From the technical point of the reader there are four kinds of weblogs I know of:

1. The basic outfit: An internet page which doesn't tell anybody when it is updated or it tells everybody that it is updated all the time. There are not so many of these. Often the problem is that there is pseudo-dynamic content on the page like banners which makes it impossible for the reader to know if the page has been updated or not. In this case I use my Quickbrowse collections (subscription $12.95 for 3 months) which I visit on a regular base. An example is this music collection which I check every two or three days.

2. The middle class variant: Weblogs which behave like normal pages and have a correct update status (can be found out with the page freshness bookmarklet from here). Most of the music weblogs I read belong into this group. I read those weblogs using this fresblogs page. It is ordered by last update, the freshest fruits are on top. Right now there are about 130 music sites in there. For some of those sites freshblogs shows several updates per day when they have only been updated once. Therefore I usually open the list only on a daily base. To open the links in a new page I hold down the shift key when clicking on them.

3. The upper class model: Weblogs pinging weblogs.com or blo.gs. Those weblogs can be read via a page like blo.gs where you register and add the weblogs you read. Afterwards you get a page with the latest updated weblogs on top and the lazy webloggers on the bottom like in 2). The advantage to 2) is that this method is more reliable. As freshblogs supports pings I use it here as well.

4. The luxury version: Weblogs supporting RSS (XML) feeds which can be read in a newsreader similar to an e-mail program like Outlook. The program I started to use is the freeware feedreader. Up to now I have thirty weblogs in there of which most are from antville. Unfortunately I have yet only found one music blog supporting RSS, it is monkey puzzle.

If your weblog supports RSS feeds and is about music I would be very thankful if you told me so that I can add you to my news feeds.

I wrote about Beck's new album Sea Change just yesterday that it is very much influenced by two songwriters from the 70s. But when I heard Round the Bend on the radio tonight I couldn't believe my ears. I had heard a string section playing that understated atmospheric tune before. Though it was less pronounced and not as thickly arranged as here. It was in Nick Drake's River Man from his first album Five Leaves Left. Beck even tries to sing like Drake. I like his version of Drake's song especially the cosmic radiance it has, the wide space it conjures up. But I find it extremely shameless by Beck to pretend it his song. He should at least have written in the liner notes by whom it was inspired. By the way the radio deejay had also noticed that those two songs were very similar and played them next to another.

Beck's new album is a cover album. The first second song Paper Tiger is a take on Melody Nelson by Serge Gainsbourg. The overall mood is very similar to Neil Young's Harvest though the album lacks the gorgeous melancholic melodies. Another good song on the album It's All in Your Mind also sounds familiar to me though I cannot yet nail by whom it is. Have you got an idea? Two hints: search in between 1969 and 1972, maybe +- two years and check Beck's iPod (New York Times, I am not sure if registration is still required).

Don't get me wrong. I don't think it is a bad album and I would love to hear it played in a pub by chance. But probably not more than two songs as the album doesn't seem to have enough substance to be listened to in one sitting. Many songs just meander along and fail to catch my attention.

I still can't exclude that I will change my mind tomorrow and that the record is a grower but up till now I am not too convinced. The best song is the Nick Drake cover and that says a lot about the originality and honesty of Beck. In a way it makes me doubt how much he actually feels the songs he performs. He seems a great actor and pretender but I am not sure anymore if he is a great artist.