I subscribe to three NPR podcasts; Popular Culture, Music, and Science and Medicine. It’s more than I can actually keep up with, because they are generally so interesting that I can’t simply leave them on in the background, as I generally could with Radio 4. So I have to actually listen. Sometimes there’s no time, but just occasionally, they prod me into action. Last week I heard Mavis Staples talking to Ashley Kahn about her new CD “We’ll Never Turn Backâ€. Before even opening office emails, I took a look at iTunes and Metacritic.com and that was all I needed to know. Bam! Down into the iPod. Bam! Straight into some deep, deep region of my midbrain. Bam! A total winner. Bam! Ry Cooder on total, perfect, form. Sheesh. Rating: 
Dion, on the other hand, prompted the same immediate search of iTunes, where I listened to all the samples. They’re good, but maybe not that good. Which may also be why the album “Bronx in Blue†has not yet shown up at Metacritic.