20 years on, did New Order's World In Motion change the face of English football, or even football in general? This article argues it encouraged fans to love the game again, and helped kickstart the Premier League / Sky revolution. Best ever football record, anyway.

http://www.stuffbypaulbrown.com/how-world-in-motion-changed-english-foot...

Since Dylan's back catalogue was removed from Spotify last year it looks like a fair few tracks have reappeared on various compilations, enabling this more than decent Spotify playlist. Enjoy:

http://www.spotiguide.com/2010/03/bob-dylan-spotiguide-playlist-on-spoti...

OK, this is driving us bonkers:

Before or after the Spotify Premium ads ("Hi, I'm XXX from Spotify...") there's now often a very brief musical "sting", only about 6 notes. We're convinced it's the opening to a popular song.

A colleague reckoned it was something by Michael Jackson. Having had a quick trawl through his "greatest hits" (which won't have done my Last.fm profile much good) we just can't place it.

Can any Spotifiers identify it?

Yes, surely he has. I can't be the first person to notice the similarity between Bob's single "Here Lies Nothing" and the theme tune of The Wire "Way Down In The Hole"?

As mentioned in this week's podcast, it's difficult to imagine Bob enjoying any downtime, never mind putting his feet up to work his way through a five-season box set...

Anyone else had to endure the "Master Shortie" Spotify ad yet? Man alive, the most annoying ten seconds of earache since the Black Lips ad where the singer gets far too close to the mic.

Is this an evil ploy by Spotify to push us towards the £9.99 ad-free subscription? Bring back Roberta!

Or how about a Word audio ad? "Hi, I'm Kate from The Word magazine..." etc. Knock it up using the podcast gear. Good to go.

Spotify remains the best thing in the world, mind you, Master Shortie or no Master Shortie.

Courtesy of critic Robert Christgau, here's how to rate rock albums of the 70s:
http://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/bk-cg70/grades.php

"A D+ is an appalling piece of pimpwork or a thoroughly botched token of sincerity." etc.

Christgau has since upgraded his rating system:
http://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/bk-cg90/grades-90s.php

"An A+ is a record of sustained beauty, power, insight, groove, and/or googlefritz that has invited and repaid repeated listenings in the daily life of someone with 500 other CDs to get to."

I demand that the word "googlefritz" be included in at least one review in the next issue of The Word.

Some odd choices in here, and some obvious ones, but - hey - it's a best albums list, so you've got to have a look and see how many you own, don't you?

http://www.esquire.com/the-side/music/best-albums-030909