For The Record- 16. May. 2026

Some thoughts on Spotify, Subvert FM, and the art of trying shit.

May 16, 2026

As you may have seen, Spotify recently did a huge data dump and rolled out listeners’ all-time top songs. It’s like Spotify Wrapped on steroids. Listeners can see the date they joined, the first track they played, etc. At the end of all of that, you get (what else?) a playlist of your most listened-to songs.

Did I set a land speed record going over to the site to see what story my data was telling? Dear reader, you bet your ass I did. I have a lot of contempt for their business model—and if anything, this is another demonstration of how extractive they are—but I like these things as much as anyone. And really, it was a fun diversion from the never-ending NYT Top Songwriters wars.

And look, for all the dystopian data harvesting they’re doing, there were some revelations. Not for nothing, New Order’s highest place was 14th1. Maybe you had some in your list as well?

Some of you reflexively recoil at the thought of even logging on to the site. I totally get it, and you’ll get no shade from me. Mostly, I just want to use it as a jump-off to talk about the band that frankly dominated my list.

The band with the most spots here is Wire. One of my favorite bands, but I didn’t think they’d be on just about every part of the list. There’s about a dozen songs, and at least five records. One song (“In Vivo”) had two spots. Combined, it would have been a runaway leader. Simply put, this is a band I love, but also one I stream more than listen to via physical media. “In Vivo” is on my favorite record by the band, IBTABA, and celebrates turning 37 (!) here shortly. Since I’ll use any excuse I can to talk up records—but specifically records like this—it seemed like a good way to tee this up again (see below).

Nice of Spotify to give something back for once…

I am sure we’ll see lots of sharing of these lists—and if you’ve got one, feel free to drop it in the comments!— but there are a lot of other people working on alternative platforms. Qobuz and Bandcamp exist, and as of earlier this week, so does Subvert.fm.

Is this the way forward? Is this model scalable and sustainable? I don’t know, but I hope it is. In the meantime, I love that people are looking to wrest back control of their work and that consumers are showing an appetite for more equitable pay structures. It’s heartening to see people not afraid to “try shit” and swing for the fences. We need that now more than ever.

With Color In Your Life There’s A Reason To Explode

When I was a soccer coach, Most players had one or two go-to moves, got pretty good at them, and then got complacent. It was fairly predictable. It’s also incredibly easy to coach against.

Much better—and much more interesting—were the players unafraid to do what I (very professionally) referred to as trying shit. These players might not have been blessed with speed or height, but their superpower was unpredictability.

These players always had a spot on my roster.

Similarly, Wire has never been afraid to experiment with new sounds, bend genres, and ignore convention.

In other words, they’ve never been afraid to try shit.

Of course, Wire is the band that gave us Pink Flag, Chairs Missing, and 154, arguably one of the best three record runs of our time. They followed that by splitting up for several years.

“There are those who say Wire was the best punk band ever because it broke all of the rules, didn’t stick with any of the blueprints and did actually what it wanted…I just wouldn’t call that punk, personally. Punk is just one of those words that’s so overused that you have no idea what it means anymore.”
~Wire frontman Colin Newman

In 1985, they reunited and again tried something new, this time swapping jagged guitars and minimalism for a more electronic sound. They had found synthesizers on their hiatus and embraced them. Signed to Mute, they delivered a 1-2 punch of 1987’s The Ideal Copy in 1987 and A Bell Is A Cup…Until It Is Struck the next year. The band’s live sound was always quite different from what listeners experienced on the records—mainly because the technology they used to create the music in those days wasn’t exactly easy to load in the van and take on the road.

Nevertheless, there was a growing demand from fans for a live record. That could’ve been easy. Record a show or two, clean the tapes up in post-production, and ship units. Simple enough. But Wire’s never been one to take the easy route. Instead, they decided to try something new.

Enter It’s Beginning To And Back Again (“IBTABA”)

The quick and dirty story of IBTABA is that the record is 11 alternate takes, half from The Ideal Copy and A Bell… and the rest previously unreleased. Describing it that way is also reductive. The wire didn’t just mix things up; they took the songs, dismantled them, and rebuilt them using overdubbed guitar, synth, and vocals—most of the drum parts stayed. The results are (almost) wholly new tracks.

An album of remixes also often represents a creative drought, a cash grab, or both. And those indictments would have been justified had these been straightforward reworkings. But they’re not; they’re complete revampings and remodeling of what previously existed. In many cases, the titles are the only recognizable things left standing.

Experiments sometimes represent breakthroughs; sometimes, they end up with shattered glass on the lab floor. One of the knocks against IBTABA is that it’s a mixed bag. Some of the songs are brilliant, and some are… not.

“Finest Drops” is heavier than the originals, and that extra bounce makes for a superior version. The grit and bleak imagery of “German Shepherds” benefit similarly from a revamping here (IBTABA’s title is derived from a line in this song). And most people agree that this version of “In Vivo” is much worse than the original mix. It’s also worth noting that it wasn’t included on the original vinyl release and was only added later when the label wanted another single. If A Bell Is A Cup…Until it Is Struck represents peak pop for the band, this record represents an intentional dive back toward the experimental.

The 12” version of “Eardrum Buzz” (the second single) is here and is as radio-friendly as the band gets. In the opinion of this writer, the 12” is light-years better than the original, and the original isn’t bad. It was also the on-ramp to the band for many, thanks to decent rotation on MTV. At the opposite end of the spectrum are tracks like “Over Theirs,” which was likely the off-ramp for those same fans, and why you saw so many copies of IBTABA in the cutout bin not too long after the record was released.

Distilled down, IBTABA represents some amazing results and some…not so amazing ones. It’s a signpost that marks the band’s second era and closes the book on the Pink Flag/Chairs Missing/154 triad for good. Call Wire what you will; at this point in their career, they might’ve still embraced the punk ethos writ large, but the days of playing punk music were done and dusted.

There is also a timing issue, of course. 1989 was a seminal year for albums; the calendar was packed with great releases—and IBTABA isn’t in line with any of them. If you wanted comfortable, indie, or “college rock,” this wasn’t the record for you. But if you like unpredictability and bands opposed to complacency, then IBTABA checks a lot of boxes.

Various Artists:

There’s a new record from The Mountain Goats on the way. Overmono’s got one coming too. Swervedriver and Sweeping Promises are both hitting the road (h/t to Courtesy Desk's Turntable Report for the heads up! Here’s A good Tiny Desk concert. This ranked list of The Jackson Family’s Biggest Hot 100 Hit Songs is wild. I know this reads like the worst clickbait ever, but I really think #1 will shock you.

Always nice to see Dream Syndicate getting some love in the blogosphere. Could you use a little more jangle in your life? Yes, definitely.

From the ‘Stack:

Robert C. Gilbert just wrapped up his three-parter on Laura Nyro. It’s fantastic!

Here’s a great take on the NYT Songwriters issue from Wayne Robins, and another one from James Barber.

We now know that streaming numbers are skewed if not fixed by platforms’ manipulation of algorithms, manipulation of consumers, and by plain-old payola from labels and marketing companies. Those at the top of the pyramid – the major labels, the well connected and the well funded – benefit from these advantages. The recent controversy over marketing company Chaotic Good and their public brag about manipulations of platforms on behalf of the band Geese has made this widespread practice better known among consumers of streaming music. But content providers have pitched these pay-to-play distortions as marketing programs for years.

Music Streaming is a Prediction Market from Dada Drummer Almanach is a great data-driven look at the casino that streaming has become.

I was 10 years old when I created my own “radio station” top 40 lists. The call letters were WDNP. “D” of course was for Dan and “P” was for Pal, but why “N?” My middle name is John and it would have made perfect sense to call it WDJP. For some reason, I thought the “n” in Dan would be better to use

Our pal Dan Pal on wanting to be a DJ. Not for nothing, my radio station was going to be KKEV (“K-Kev”). Now that I live on the other side of the Mississippi, it’ll be WKVN.

Any day a new Please Take My Advice lands in my inbox is a good day.

Off topic but still rad: the White House wants to spend $22B to redo Washington’s Dulles airport. Can we just…not?

More proof that the internet isn’t a complete dystopian hellscape…yet.

If there’s an upside to all the NYT discourse, it’s this.

Best Records of 2001:

For those who might be wondering what this is, here’s the pitch: I recently wrote about a Best Record of 2001 challenge and noted that I’d be writing some of these up.

I’ve been doing quick hits on each first-round matchup and posting them directly to the page. Some will be longer, some won’t, and some might just be a handful of sentences. There’ll ~~probably~~ absolutely be a few typos. We also have a few guest posts scheduled along the way, so stay tuned!

Check ‘em out and let me know your thoughts! Chin wags & hot takes welcome! Sharing and restacks always appreciated.

Day 36: Silver Jews vs. Princess Superstar

Day 37: Aaliyah vs. Hope Sandoval

Day 38: Fennesz vs. Four Tet

Day 39: Stephen Malkmus

Day 40: Death Cab For Cutie vs. Sloan

Curious what’s ahead? The full schedule is here. Maybe one of these changed your life? Hit me up if you’d like to do a guest post or other sort of collab. We’ve had some awesome ones already, and a couple more on the way.

Want to read more fantastic takes on these records? Check out The Best Thing!

Longer Read:

Dulli’s said this before, many times, and he also brought it up during the Q&A: he’s not going to play anything that he can’t feel, because if he can’t feel it then we won’t feel it. And that matters because this man could probably make truckloads of money if he just went out and played the Gentlemen album every night at the core of the set. I always play the game of, why is one of my favorite bands not more popular? This is why. Because he knew it would have been a trap. It would have been bad for him, bad for the band, bad for 70% of the people in the audience any given night who didn’t want to have to navigate a beer-fueled mosh pit full of aging frat boys. We did it once already, during the Reformation, and I was glad when it was finished. (Young frat boys are stupid. Aging angry frat boys are dangerous.)

Caryn Rose on The Afghan Whigs

On Repeat Records

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