All of the songs are on Youtube, and you also can view them on a dedicated site. As an artistic and marketing exercise, I think it’s a triumph. Apart from Beirut, there’s a whole bunch of other American music I’m discovering at the moment that I’m loving but I’ll save that enthusiasm for future posts.

Beirut albums are available on emusic.

In other news Laura Barton, the BBC’s director of pop music, writes in the Guardian and wonders if men are from The Mars Volta and women are from Venus and the Razorblades: does gender affect the way you relate to music? I think it’s a pile of rubbish. So does Lesley Douglas.

From the geopolitics desk, Diana Johnstone at Electric Politics deconstructs the independence of Kosovo and describes how the West has again rushed in where angels fear to tread.

And finally, if you ever get tired of Guitar Hero on Playstation, try the Berlin Philharmonic’s Cello Challenge. Pure genius (thanks to klari in Paris for the link).

I’m off travelling for week to stick RFID tags on teddy bears and look at space rockets. Back later.