Release dates? Who needs 'em?
Gnarls Barkley announced yesterday that they would move up the release of their new album "The Odd Couple" from April 8 to, well, today. The album is already on sale at iTunes, Rhapsody and Amazon for download and will be in stores this week.
Why the move? According to a band spokesman, "With the shifting seasons, furtive romantic entanglements and fierce college basketball rivalries, the latter half of March can be confusing. People need to be soothed and inspired now."
Hmm. Well at least Gnarls Barkley has the hot single "Run" to drive interest in the album.
Last night, the Raconteurs announced that they finished a new album, "Consolers of the Lonely," earlier this month and it is coming out in all formats on March 25. The first single is "Salute Your Solution" and the video for it comes out -- you guessed it -- on March 25.
What does it sound like? Good question, but no one knows. The band isn't doing any press or giving anyone an early listen to the album. "We wanted to explore the idea of releasing an album everywhere at once and THEN marketing and promoting it thereafter," the band said in a statement. "The Raconteurs would rather this release not be defined by its first weeks sales, pre-release promotion, or by someone defining it FOR YOU before you get to hear it."
It's an interesting bit of logic there from Jack White and Brendan Benson because unless all the Raconteurs' fans all run out and buy it in the first week, which they say is not a priority, wouldn't reviews and promotion end up "defining" the album anyway? (I, for one, don't think critics "define" any album for anyone ever, since music fans are smart enough to make up their own minds. But maybe I should just graciously accept the Raconteurs' hype of my profession's power.)
In the movie world, when companies refuse to allow critics into a movie beforehand, it's usually a sure sign that it's terrible. But given White and Benson's track records, that isn't necessarily the case. We'll all just have to wait and see together.
PHOTO: Gnarls Barkley by Jeremy and Claire Weiss for Atlantic