These days the Internet means you don't even have to wait for a record to be cut, pressed and delivered if you want to rush-release something. Just get it on tape, into the computer (assuming you don't just record straight into the computer and bypass the tape stage entirely), turned into an mp3 and posted to a server. You can have it on the Net within minutes of recording it, in theory, and people can hear it almost as soon as it's done. No need to wait for records to be made and shipped out to radio and shops.

With the outbreak of war in Iraq we've seen a few performers take advantage of technology in the past couple of weeks to rush-release songs protesting the current world situation. This evening I took it upon myself to listen to five of them. There are others more capable than I of loudly complaining about the politics involved, so I'll let them do that if they feel so inclined. I'm more interested in them as songs... although unfortunately on that count the news isn't entirely good.

Bottom of the pile by some distance is The Beastie Boys' "In A World Gone Mad". Let's be honest, it's just a complete bore. Even if I liked the band in the first place and had some tolerance for the whiny voices, there's still nothing much going on here to interest me; preachy lyrics, fairly unvarying arrangement. No reason to get "hysterica" indeed. Not much better is Billy Bragg with "The Price Of Oil". This time there's a tune but it's a bit of a yawner; and though Bragg has some good points to make, the lyrics he couches his points in tend to the trite end of the spectrum. It's not exactly "Waiting For The Great Leap Forward".

Billie Joe Armstrong from Green Day has a solo acoustic version of a song called "Life During Wartime" he did in another band some years ago. Not bad, actually, it has the decency to be brief and the lyrics are quite good... it's just Billie Joe himself I have reservations about. A pop-punk musician being mature and serious with an acoustic guitar isn't always a pretty sight. Still, he doesn't disgrace himself. It'll do.

Oddly enough, John Mellencamp's "To Washington" wasn't too bad either. I didn't fancy the look of the lyrics on the website, nor the description of his new album as "folk", and the song itself is, well, folky. But, casting prejudice and fear aside, it has to be said it's not bad at all. Bounces along nicely and inoffensively.

Best of the bunch by far is Zack de la Rocha and DJ Shadow's "March of Death". This one really has it, being driven by a sense of righteous anger which is harnessed just rightly into a combination of neat wordplay and downright evil noise (that fuzz bass and the scratching in particular). Never used to like RATM that much (my favourite track of theirs, apart from "Killing In The Name Of", was their version of Springsteen's "Ghost Of Tom Joad"), but Zack is undeniably on the money this time. Out of all this crop, "March of Death" is the song that so far bears the most repeat listens. Billy and the Beasties, however, I suspect I can live without hearing theirs again.