I love listening to music. Sometimes I'd rather listen to a good album than record a good album. Less stress, more fun and you can pause it any time.
The problem I've been having lately is actually getting a chance to give a fair listen to a lot of the music that comes through Tape Op for review. This might seem odd, or plain stupid, but record labels are now in the practice of lessening the listening experience available to the music reviewer — the very same people who are trying to convey to the public why they should purchase and enjoy this very music in the first place.
Some of this whining about "lack of fidelity" from the standpoint of a studio professional might seem like an obvious complaint. I have meticulously recorded, mixed and followed though mastering many projects, only to hear CD-R burned versions of these records being sent out for press purposes where none of the stereo spread or bandwidth of the original masters is intact. I do think that the average person can perceive when digital audio playback isn't performing at its peak — when bits are getting mangled or when data is getting mercilessly compressed. And if they can perceive this horror, how in the world am I supposed to listen to these releases and comment upon the recording process?
In the wonderful world of Digital Rights Management (DRM), music "theft", album pre-release leakage and shrinking label budgets there are many obstacles for anyone attempting to "review" music. In the traditional model, the journalist (that's me) used to get a pre-release copy of the album to be reviewed on CD (early on in my writing career I used to get copies on LP, 7" and even cassette). These days I'm receiving music under conditions that would appall most artists, producers, engineers and mastering labs. I doubt that most artists even know how poor their new record sounds by the time it gets played on a journalist's stereo.
Lately some labels have been hooking journalists up with MP3 downloads. That's cool for my iPod — at least I can grab the music and listen to it for a while. But man, the audio quality of these MP3s is certainly nothing like what the mastering engineer was listening to. The sound is even far worse than the 256 kbps, AAC encoded tracks I burn from CDs to put in my iPod. I've found myself enjoying the music that's on these records, however I rarely review them especially since there's no physical presence to remind me to do the review. The lack of album credits makes it hard to say who produced, recorded, mastered or had anything to do with a release. Matador Records sends out most of their releases this way, hence I was unable to really listen to the new Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks CD (Real Emotional Trash) until the band gave me one while on tour. Thanks guys! It actually sounds pretty good, unlike the MP3 version.