer and industry broke then and I suspect that whatever happens now this cannot be mended, Spotify or no Spotify.

The industry can't adapt now and it is dying.  Too late.  A generation now expects content for free,  That seems to include music.  That's the fault of the music industry as much as individual greed and that other Swedish based service.

I'm a music fan.  I want to reward the artists and the producers financially, not the industry or the labels.   I want to do it fairly but on my terms as part of an appreciative audience not as a consumer.  

The income distribution model for Spotify is (almost certainly - I don't know the breakdown) weighted in similar if not worse distribution of profit to previous industry models, not that there is any sign that Spotify is profitable or will be in the immediate future. 

So when Spotify announce improvements to the service, like this weeks 'offline' mode (for paid subscribers only) I'm still not interested.

I want to own my music.  I don't want a subscription (unless real ownership is an element) - and many don't, even the Pirate Bay generation.  A survey of 14-24 years olds in August 2009 conducted by the University of Hertfordshire revealed:

• 78% do not want to pay for a streaming service. (the vast majority of Spotify users are on the free, ad supported model)
• 87% say the ability to copy tracks across devices is important
• 89% still want to 'own' music. 

Offline support in Spotify doesn't address this, at least for me.  At least it highlights the local cacheing which has always been there.  They've just tweaked the program to allow us to access it.  With limitations of course.  

Charles Arthur in the Guardian has rightly addressed this DRM issue.  As he points out, it may not be DRM as we technically know it, but in effect it is the same.  I accept that a service allowing 3,333 'downloads' on a £10/month subscription is unworkable if you could terminate your subs after a month and have a plethora of music on your computer, but this just highlights the problem of a subscription.  You can't access the offline files without the Spotify client (and presumably even offline mode wouldn't work after a while without being able to check online that your subscription is active).

So, we're still in a subscription model with no ownership element (an element which is  crippled by onerous music industry conditions if eMusic's decline is anything to go by).

I've made the point before that a subscription service is a temporary one.  It's ok for tv and movies if you have no intention (or desire) for repeat viewing but for music my library is too important to me.  It is backed up locally and offsite.  I don't want to lose it. 

In a subscription service I don't have that assurance.  If Spotify closes down, so does my access to 'their' music.  If they change their terms of service (or the price is hiked beyond reason) I'm stranded.  If I decided to go with Spotify for 2 or 3 years my subscription costs would be a significant investment in something that could disappear at any time.

The free streaming element of Spotify is interesting as a different way of accessing music but not compelling for the same reasons and even this is not sustainable.  The (allegedly temporary) suspension of new free accounts on Spotify in the UK to an invite only model is perhaps an early indication that this is not intended to be a freemium service in the long term.  The Register has had a long look at the business model which backs this up.

So what do I want? Lower prices of downloads - of the online stores 7Digital appear to have the most competitive deals with many new albums at £5 each at a reasonable (if not ideal) 320kbps MP3  - but I want similar pricing across ALL music.  Options for interoperable lossless formats.  Assurance that a significant portion of my money is going to the artists and producers.   If there has to be a subscription element to it then some ownership is required.  It is a two way street after all.

Keisha leaves Sugababes but every cloud...

The current line-up of the Sugababes has disbanded.

Heidi Range and Amelle Berrabah will continue as the Sugababes and will be joined by new member Jade Ewen. They release their album ‘Sweet 7’ on November 23rd through Island Records.

Sugababes statement - 21 September 2009

At least I heard it first from Keisha. Now that the only original member has gone surely they can't still call themselves Sugababes.  They are now just a manufactured pop band! 

Now for the good news from the statement:

Keisha Buchanan will continue to record for Island Records as a solo artist.

Whatever the reasons for this (it looks like she was kicked out) I believe this is great news for Keisha.  The last Sugababes album flopped and even I had doubts about the new one.  Still, it will be an interesting album and hopefully there isn't time to replace Keisha's vocals before it gets released in November.  That would be insulting!

UPDATE It seems Jade Ewen has already re-recorded Keisha's vocals.  Scandalous!

She's always been the most talented singer through every line-up and part of one of the best pop acts of all time and, in my opinion, the best this century.  The singles from Angels With Dirty Faces, Three, Taller In More Ways and Change often hit pop perfection.  I'm glad I saw them live a few times during their peak.

Good luck for the future Keisha and thanks for the last 11 years.

The lyrics to Change would appear apt to put the video here but I'm not that sentimental for a grown adult.  Ok I am. But, as that video is not Keisha at her best ....any excuse to show this one again:

Lyrics to About You Now by Sugababes It was so easy that night Should've been strong Yeah I lied Nobody gets me like you Could I keep hold of you then How could I know what you meant It was not meant To compare too I know everything changes All

Natalie Imbruglia - Want

After the disaster that was Wild About It and the 'comedy' video, Natalie has addressed the balance with the new proper single, Want.

One of three tracks co-written with Chris Martin off her new album and gorgeous it is too.  And the video? Just look at it.  I got all that I want.  I shall say no more. 

V Festival 2009 - Chelmsford

I've been to nearly every V Festival since it started in 1996.  Most of the negative criticism is valid (bland, unimaginative lineups, over commercialisation and general chaviness) but I still like it.   This year I thought the lineup was particularly uninspiring and the lack of a 5th stage for the more obscure / new bands didn't bode well but in the end I loved it.

However, there remains the problem of the main stage.  As last year, this has been moved at Chelmsford to an open field rather than the natural sloped and tree lined amphitheatre of old.  Whilst giving more room the sound is awful, often lost in the wind and so damn quiet.  Even up the front near the speakers something is lost.  It seemed to be less of a problem on the Sunday but Saturday's headliners The Killers suffered most.   I've seen them a few times but apart from my first experience in 2005 when they stole the show at Glastonbury they always seem blighted by these problems (at Glastonbury in 2007 the crowd kept shouting 'turn it up' between every song it was that bad).

At V this year it was much the same, with the crowd singalong almost drowning out the stage sound, like attending a mass karaoke session played out with ipod speakers.  Brandon seemed to be in the mood but the atmosphere was dull.  A shame because I've grown to like the Day & Age album far more in recent months.

My highlight of the day was Howling Bells.  I love both their albums which have an old school indie feel to them.  The crowd in the Union tent was a little sparse to begin with but grew by the end. Cities Burning Down, Setting Sun, Blessed Night were fine and the band defied their stage time curfew to finish with a rousing version of Radio Wars.

Howling Bells, V Festival, Chelmsford 22 August 2009

Saturday's other highlight were fellow Aussies Pendulum. A bizarre hybrid of drum n bass, rave and nu metal they should sound awful and from a musical snob's point of view they are rubbish. But somehow a more intense Faithless but less incendiary Prodigy works.  A perfect festival band and enormous fun.  They could headline this festival one day.

The rest of Saturday was pretty weak but special mention to Lily Allen, who I have warmed to a lot recently (her second album is far more interesting than the ska reggae dirge of her debut) and who kept the crowd up to date with The Ashes at The Oval.

Sunday was all about Natalie Imbruglia for me, and I found it difficult to convince people that my admiration for her was more about her talent and music than her (undeniable) gorgeousness.   Rattling off an encyclopaedic list of her full discography didn't help my case - it just made me seem like a stalker.  

i've written here about my 'disappointment' with the abomination that is Wild About It.  Thankfully she didn't even play it in her set (it seems to be curious phenomenon of a 'pre-single' rather than a lead single from the new album).  She came on to Wishing I Was There and enough years have passed for it to sound fresh and less like the Alanis-esque tribute it was in 1997.  Two other songs from Left Of The Middle (Big Mistake and the requirement that is Torn) plus 4 brand spanking newies. 

Now I'm really looking forward to the new album.  More electronic and dreamy poppy than before but it all seems to work.  The new single proper, Want, is wonderful.

Lightning Seeds festival pop set was fine in the early afternoon.   The Mystery Jets were ok and the kids seem to like them a lot. I caught more of The Proclaimers than I planned but only as my voyeur magnet was keeping me there - Katy Perry was being interviewed next to me at the side of the stage. 

Perry's set later on in the day was, like Pendulum the day before, rubbish yet good.  She cannot hold a note very well and her singing 'style' is more shouting than controlled yet she's great bubblegum pop fun.  The high number of young girls who seem to adore her was surprising, if not a little disturbing. Oh and she's rather fit too, which is always a winner for me.

I had planned to finish the weekend with a couple of songs from Snow Patrol before heading off to British Sea Power but there was something about the moment that Snow Patrol took to the stage that something special was happening.

I like them but have become a little tired of their music in recent years but that is all reevaluated now. Bumped to headliners due to Oasis pulling out earlier in the day, they seized the moment (and threw a couple of Oasis covers into the set too).   Something about festival crowds, singalong anthems and a frontman who is genuinely moved by the atmosphere always hits the spot.  They were a joy that Sunday night and matched the three Australian acts as my highlights from the weekend.