Today I came upon yet another article about ultra-cheap music downloads for sale at Amazon.com. This one caught my attention because it mentioned Hayes Carll's new album being on sale for $1.99. From what I've heard, he seems to try a little too hard to hit all the right alt-country notes for my taste, but it's worth a listen. Which is why I had my name on the wait-list for the CD at my local library. But instead I paid $1.99 for the digital album. Meaning the label got a cut of the $1.99 off of my interest, instead of nothing (actually, probably more than $1.99, as the consensus seems to be that Amazon is taking a loss on these promotional prices). So it seems to me that pricing music to encourage impulse buys seems a smart move.

In addition to the Hayes Carll album, this week's special $5 albums are also some great choices. In particular, I'd be remiss in not noting that Pink Martini's Hang On Little Tomato is $5 this week. So if you don't already have that album, don't spend too much time feeling ashamed, just rectify the situation by laying down $5 at Amazon.

So, like last year, I've been dragging my feet on my best-of music list, until I was damn sure no one would still be interesting in such nonsense. But I'm gonna crank this out tonight. In coming up with nominations for the list, I realized 2007 just wasn't that great a year for new releases. A good year for music, for me at least, making some discoveries from the vaults ("Will to Fail" has become my theme song--I was shocked just now to discover I never linked to it), but even coming up with ten albums from 2007 I could get excited about was a challenge. But going over the releases, and remembering some albums I'd forgotten about, things ultimately started looking up, and I was able to come up with a respectable top-ten list, with some decent albums not making the cut (sorry, Lyle Lovett):

#1: Porter Wagoner, Wagonmaster So apparently it will be a tradition that my best-of year-end list will be topped by a dead country legend. Which is fine, as so far they have richly deserved their placement. And for the record, Wagoner was very much alive when I praised the album effusively. I can't really add to that much, except to say, in light of his passing, the album encapsulated his career in the most positive light possible. A fitting coda to a legend among legends.

#2: Pink Martini, Hey, Eugene! Pink Martini's third album suggests they have arrived as an institution, which actually makes the arrival of new material not the earth-shattering news that Hang On Little Tomato was. But still, there's very little not to love here, and Jimmy Scott's guest appearance on "Tea For Two" just makes things that much more magical.

#3: Jon Rauhouse, Steel Guitar Heart Attack The most fun I had with a country album all year. Laid-back western swing, reworked classics and new material. And who knew the theme from The Andy Griffith Show had words?

#4: The Greencards, Viridian Absolutely beautiful bluegrass. The Greencards' output has been so consistent, it's easy to get complacent and forget just how lucky the world is to have an album like this.

#5: Los Straitjackets, Rock en Espanol, Vol. 1 Oddly compelling. It's Los Straitjackets, so of course this is going to be a good album, and the addition of guest artists providing Spanish vocals to cover songs of Anglo hits is a perfect fit to the band. So that I enjoyed the album isn't a surprise, but I was taken aback by just how ingratiating tracks like Little Willie G's take on "Ana" (AKA "Go To Him") are here, and how this turned out to be a much more substantial album than I expected. While still being as fun as any Los Straitjackets album. This could be my favorite Los Straitjackets album.

#6: Detroit Cobras, Tied and True Unlike Los Straitjackets, this album does not transcend the expectations one has for the Detroit Cobras. But that's fine. The rough edges are a bit smoothed out here, but overall it's exactly what we've come to expect from the band, and I for one am glad to have it.

#7: Nellie McKay, Obligatory Villagers Nellie McKay has produced an album here perfectly suited to her sound and attitude. Theatrical and witty, her technical mastery and clever songsmithing (is that a word?) are on full display, and her flaws are somewhat obscured. Sure to please her fans, and keep as fans those of us who found ourself wobbling in her support.

#8: Project: Pimento, Space Age Love Songs It's been four years since their last album, and while Space Age Love Songs isn't as earth-moving as Magical Moods of the Theremin, it does essentially double the number of theremin-based lounge music albums available, which is a good thing.

#9: Robbie Fulks, Revenge The last time Robbie Fulks performed in Southern California, I had other commitments, so I have yet to see him live, but now I have a live album. Live albums aren't the most exciting things, but there is a bit of strong new material, and lots of his classic songs, in both electric and acoustic sets.

#10: Various Artists, Song of America Filling in the last slot was difficult: Lots of albums vied for contention, all notable, but none strong enough for me to expand the list beyond ten places. Lyle Lovett and John Prine both had new albums this year, and I feel bad leaving them off; but while neither was bad, neither particularly grabbed my interest, either, and including them in this list would have felt like an act of pity. Song of America, a boxed-set collection of iconic songs from throughout American history, is certainly hit-or-miss, but the best songs of the bunch are more than enough to encourage me to overlook a few stinkers. Certainly a notable release for the year, and if, like me, you enjoyed Beautiful Dreamer: The Songs of Stephen Foster, I think you'll find a lot to like here, too.

Well, I've been working on this list for about a week, but I think I've found a list I can formally endorse. The top ten of 2007: If it's not here, it's garbage.

I was going to add an Imeem playlist here, but virtually none of these albums are streamable there. They have deals with all four major labels, but the indie situation isn't as bright. Either that, or their filtering software sucks; I noticed recently uploaded songs by Sara Bareilles, for instance, don't stream, claiming they don't have a deal with her label, when I know for a fact they do. Anyway, if you want to hear the albums on my list, I'm sure you know of a way to do so, so good luck with that.

I started to write about Pink Martini's new album, but ended up whining about a perfectly good company that has been kind enough to sell music without DRM. I should at least take a moment to mention the new album that led me to try out that site.

I'll start out with the worst I can say, and get that out of the way: I'm not certain, but this could be the worst Pink Martini album to date. I can't say that definitively, because at least Hey Eugene! is more consistent than Hang On Little Tomato. "The Gardens of Sampson & Beasley" is just about the only Pink Martini song I really don't like (rhyming "sadness" with...um, "sadness," that's just not right). But while Hey Eugene! doesn't have a bad song on it (and I disagree, mostly, with the criticism of the title track, but more on that later), it does start to feel, not boring, but a bit rote, predictable.

But it might not be fair to criticize Pink Martini for being predictable, when what they are being is predictably eclectic. Am I really describing an album that contains a song like "Dosvedanya Mio Bombino" rote? I think the problem is, Pink Martini, as wide-ranging as their influences are, still manages to craft a distinct sonic signature. When we had to wait seven years between albums, the return of their distinct sound was welcomed. This time, the wait was only two-and-a-half years, and now I'm whining that this album sounds too much like their other work. I'm an ingrate.

So there, now I'm beating myself up for saying something bad about this album. But I should clarify, when I say Hey Eugene! is their worst album, I am comparing it to two of my all-time favorite albums. I absolutely adore Pink Martini, and Sympathique is a monumental achievement. And while Hang On Little Tomoto isn't consistently genius, 95% of it is still damn good. And while I just haven't been able to get as excited by Hey Eugene! as I was when I first heard the other albums, I must say the songwriting is stronger on the new album, with the vintage songs and the new material merging seamlessly (they always did, musically, but the lyrics were usually a giveaway of the band's original material).

Of course, that seamless quality is destroyed by the title track, about a guy who didn't call vocalist China Forbes back after meeting her at a party (note to Eugene: What the hell is wrong with you?!). I've noticed the reviews have been pretty universal in pinpointing that track as the weakest moment on the album. I would disagree, though it's certainly not the best song here, either. On this album, Pink Martini is inspired by Hollywood, Japan, Peru, Egypt, France, Italy, Russia, and more. If they want to be inspired by New York hipsters for one song, why not? The song might hurt the fantasy of the album, the exotic realms, detached from time. But even if you're brought back to the here and now for a few minutes, in that here and now, you're listening to a Pink Martini album. It doesn't get much better than that.

UPDATE: I created a Pink Martini playlist, with an emphasis on the new album, plus some stuff I like from the other albums. Enjoy!

Pink Martini released their new CD, Hey Eugene! on May 14th. I was, of course, quite eager to give it a listen, but having trouble finding the CD for much below $15. Which I would gladly pay, but knowing the album is $9.99 on iTunes, I didn't want to pay that much of a premium to get the album in a non-optimal format (I'd much rather download music than rip it from CDs, though Pink Martini is one of those increasingly rare instances when I would have liked to have something physical to embrace). And iTunes has yet to roll out iTunes Plus for indie record labels, so Hey Eugene! still comes with DRM. And knowing that it would most likely be available in the future without DRM for the same price, I decided I could wait. After all, I'd heard many of the songs performed live.

But after a little bit of searching, I discovered the album was available now, sans DRM, from mTraks, a new digital music store based right here in San Diego. The album was available for $9.99, or for the same price, you could subscribe, and get 30 download credits. As there was no commitment, I went ahead and subscribed, downloaded the album, and still had 18 credits available, for 18 more songs. I got the new Pink Martini album at an amazing price, and had a chance to try out a new DRM-free music store, so I could report on my experience here.

My judgment: mTraks could be a useful service in the future, but right now, I'd say it lacks any edge over the competition. The website isn't particularly easy to browse, and despite their supposed emphasis on community features, musical recommendations were essentially non-existent. Searching for specific artists is easier, but I was annoyed by "false positives," when an artist turns up in a search, yet further clicking reveals they are not available on the service. But without strong community features, finding artists any way other than direct searching is futile. The community aspect may improve when they have more users, but gaining that user base may be difficult when eMusic has them beat on pretty much every point. They may have an advantage in their hybrid model, as they sell individual tracks and albums as well as subscriptions, but with a subscription available for the price of an album, I assume most people will do what I do, subscribe, download, and cancel. Now, if they can offer a compelling reason not to cancel (I was open-minded), this might be an effective and less costly way of attracting customers than eMusic's free trials (which have led to allegations of creative accounting). But from what I've experienced, I see no incentive to stick around. The next time there's an indie album I would like, that's not on eMusic, I might check out mTraks. But I don't see myself becoming a regular customer.

But hey, it's a beta, things could improve. But given the singular lack of buzz, I don't give this one a huge chance of success. A Google blog search on "mTraks" only gets 119 hits. Half of these hits are variations on mTraks' press release (excluding the perfectly natural and not-at-all-PR-talk phrase "killer social music community" brings the hits down to 60), and I haven't really been able to find any blog posts with paying customers discussing their experiences. And I'm afraid this post won't win them any awards.

Which wasn't really my intention. I didn't set out to bash mTraks, just discuss my experience (actually, I intended to discuss the new Pink Martini album, but I've digressed enough that I think I'll save that for another post). If you're looking for something eMusic doesn't have and mTraks does, mTraks is probably your best bet for buying said product. And if you're into the music released by the labels that created mTraks, Cafeteria Records and Naked Jain records, which I believe focus on punk music (feel free to correct me on that), then you should have no trouble finding music here. But in its current beta state, their press release's claim of being a "killer social music community" isn't backed up, and I see no reason not to stick with eMusic.

And a final note: What the hell is this? It's the first page that comes up on Google Blog Search when searching for mTraks. It's the mTraks press release, but with a byline and author bio, clearly trying to fool someone into thinking it's a news story, not a press release. How does this work? Did mTraks pay them to promote their press release in this misleading manner, or does this California Newswire site just reprint press releases to develop cheap content and sell ads? I call shenanigans on whoever's responsible. Oh, and now I see the second hit is a link to another website in the same family, same text, but now, instead of Cindy Holden, the author (excuse me, the site explains the name is the "editor/author") has become Jesse JJ Jame. How about that? I'm guessing from the Neotrope Interactive Network's home page that this is just some lame promotional tool for companies that can't generate real buzz. The desperation doesn't bode well for mTraks' chances.