Q wants to figure out the best 250 albums from 1986 to 2011. Why? Because it was a slow music month and they had to fill an issue somehow. (Short version? Radiohead's OK Computer is the best album EVUH!!!!) It's a pedestrian issue which should chant "We will, we will, bore you!" when you open the cover.
Smash Hits is gone from publishing on US shores. It existed as a glossy pin up magazine in the 80s featuring cute pics of Madonna and fold outs of sexy, squinted eyed Corey Hart and his curly black chest hairs. In many US outlets, you can find a new Smash Hits as an import. It's "64-PAGE SPECIAL EDITION" dedicated to and covering Lady Gaga. Fans of LG should rush to grab this, it's an instant collector item.
MOJO features Neil Young on the cover and a CD of various artists covering Neil. PJ Harvey's new album gets a rave review from Peter Paphides: "Of all her many guises -- doomed blues siren; righteous rock vixen; tormented Victorian ghost -- this may be her most powerful. A broken Britannia for a broken Britain. It turns out that, more than ever, Polly Harvey was made for these times." Let England Shake drops Tuesday. (Kat reviews the album here.) And Neil? Not present. Phil Sutcliffe speaks to various musicians who played on the classic album Harvest. But it's not a complete loss, the tired story features some amazing photos of Neil by Henry Diltz.
A complete waste is the latest Spin. It's now bi-monthly. So possibly they should stop 'end of the year' issue. "The Best of 2010" was tired for a January issue. It's especially tired for a "JAN/FEB 2011" issue. While it's audience wants the new, Spin's serving up 2010 for the first sixty or so days of 2011. Along with being tired, the 'articles' are little more than extended photo captions.
M Music & Musicians features Keith Urban on the cover and swears it will help you with "Getting closer to the heart of the matter." We didn't really see that in the brief article by Chris Neal which failed even on technical issues. Jeff Tamarkin's two page feature on Annie Lennox offers much more and how can you not like an interview whose opening question is: "Why make a holiday album?" Annie offers this on awards, "It's a huge compliment, obviously, and very nice, but I don't consider myself that person. How do you grade a voice? It's like a dog show. How do you grade a dog? It's not about that. Bob Dylan is probably not the best singer in the world, but he's Bob Dylan."
Her former band mate, Dave Stewart, gets a mention in the strongest article in the latest Rolling Stone -- page 18, Patrick Doyle's article on Stevie Nicks and Rod Stewart's arena tour notes Dave's produced Stevie's In Your Dreams due out May 3rd. Those fearing Rod will be cracking out 'the great American songbook' for the tour can breathe easy, he says he'll be doing the hits and "deep [album] tracks." He wants to duet with Stevie on "Leather & Lace" and she'd like them to sing "The First Cut Is The Deepest" and "Reason To Believe." The cover story is The Rolling Stone Interview with Elton John and the sad thing there is that Elton's ready and willing to talk about anything but Austin Scaggs offers the most mundane and obvious questions.
No magazine this round up scores a worth-buying. At best, a few offer 15 minutes worth of scanning. At worst, less than a minute. We'll hope it was just a slow month and the winter lethargy because otherwise the state of rock writing is on life support.