Dion's AC/DC Tribute 'Worst Cover Ever'

Johansson revisits legendary croaker's catalog

(NEWSER) - “Even the most sympathetic critics,” writes Tom Breihan for the Village Voice, have to grant that Anywhere I Lay My Head, Scarlett Johansson’s Tom Waits tribute album, “is a fundamentally ridiculous enterprise, almost stunning in its total lack of need to exist.” That said, Breihan thinks the record is actually pretty good, made stronger by the fact that it sounds absolutely nothing like Tom Waits. More»

Lauryn Hill, Jeff Buckley, and the Sex Pistols make the list

(NEWSER) - It's one way to avoid the sophomore slump: Paste counts down 10 singers or bands whose first album set the music world abuzz and whose official second album simply never materialized: More»

Daniel Ek creating a revolutionary 'music ecosystem': Forbes

(NEWSER) - Ever since Napster, the music industry has been desperate for a fix—and Daniel Ek may have finally found it. The 28-year-old Swedish founder and CEO of Spotify is, according to Forbes , "the most important man in music." His service amounts to a profitable way to give people what they want for free. Its easy-to-use social interface manages to be more attractive than piracy, writes Steven Bertoni. Ek wants Spotify to be to music what Google is to search and Amazon is to retail. It seems to be on its way. More»

Amongst a certain set of people, at least

(NEWSER) - Proving once again that everything will someday become cool again, the Wall Street Journal today brings us the news that cassettes are making a comeback. A small comeback, sure, but a comeback nonetheless. “I want them fresh, sealed in the package,” says one collector. “I know one day I'll rip them open and smell that sweet plastic-y smell.” Another sings the praises of the usually-derided “tape hiss,” saying that it actually “has the same amount of charm as a little crackle when listening to a record has. It makes it seem more real.” (Vinyl records, of course, are experiencing their own resurgence .) More»

This year has been a bummer, but the music's good

(NEWSER) - As the first half of 2010 draws to a close, James Montgomery lists his 10 favorite albums of the year—so far—for MTV :

• Kate Nash: “My Best Friend Is You represents Kate Nash at her most scattershot, squeaky and downright smart,” he writes. She’s made “an album that's rough, sprawling and unafraid to get plain weird.”
• Yeasayer: Odd Blood is “perhaps the most fittingly titled album in recent memory, a wavy, dreamy listen, full of supple, electronic fields that undulate and dip, creating precipitous peaks and delving canyons. Pop music for the 22nd century and beyond.”