So broken is the music industry’s business model that Beck’s forthcoming book of unrecorded sheet music, Song Reader (to be published December 7 by McSweeney’s), is being heralded as the next game changer.
Such hyperbole surely says more about viral marketing than about the actual music, but once that all dies down it will be interesting to hear what the Los Angeles-based musician’s fans and contemporaries do with Song Reader’s 20 compositions.
We’ll have to wait to find out if the tunes hold up, but what’s immediately apparent is that the “lavishly produced hardcover” book, which features original art by Marcel Dzama, Leanne Shapton, Josh Cochran and others, is going to look amazing on your shelf.