About a week ago Neil Young streamed his new protest album Living With War on his website and I enjoyed the early preview enough to want to buy the album. I typically find political songs to be tiresome, but the music is really strong and the lyrics hit their target. Young wanted the album out as quickly as possible, releasing the downloadable version before the CD version. I didn't see it on iTunes till Monday though and not in their new releases till Tuesday. At that point I decided to wait for the CD.

That's where things seem fishy. First of all, BestBuy.com has no record of this album on their site. It is on CircuitCity.com, but not featured at all. Living With War, by the way, is currently the No. 2 album on iTunes and No. 3 on Amazon.com – its not a niche thing. When I went to Circuit City to buy it today, I didn't find it on the new releases rack. I asked a salesperson if they had it and he said its not in new relases and directed me to the Neil Young section, hidden with the rest of the catalog. I wonder whether these big box stores were instructed not to feature the album because of its political content. It seems pretty unusual to me, perhaps that is because of the unusual nature of the release. Let me know if you bought the album and whether you had trouble finding it.