As a music reporter, the Arts in Review page is my favorite part of the newspaper. The previews and futures I typically write afford me a greater deal of literary freedom than the typical straight news article anyway, but reviews allow me to really have some fun (and if you talk to some of my previous editors, perhaps too much fun).

But except for in the rarest of occasions, I can write at most one music review a week, and due to some changes in the way we do things, I'm not guaranteed the one-per-week I once was. This isn't a big deal, though; I'm still afforded more flexibility than nearly anyone else on the paper, and I'm now rarely stretched to review something uninteresting just for the sake of filling space. Plus, more other writers can throw their hats into the review game, which is always a good thing.

Believe it or not, though, more than two or three albums come out on a weekly basis. As such, we can't possibly review it all. Which is sad, because through our mailbox every week comes tons of unsolicited CDs, and not only don't we have enough space to review them all, I rarely have time to listen to a great many. For the big record companies, this isn't a huge deal -- for the most part, their publicity expenditures pale in comparison to their record sales. But when a smaller, independent label takes the time to send us one of the few hundred CDs they end up selling, it shows a little bit of effort, and we do appreciate that.

Sometimes they are re-releases, which can be good or bad (good: 25th Anniversary Edition of Thriller; bad: Footloose soundtrack). Sometimes they're just weird, like the one band whose press-release promised a speed-metal band with a lap steel.

One band even sent us a legitimate vinyl LP. I have relatives that don't even mail me stuff that nice.

So here's my promise. At some point this semester, I'm going to make up some lost time. It might be in Venues, it might be in the Finals Magazine, it might be in this very blog. Obviously they won't all get the same 10-15 inches that the other stuff gets, but they all deserve at least a spin or two.

And, obviously, they won't all be very good. In fact, I imagine a decent number of them will be legitimately terrible (although, admittedly, these are sometimes more fun to write). But if someone is willing to record an album, it deserves to be listened to. And at some point, I will, before these CDs stack too high.

Someday soon, I will share my findings with you.

- Adam