[review 2005: the best of the year]

Internet marketing, whether intentional or unplanned, has already produced its share of runaway hits. Entire trees have been felled so that newspapers and magazines could gaze in starry-eyed wonder at Broken Social Scene’s journey to the heavens, propelled on the rocket fuel of Pitchfork praise. There’s that whole Crazy Frog thing, which could never have happened without the internet’s ability to serve cheap ringtones to thousands of cellphones at any time or any place. And then there’s the story of Wilco and Fiona Apple, who both managed to leverage internet support to get their leaked albums released for real—a tactic that worked so well for Wilco that even today, people wonder if it wasn’t all part of some master plan by Warner (whose subsidiary, Nonesuch, eventually released Yankee Hotel Foxtrot).

But if you’re trying to spread the word about your album, there’s nothing better than putting the whole thing on the internet, free of charge and for anyone to download. It’s a trick that Toronto singer/songwriter Tamara Williamson tried a couple of years back; she wrote back then that selling records didn’t matter that much to her, since she made more money as a gardener anyways. Imagine if she’d just waited a few years and put some effort into getting the word out; she could’ve been Monika Bullette. As The Smudge of Ashen Fluff put it, “Monika Bullette has been hunting down all the mp3 blogs and sending them e-mail messages. She’s almost as efficient as EMI.” Here’s a hint to all you starving musicians hoping to use The Internet as a promotion medium: greeting the person you’re emailing by name does wonders. It worked for Bullette, and it can work for you too.

But I’ve said too much about Bullette’s can-do spirit and unusually successful internet campaign. What about her music? The best thing about writing about Bullette is that she’s got a hook (the internet promotion) and she’s got the goods to boot. The Secrets is deliciously ramshackle, seemingly the product of an eccentric musical genius with a large record collection and a penchant for improvisation. Whether it’s the retro garage of “Show Me,” the winsome guitar pop of “What Love Can Do Without” or the eerie industrial dirge of “Uneasy,” Bullette demonstrates a solid grasp of a wide variety of genres. The Secrets never sounds like more than the sum of its parts because the parts are so disparate, but for once this is a forgivable sin; there isn’t a single song on the album that isn’t a great listen. But don’t take my word for it; like I said before, the entire album can be yours for the taking. And just like Tamara Williamson’s internet release, if you end up buying The Secrets, it comes with a pretty hand-crafted cover. How can you lose?