I.O.U [next to] noooooothin'

August 1, 2008 5:21 PM

"'49:00' is a 43-minute-long album in the form of one long recorded track that claims to be six minutes longer, and insists in its subtitle on grabbing exactly that portion of your time/life." To commemorate his upcoming 49th birthday, ex-Replacement Paul Westerberg released his first digital album on 'June 49th.' He's worked out an exclusive arrangement with Amazon, selling it at a price that's all shook down: $0.49.
posted by scarylarry (21 comments total)

Funnily enough 45:33 isn't that length either. These musicians are all bloody liars.
posted by Artw at 5:24 PM on August 1, 2008

These musicians are all bloody liars.

Hey, we gotta do what we gotta do, just to survive in this crazy world.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 5:26 PM on August 1, 2008

My take: after spending much of the current millennium stripping away the sheen of his initial solo work, Westerberg hits this one out of the park by throwing it away. A thrilling middle-finger salute. Best $0.49 I've spent in a while.
posted by scarylarry at 5:26 PM on August 1, 2008 [2 favorites]

Funnily enough 45:33 isn't that length either.

In fact 4'33" doesn't have to last that amount of time either! Won't someone think of the temporally aware children?
posted by ob at 5:33 PM on August 1, 2008 [2 favorites]

Metafilter's own jodic created her own track listing for this, which was mistakenly touted by Paste as the official track listing.

I like number 5 (for several reasons): As Yet To Be Determined Noise
posted by mr_crash_davis at 5:34 PM on August 1, 2008 [1 favorite]

"Amazon MP3 Purchases are limited to U.S. customers."

How irritating
posted by dng at 5:47 PM on August 1, 2008

I bought it a few days ago. Not bad, but still not enough to make me forgive Westerberg for the sin of cutting Bob Stinson loose after Tim and ruining one of the greatest bands in history. Or, come to think of it, for the sin of "Dyslexic Heart."
posted by felix betachat at 5:56 PM on August 1, 2008

dng, people outside the US can get 49:00 here.
posted by jodic at 5:59 PM on August 1, 2008

Not bad, but still not enough to make me forgive Westerberg for the sin of cutting Bob Stinson loose after Tim and ruining one of the greatest bands in history.

He created 'em, he can destroy 'em. But I agree with you about "Dyslexic Heart".

Giving "49:00" an initial listen, and I like what I hear so far.
posted by BitterOldPunk at 6:05 PM on August 1, 2008

I liked Grandpa Boy "Mono" a heck of a lot. The rest of the recent stuff has been too Robert Pollard desultory for my taste, and I keep hoping he'll return to a studio one day, but what the hell. Its Paul Westerberg, he can do whatever he wants and always has.
posted by arcanecrowbar at 6:10 PM on August 1, 2008

Stupid Amazon MP3 Downloader doesn't work in Win2k.
posted by notyou at 6:11 PM on August 1, 2008

i wish i could get this somewhere else. amazon's downloader is just ridiculous. i can't believe it's mandatory.
posted by nadawi at 7:22 PM on August 1, 2008

I would like to provide a rational, objective critique of this, but the fact is that Westerberg could release an 8-track of him farting into a microphone for seventy minutes and I would still buy it. Twice.
posted by Rangeboy at 7:23 PM on August 1, 2008

The best Westerberg I have heard in ages. Easily worth a dollar!
posted by vronsky at 9:00 PM on August 1, 2008

On a scale from 1-10, how dumb am I for not being able to figure out how to actually purchase and download this track?
posted by bdk3clash at 10:44 AM on August 2, 2008

I'm in the US, and the track says "Not Available". Was this a limited time offer?
posted by one.louder.ash! at 3:37 PM on August 2, 2008

but still not enough to make me forgive Westerberg for the sin of cutting Bob Stinson loose after Tim

Eh, Bob was pretty much incapable of playing at the time. I certainly see your point though.
posted by bardic at 4:01 PM on August 2, 2008

The link posted by jodic for non-US folk points me back to Amazon, which tells me it isn't available.
Even at 49c for an album, if it is a bunch of rigamarole to buy it, the record companies will lose the sale to bitorrent. Why must they make it sooo hard!
posted by bystander at 9:31 PM on August 3, 2008

This gets better with every listen :)
posted by vronsky at 7:29 PM on August 5, 2008

From Outlaw Blues: "Paul's previous digital only release "49:00" has been pulled, and something called "5:05" has appeared through Tune Vault"
posted by Sailormom at 10:51 AM on August 9, 2008

43:55 + 5:05 = 49:00

Oh, now I get it!
posted by BitterOldPunk at 5:32 PM on August 9, 2008