Entertainment For Lively Minds
Unsubscribed.
I was with the mag right from the beginning. I only had a subscription for a year, but bought it pretty much every month before taking one out. It ran out fairly recently, but I don't have much desire to resubscribe this year. I still imagine I'll buy it for train journeys etc, and take an interest in the goings on here. But I don't feel the desire to restart my sub, even with the freebie and discount. Part of this is a gut feeling that preoccupations, opinion, subjects, jokes in the mag are a bit predictable. Unfair, and disprovable I'm sure, but I'm just being honest about my gut feeling. Last year, in my 'umble, it drifted that bit closer to the muso mag competition. And that is a sad thing to see. The Word used to surprise me with the quality of its writing, the clarity of its thought, and the breadth of its coverage. As I say, this may be a case of 'it's not you, it's me', but I don't feel that so much any more.
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A below par Word
is better than a good issue of Mojo or Uncut. Yes i can easily get the word every month from a shop, but by subscribing i feel as though i'm helping the magazine, and am also part of a small community, I know that sounds like i'm a soft lad, but hey!
Have you seen the last few issues of Uncut! Dreadful stuff.
Shame
I guess each to their own. I felt the same way, but feel it's been pretty strong recently. Lots of typos, mind. But I feel the more typos, the better the mag seems to be.
Most of
the monthly glossies seem to be searching for new ideas at the moment.The overuse of certain artists is repetitive in the extreme.Lists are creeping in everywhere and article with musicians talking about other musicians has reached epidemic proportians at Uncut.Sometimes it seems that the fear of alienating existing readers stops them from taking chances.
I'm rarely
if ever disappointed in an issue of (The) Word. It continues to be a dependable highlight of my month, in fact, and I love the sense of warmth and community in its pages. True, recent covers may have tended toward the hirsute end of the spectrum - a situation only readdressed by the goddess Kate - and sometimes I miss those big features on books or WWII from the early, feet-finding days, but I know I'd miss it like hell if it ever went. And it's yet to make me yawn like a black hole with a squillionth Dylan cover.
There was a lapse last year
but the game has been lifted no end, I feel, and this aspect remains why I am happy to have re-subbed, together with the joy of the blog. And I like the writers, in the main, despite knowing none of them personally. In the same way I can't abide the grinning troll of Unshod. It's a Corrie versus Eastenders thing. Yes, Unshod (Eastenders) and Slomo (Emmerdale) have also raised their games, but I still only buy them rather than subscribe. There is a difference.
Jitling?
"Jilting", surely?
Mojo
I abandoned Mojo after 3 years for the reasons you have for leaving The Word- I'd been with it for a long time, and had had enough of Pink Floyd or Beatles covers with no fresh insight.
I re-subscribed to Uncut which seemed to have upped its game, but The Word is the best read around just now for me.
And it's pretty good on TV - first raves I saw about The Wire were here.
Despite not giving
two hoots for the music of Fleet Foxes, Decemberists or John Martyn...and despite never having seen The Wire, not having an ipod ( or the foggiest idea what Spotify is )...I still buy the rag every month. Must be a peculiar form of masochism.
of all that list
I'd have a go at Spotify if I were you.
spotify
provided you've got time to spare - spotify is another (welcome) time pit!!
How had I missed Rachel Unthank ?
Edward G
you are a satirist to match Swift...I relish your all too rare posts. keep up the good work
Sir,
I am delighted you approve of my modest proposals. But satire be damned. I mean everything I say.
I'm with eddie on a lot of these things...
Bearded singers largely leave me cold, I couldn't care less for the work of half the persons featured in the magazine, I find some of the reviews frustratingly inconclusive, and i still retain my subscription.
I simply love the writing, and the artists etc featured are interesting in their own right, it's just that a lot of their music never clicked for me. Still not a problem...
In a sense, i get so much enjoyment from the podcast, I feel that somebody somewhere ought to get paid a few bob for it. Similarly, the feeling of community here is something you don't get elsewhere. There's also a level of trust here. I'm a few years, i suspect, behind the target readership age. It was a similar situation when Messrs Hepworth and Ellen were at Smash Hits and at Q, but looking back over editions of that magazine, the lads knew what they were at.
I think, with Word, that's still the case - even if *I* don't know what they're at!
Da Word
I find myself constantly agreeing with Retropath2, sometimes I think it's me.
I loved the Word and then last year found myself falling out of love a little. For some reason it all got a little smug and I got myself particularly irritated by Rob Fitzpatrick's musings and in particular the sixth form Gig Guide.
But I'm back in love with it and I don't like Martyn, Decemberists or Fleet Foxes. In fact, I find myself currently having fallen for The Goo Goo Dolls, a band I missed out on, and I can't explain why.
I do have an ipod though and a car and a dog.
Any more you wanna know?
The WORD...
.. is still an interesting read that I look forward to every month. Least favourite one from 2008 was the Prog/"Jarvis on the cover" issue but, hey, that's not a bad strike rate.
I also like the PodCast; this blog thingy; and the monthly 'net updates on the weekly newsletter.
However, all these have taken up so much of my free time that I am determined not to be spottted on Spotify nor found twittering on Twitter.
I do have a "real life" you know.
generally the best mag out there
...but the prog issue was self indulgent at best, and just rubbish at worst. It has literally been YEARS since I simply skipped that many pages of book or magazine. I just didn't look. Oh, and the famous rock star mates do their bit for the arctic thing was cheap as well.
That said I love it, and will be a subscriber for life. After all, the bits I love, I can continue to love and the bits I argue with, well, that's got to be fun, hasn't it?
Perhaps
Well, perhaps I'm just articulating what some of you folks have - a bit of an enthusiasm dip. I certainly agree with the thoughts about The Word being the better than Mojo, Uncut etc. But I liked it more when it felt like it was trying to do something entirely different. I'm not considering buying another of those mags, I'm more likely to subscribe to the National Geographic and spend more times reading about music online. The best of the weblogs do feel a bit more vital and perhaps a little less self-satisfied. But then, I'm certainly going to see the John Martyn issue, so maybe I'll be re-enthused.
Is Spotify going to impact music magazines ?
Most of the magazines have a free cover CD - a good way of hearing a track by The New Thing. But if Spotify lasts, how much do we need a paper copy of the written enthusiasm when we can just fire up Spotify and actually hear Rachel Unthank or Rufus Wainwright ?
Although you probably can't do that on a train or on the underground ...
Just to redress the balance
I loved the prog issue. There is not much that irritates me about the magazine though it does seem now to concentrate more on music than it did in the past when articles on other arts (the bloody Wire excepted) and issues seemed more frequent. But perhaps I'm just misremembering a mythical golden age.
Keep up the good work.