The best record of 2009* is being released on a blank CD.

So, the previously reported  Sparklehorse/ Danger Mouse/ David Lynch collaboration, 'Dark Night Of The Soul', featuring a galaxy of guest stars, has finally emerged.

And it's streaming in its entirity over at NPR.  And it's absolutely brilliant.  While these collaborative efforts generally amount to somewhat less than the sum of their parts, this project really seems to have brought out the best in everyone involved, and thanks to the skills of Danger Mouse and Mark Linkous, it hangs together really well as a proper studio project, rather than a compilation album.

It's a bit of a shame, then, that EMI aren't allowing the music to be released.  The statement on the Dark Night Of The Soul website states that "due to an ongoing dispute with EMI, Danger Mouse is unable to release the recorded music without fear of being sued by EMI"  but, for fifty of your US Dollars, plus a ridiculous thirty-seven further dollars to ship overseas, you can buy a 100 page book of photographs compiled by David Lynch, which will "now come with a blank, recordable CD-R. All copies will be clearly labelled: 'For legal reasons, enclosed CD-R contains no music. Use it as you will."  110 Australian Dollars for a lavishly packaged blank CD?  hmm.

The legal dispute probably relates to The Grey Album that Danger Mouse illegally released, which mashed the Beatles' White Album up with Jay Z's Black Album.  The audio part of Dark Night Of The Soul is widely available on file sharing sites.  And elsewhere...

Surely this arrangement means that everybody loses out.  EMI really do seem to be trying their very best to destroy themselves at the moment.  

*Well, it's the best one I've heard so far.