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Friday 7 January 2011
Behind the music: Why we need HMV
Everything must go? ... HMV store on Oxford Street, London. Photograph: Ben Stansall/AFP/Getty Images
Yesterday, HMV announced it will close 40 (almost 1 in 10) of its high street stores, due to a drop in profits over Christmas. The decline in CD sales has been attributed to severe weather, competition from online retailers such as Amazon, and illegal downloading. I'm sure the recession hasn't helped either. The news came on the same day as the record industry published figures showing a drop in album sales for the sixth year running. And a happy new year to you too.Continue reading...

Readers recommend: songs about modernity
This is the modern world ... Shibuya Crossing in Tokyo. Photograph: Patrick Batchelder/Alamy
As readers of the Guardian's print edition may have noticed, our Readers Recommend column has bowed out of the Film & Music section. But don't worry, RR will still be making its weekly appearance on the music blog so hopefully the change won't adversely affect you, or any member of the community that makes the feature what it is.
It will, however, affect me. I'm genuinely honoured – awed, even – to be taking over as curator of Readers Recommend, and following in the illustrious footsteps of Maddy Costa, Rob Fitzpatrick, Dorian Lynskey and Paul MacInnes. I can't wait to discover some great new music courtesy of the Readers Recommend hive mind.
So, best foot forward. And since this column has cast off its worldly apparel and is now 100% digital, here's an appropriate first theme for Readers Recommend in its new guise: modernity.Continue reading...
Thursday 6 January 2011
The growing cult of Cassie
Pick of mix ... Four Tet's remix of Joe Goddard's Apple Bobbing, which samples Cassie's 2006 breakthrough hit Me & U
Posting a picture of your new tattoo to Twitter on 1 January generally means that your New Year's Eve got a bit out of hand. But for Robin Carolan, who runs the Tri Angle record label and tweeted a "Me & U" design freshly emblazoned on his arm, it was a considered and sober homage to an unsung R&B legend ... Cassie.
"Getting the tattoo was a sincere thing", he tells me. "I genuinely view her as someone who in 20 years' time will be re-evaluated. I'm stunned [that] she can be making such good songs but still be in complete limbo."Continue reading...

Wednesday 5 January 2011
British Sea Power: Our memories of making Valhalla Dancehall
Still ruling the waves ... British Sea Power. Photograph: Dan Dennison
For Valhalla Dancehall, our fifth album, we decided to do things a little differently. The plan was to abandon the professional studio and all its trappings in favour of a more DIY approach. First of all we needed a place – somewhere away from it all where we could experiment freely without interference. So, on the edge of the Sussex downs, not far from the sea, we found an old farmhouse and lived there for what turned out to be an 18-month recording and mixing process. Here are my favourite memories of that time …Continue reading...

British Sea Power – Valhalla Dancehall: Exclusive album stream
Heads up ... British Sea Power. Photograph: Dan Dennison
Let us know what you think of British Sea Power's latest effort, a pop record inspired by Dadaist poetry and crazy golf. Of course ...
Continue reading...

Gerry Rafferty's Baker Street: Booze, promiscuity and punk spirit
Baker Street is one of the oddest songs to go top 5 on both sides of the Atlantic and certainly one of the strangest to be played three million times on US radio. Since its release, it has been a mainstay of drive-time playlists, but how many of the jocks who played it so relentlessly over the years have really listened to the lyrics, which speak of booze, depression, promiscuous sex and "people with no soul"? And how many could have known that the seemingly innocuous reference to a "new dawning" alluded to Gerry Rafferty's struggle to extricate himself from his Stealers Wheel record contract and his own battle with alcoholism?Continue reading...
Tuesday 4 January 2011
Wire – Red Barked Tree: Exclusive album stream
Totally Wired ... Red Barked Tree is the band's 12th studio album
Still tirelessly working on new material, Wire are set to release their 12th studio album, Red Barked Tree. On their first LP in three years, Colin Newman, Graham Lewis and Robert Grey continue to mix avant-garde ideas with shimmering pop choruses. We're big fans here at guardian.co.uk/music, but let us know what you think.