here's a quote from the Guardian's trollbait "comment is free" blog section (I don't really like the way they write very provocative and cynical pieces which seem to be designed solely to whip up a storm of indignation, but that's beside the point). The article is about that shouty record by that bird that sings "I wish I was a punkrocker with flowers in my hair" and I thought this description was quite well observed:

All I hear is that telltale, indefinable something that immediately marks it out as something that's bypassed the soul completely: consumable noise for people who don't like music but know listening to it is "the done thing" - like mutant imposters mimicking the behaviour of humans. I can't relate. It doesn't go. I'm being alienated by the replicants.

There's a word for this sort of thing. It's not "art", it's "content". And it's everywhere, measured out by unseen hands, mechanically dangled over the replicants' flapping gobholes; flavourless worms for android hatchlings.

Sometimes I can ALMOST see where content is coming from. Take Angels by Robbie Williams. It's a massively popular piece of content, beloved by millions. If I strain really hard, I can just about make out some genuine emotion. Just a speck or two - but enough to make its huge success at least vaguely explicable. Compared with anything that has any semblance of balls whatsoever, Angels is a bowl of cold mud - but next to most content, it's a towering emotional epic. It almost makes you feel something. No wonder it's become the official theme tune for thick people's funerals.

Despite that, I've spent the last 10 days listening non-stop to the new album by Nick Lachey - the long suffering (now ex) husband of Jessica Simpson as painfully documented in "the newlyweds". I felt quite sorry for him and his obvious exasperation and probable desperation - like the time they're at a restaurant and she says "I know this is tuna, but is that fish or chicken?" She's like a prettier Jade Goody. Anwyay the songs are all quite poignant in a very slick mass-produced middle-of-the-road way which would completely wash over you were they not so catchy. Having said that, the first three songs and the last one are miles better than the others which I guess makes those others "filler" in more ways than one. Every day I've woken up with the final song going round in my head and it's the first thing I listen to while I'm having my breakfast... I know it's not cool but that's not something I've ever worried about

I've just noticed that the track which I like so much doesn't appear on the Amazon.com page as it's a bonus track which probably only appears on the European version of the album, so I've uploaded a bootleg quality mp3 for you here - I hope you like it as much I do