Blog Posts by Dave DiMartino

Big changes are afoot at Yahoo! Music, and today you're looking at one of the very biggest.

Music fans around the world have been enthralled by Spotify, the very successful digital music service that offers listeners unprecedented access to works—the songs, the tracks, the albums—from one of the richest music libraries in existence.

Today we're happy to introduce Spotify as a rich component of your own Yahoo! Music experience.

What does that mean? For starters, as a Spotify user you get direct access to nearly every kind of musical experience you can imagine. Curious about that new Fiona Apple album? Wonder what the big deal was about Jimi Hendrix? Like Ice T's movie Something From Nothing: The Art Of Rap and want to hear more from Eric B. & Rakim? You're there with Spotify.

And if you're playlist-happy, from Top Summer Songs to British Invasion Hitmakers to The Most Obnoxious Songs Ever, you'll be able to hear intelligently curated playlists of great tracks compiled by experts

Any week featuring new album releases by Maroon 5, Linkin Park and R. Kelly simply has to be the best week ever!

Especially if those are your three favorite artists!

Sadly, however, a random sampling of young consumers this afternoon at the Santa Monica Promenade told a tale that some may find disturbing! Out of 76 random subjects, most of whom appeared to be between the ages of 15-25, not a single person expressed any interest whatsoever in purchasing these fabulous artists' new albums!

Among the comments offered during this highly scientific poll:
*"I hate music."
*"Leave me alone, buddy."
*"R. Kelly? (odd laughter)"
*"My brother says Lincoln Park is in Michigan, but I know it's in Illinois!"
*"I just bought Kraan's Wintrup. And you look like a douchebag."
*"Do you like this tattoo?"
*"My favorite band in the world is Maroon 5!"

The final commenter, it should be noted, smirked, held a cup of Starbucks coffee in his hand, and was reading a copy of Wired.

Between you and me, those people are geeks!

Maroon 5: Overexposed (A&M/Octone) Like their artistic forebears the MC5, five people from the Motor City, Maroon 5 are five human beings that, due to a random twist of fate--not to mention genetics--were born with an oddly purple skin pallor! Boy, would that be weird! Still, the dudes have not allowed God's random dice-toss to affect

Apologies for being 24 hours late in posting this week's wrap-up of new album releases!

Just spent last night in New Haven, Connecticut, where I interviewed Willie Nelson--hey, he's quite popular!--and, after getting up at an ungodly east coast hour, spent about 10 hours flying back to Los Angeles and am now in a peculiarly vegetative state!

That's almost a joke!

So here I sit, a list of fine new albums on the left part of my computer screen, a blank Word document on the right, and completely baseless opinions aplenty!

Surely, then, all is right with the world!

Fiona Apple: The Idler Wheel Is Wiser Than The Driver Of The Screw And Whipping Cords Will Serve You More Than Ropes Will Ever Do (Epic) When it comes to compelling, piano-playing singer-songstresses with a knack for penning tunes that scratch the very recesses of each listener's psyche, Tori Amos is great! Fiona Apple, on the other hand, is kind of silly! This long-awaited new album, originally entitled Don't I Have Nice Hair?

In this era when major labels release box sets that effectively encapsulate major artists' entire careers--consider, if you will, Sony's recent collection of Leonard Cohen's entire recording career, offered up for an entirely reasonable price--one might think there's not much left in the world of unreleased works by highly influential artists.

But then there is the story of Can.

A highly influential German band whose works were comparatively undersold here in the United States--only a few of the albums the distinguished band recorded between 1969-1979 were released here while the band was still active, and their 1989 reunion set Rite Time also never surfaced Stateside--the band has left a legacy that time simply refuses to tarnish.

Built around the instrumental core of keyboardist Irmin Schmidt, bassist Holger Czukay, guitarist Michael Karoli, drummer Jaki Liebezeit, a pair of highly unique singers in American Malcolm Mooney and Japanese vocalist Damo Suzuki--and a latter-day

Every time I think I've had enough, that there is nothing new that will satisfy my lifelong urge to hear music that will tingle that specific spot, that location on the surface of my cerebellum that has made music such a vital part of my existence...something pops up!

And so it is with pride I hereby report that at this very moment, a week or so after watching the Beach Boys' surprisingly strong 50th anniversary concert performance at the Hollywood Bowl, I am typing this while listening to the work of staggering genius entitled Looking Back With Love--the solo album released by Beach Boys vocalist Mike Love in 1981 on Boardwalk Records featuring a fabulous cover portrait and played by me only once since 1981!

And 31 years later? It sounds great!

Clearly everything I ever assumed I knew about music was wrong!

Next thing you know I'll say this week's highlight is the new Rush album!

Rush: Clockwork Angels (Anthem/Roadrunner) I can't say I really ever got Rush, even in their earliest days. I saw them way back when they'd released their first album, when they hadn't brought drummer Neil Peart on board, and back then--and it was some time ago--they seemed so blatantly imitative of Led Zeppelin, and so lovably Canadian,

It's almost become a matter of course that spectacularly talented artists can seemingly arise out of nowhere--and to many, that will seem to be the case with wonderful new Scottish vocalist Emeli Sandé.

The singer, who won the 2012 Brit Award in the Critic's Choice category, has astounded many with her soulful, vibrant debut album Our Version Of Events--and that terrific set, which reached the Number One position on the UK charts, is seeing its American debut this week on EMI Records.

Sandé, an extremely adept songwriter, has already written a number of songs for such successful Brit artists as Susan Boyle, Leona Lewis, Tinie Tempah, Cheryl Cole, Cher Lloyd and Alesha Dixon, among others, and was dubbed his "favorite songwriter at the minute" by no less than Simon Cowell--reality TV kingpin and a man who rarely speaks so boldly unless he sees vast sums of money in the offing. As one listen to Our Version Of Events will attest, it was not an especially bold claim on his part. On the basis

Though I conscientiously try to write this blog every single week--and believe me, diligently covering pop music's hottest new releases is no easy task--time often gets the better of me!

And so it was that last week, as I traveled from exciting Los Angeles to exotic Nashville to glorious Miami, my fabled homeland, I allowed a week to pass without posting a blog! Rest assured, readers in Oklahoma, Lagos & Madison were both stunned and left wondering if in fact nothing whatsoever was even released last week!

So let's just say they were right, and pretend last week never happened! I've been doing that for years, and I still get to write this thing!

The Beach Boys: That's Why God Made The Radio (Capitol) I'd be lying if I said I had tremendously high expectations for this set--a "reunion" featuring most of the original Beach Boys except departed Wilson brothers Dennis and Carl, effectively celebrating their 50th year together as a band--but here I sit, impressed nonetheless. First, the

What an extraordinary week!

Massive pop stars have sadly passed, Miley Cyrus and the word "pantsless" appeared on the homepage of a well-known internet portal, a significant partial eclipse of the sun caused profound psychic confusion among the most sensitive, and it's the closing week of American Idol!

Plus MET-Rx Protein Plus Creamy Peanut Butter Crisp bars continue being offered at local 7-11's for the staggering rate of two for $5!

Additionally, new albums have been released! That's kind of cool, too!

John Mayer: Born And Raised (Columbia) Poor John Mayer! Enviably talented, a fine singer, songwriter and guitarist, a witty, affable guy, the dude is simply too good-looking and too involved in the moment--steeped and unsteeped in the world of Facebook and Twitter--to be judged purely on the basis of his raw ability! It's fair to say