Anya Fires BackIn last week’s issue of the Mass Media, in house music zealot Ben Walsh did a less than flattering review of singer/songwriter Anya Singleton’s newest release entitled The Other Side. Ms. Singleton, in what is actually a refreshing change of pace, contacted us herself to legitimately call us out and set the record straight. Here’s what the artist had to say.

“I never write reviewers directly – usually I leave that squarely in the hands of my publicist, but I had to respond after I just checked out your review of my latest CD “The Other Side.” While of course you are entitled to your opinion, I just have to clarify with you that I was directly involved in every aspect of creating the album. I wrote each tune – having co-writers means that you work collaboratively, not that they write the tunes for you. I wrote about 95% of the lyrics and 90% of the music. Additionally, the variety you liked about the tunes was all my writing musically, and while my producer enhanced it, we had months of working together to make sure that he achieved exactly what I wanted, which was a stripped down sound – we actually recorded to 2 inch tape to get the best warm live instrument sounds, which I was highly specific about. The reality is that it is tempting to go the “norm” route of over-producing the record and succumb to the temptation of over-singing, but I chose to keep things clean and simple to let the lyrics stand-out. It took me a long time to find a producer who was willing to go along with me on that. That is akin to you writing an article and someone else saying that they felt you didn’t write it. As a side-note, since I am not Aretha Franklin, that definitely wasn’t what I was aiming for; I am just myself, and this is what I do. Those comparisons were made by other reviewers.Thanks very much,Anya Singleton”

“UMB Employee Sees crack in Maintenance Policy After On-campus Accident” (10/20)

While I know this is a harsh time for the victim and that this is an unfortunate accident, I wouldn’t place the blame on UMB. Since the first week of classes I’ve seen the workers on campus constantly pouring cement to replace broken tiles. I saw one this morning, as well. The fact is everything can’t be fixed overnight; accidents happen.