Mojo Filter vs. Yahoo! Music Unlimited, February, 2006

I’m almost done reading the March issue of Mojo, so I suppose that means I’m long overdue to post a playlist and catalog analysis for the February issue. Sorry for the delay, between BarCamp LA and taking Zoe to Mammoth Mountain, my weekends have been accounted for lately.

For those who haven’t played this game with me before, this is a monthly feature where I take my favorite music magazine, UK’s Mojo, and look for every new album they review in Yahoo! Music Unlimited (Yahoo!’s $5/month all-you-can-eat music subscription service). The point is two-fold: a) To look for holes and inconsistencies in the Yahoo! Music catalog, and b) To find some great music — I put every album I find into a playlist to share with you, dear reader, so you can sample tons of music (always more than 20 hours), all thought worthy of print by the editors at Mojo. For previous months and playlists, please start with this megapost. There’s some interesting conclusions this month, so read on.

Without futher ado, I present to you, Feburary 2006…

Below is a list of music reviewed in the Feb 2006 Mojo Filter which is also found in Yahoo! Music Unlimited. A playlist of all these albums can be found here.

The Strokes - First Impressions of Earth
Floetry - Flo’ology
Mark Murphy - Once To Every Heart
Robert Glasper - Canvas
Clearlake - Amber
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
Gossip - Standing In The Way of Control
Belle and Sebastian - The Life Pursuit
Ray Davies - Other People’s Lives
Mary J. Blige - The Breakthrough
Rosanne Cash - Black Cadillac
Dar Williams - My Better Self
Levy - Rotten Love
Syleena Johnson - Chapter Three: The Flesh
Neil Diamond - 12 Songs
Bright Eyes - Motion Sickness
Magic Slim & The Teardrops - Anything Can Happen
Jason Mraz - Mr. A-Z
dEUS - Pocket Revolution
Richard Youngs - The Naive Shaman
No-Neck Blues Band - Qvaris
Boris w/Merzbow - Sun Baked Snow Cave
Howie Beck - Howie Beck
Jens Lekman - Oh You’re So Silent Jens
Calla - Collisions
Sun Kil Moon - Tiny Cities
Various - Different Strokes By Different Folks, A Tribute to Sly Stone
James Summerfield - Paint The Road
Jamie Hartford - Part of Your History: The Songs of John Hartford

The following albums could not be found in Yahoo! Music Unlimited. I’ve also included the label which released them (in the UK, at least), and other online services where the albums can be found (according to Yahoo! Audio Search):

Sparks - Hello Young Lovers (Gut)
Cast King - Saw Mill Man (Locust Music; eMusic, Rhapsody)
Duw A Yr - God Only Knows (Babel)
Jahcoozi - Pure-Breed Mongrel (Kitty Yo; eMusic)
Lou Rhodes - Beloved One (Infinite Bloom; Rhapsody)
Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey - The Sameness of Difference (Hyena; Rhapsody)
Ketil Bjornstad - Floating (Universal)
Geoff Gascoyne - Keep It To Yourself (Candid)
Richard Ashcroft - Keys To The World (Parlophone)
Hawkwind - Take Me To Your Leader (Hawkwind)
Various - Walk The Line OST (Wind-Up)
Eric Burdon - Soul Of A Man (SPV)
Bitter Springs - That Sentimental Slush (Harvey)
Earth - Hex: Or Printing In The Infernal Method (Southern Lord)
Jenny Lewis and The Watson Twins - Rabbit Fur Coat (Rough Trade; iTunes)
Various - Our New Orleans 2005 (Nonesuch)
Ian Siegal - Meat & Potatoes (Nugene)
Willie Mabon - 1949-1954 (Classics)
Roy Brown - Good Rockin’ Brown (Ace)
Matt Schofield - Siftin’ Through Ashes (Nugene)
Julian Cope - Dark Orgasm (Head Heritage)
Miracle Mile - Glow (Meme)
Nefilim Modulation Systems - Imperial Letters of Protection (Big Dada)
Pope - Grace of God (Aspop; Wippit)
Residual Echoes - Phoenician Flu and Ancient Ocean (Midheaven; iTunes)
Worsted - Chapology (Bassett Music)
The Drones - Wait Long By The River And The Bodies Of Your Enemies Will Float By (ATP)
Roger Eno - Fragile (Music) (Burning Red)
Castanets - First Light’s Freeze (Asthmatic Kitty; iTunes, Emusic)
Badgerlore - Stories For Owls (Free Porcupine Society)
The Psychic Paramount - Gamelan Into the Mink Supernatural (No Quarter)
Creme de Menthe - The Impossibility of Eroticism in the Suburbs (Disko B; iTunes, Emusic)
Various - The Enlightened Family, A Collection of Lost Songs (Voodoo-Eros; Emusic)
Martyn Joseph - Deep Blue (Pipe)
Soothsayers - Tangles Roots (Red Earth)
Various - Down in a Mirror, A Second Tribute to Jandek (Summersteps)
Various - Safe Haven At SMYRC (Cherchez La Femme)
Various - Fonotone Records: Frederick, Maryland (Fonotone)
Snooks Eaglin - New Orleans Street Singer (Smithsonian Folkways; Emusic)
Roger Dean Young and The Tin Cup - Casa (Loose)

Math time.
Total: 69
Haves: 29 (42%)
Have Nots: 40 (58%)
Not in Y! Music Unlimited that were found in Rhapsody: 3 (8%)
Not in Y! Music Unlimited that were found in iTunes: 4 (10%)
Not in Y! Music Unlimited that were found in Emusic: 6 (15%)
Not in Y! Music Unlimited that weren’t found in any other major online music service: 29 (73%)

A few interesting conclusions this month:

• This is the smallest gap Y! Music Unlimited has ever had between us, iTunes, and Rhapsody. We’ve finally received some of those larger indies that were causing us to not have some of the more “interesting” albums each month.
• This is the first time that Emusic has come in ahead of iTunes and Rhapsody in making up the difference. Could be a fluke, or it could be that Emusic is making good on its promise to provide the broadest range of independent music. We’ll see how they fare next month.
• Nearly 50% of all music reviewed still isn’t avaible legally from ANY online service in the United States. The Mojo Filter test is a bit of an unfair test because this is a UK magazine and more than a few of the missing albums are UK releases, but I still think this points to how far we are from making all the music fit to hear in the world available legally. I’m sure you’d fare quite well looking for all these albums on a P2P service.

Definitely enough music to enjoy yourself, though. Lots of good stuff this month. I actually like the new Strokes record (much better than their last one), new Neil Diamond is great, was great to see the Saddle Creek stuff flow in finally, I like the sound of this dEUS and Sun Kil Moon covers Modest Mouse albums, and Boris + Merzbow is mind-numbingly amazing. Let us know what your favorites from this list are by posting a comment below.

Music is the best,
ian c rogers
Yahoo! Music