This just in: old men should not listen to the Neptunes.

As I get older, I prefer it when aging musicians stick to what they know: De La Soul and Van Morrison and Kate Bush and the Go-Betweens working out their kinks, Thomas Hardy composing one more versified variation on the sophomoric fatalism to which he clung as others cling to God and King, like that. No doubt it's not as adventurous as checking out what the kids are listening to, but then you get Earthling (which, hey, I once defended), that Pat Boone thing, and every Joni Mitchell album of the last 25 years.

On his latest John Cale jumps off a building and goes splat. Well, Justin disagrees. But we're more fun to read than Black Acetate is to listen to.