Sweet Home, Nagasaki

Instead of spending their time combatting illegal copying and downloading of music, the various recording organizations around the world should save their energy for fighting the proliferation of tribute cds. Honestly, now, do we really need tribute albums to Queen, Jack Johnson and even the Insane Clown Posse? On Matthew Sweet's 2003 release Kimi Ga Suki he takes it a step further by paying tribute (as it states in the goofy, gushy liner notes) to the entire country of Japan. I'm not sure how songs such as Spiral tie into a national conciousness, exactly, but it's a great marketing idea.  Think about it: if you pay tribute to Van Morrison, the most you can expect to net is his entire fanbase (how ever many of his fans are still alive), but if you pay tribute to an entire country, there's a good chance every citizen with a nationalist bent is going to pad your royalty checks for years to come. You can purchase Kimi Ga Suki at Paste Music.