Q: Are labels just leaking things intentionally now? (or: How did the Fiery Furnaces' "Widow City" leak already?)

A: On Tuesday, the Fiery Furnaces revealed the tracklist of their forthcoming Widow City, due Oct. 9th from Thrill Jockey, to Pitchfork Media. And now Calico Jak tells me, two days later, the album leaked already. It's very exciting and everything, but WTF?

I would already find it hard to believe the timing here was coincidental — but it's not even the first time this year the exact same thing happened (tracklist released to Pitchfork, followed immediately by album leak). It also happened with [insert band name(s) here when I have time to look it up cuz I forget].

UPDATE BECAUSE OH I REMEMBERED ONE: the Yeah Yeah Yeahs EP' Is Is, which leaked literally the day after it was first announced (on Pitchfork). I swear there were others, but maybe I'm making things up. Anyway, update forthcoming, in which I turn out to be probably wrong about everything. -- 4:45PM

It could just be that the albums are leaking immediately after bands finalize the tracklists or the mastering process or whatever — e.g., maybe Widow City didn't technically exist until this week (it was recorded in Jan.-Feb.). But I do kind of wonder — if you know your band's album is going to leak eventually anyway (and it will), why not at least try to steer the buzz that's sure to follow?

The Fiery Furnaces: Striking while the iron's hot?

I wondered the same thing back when Voxtrot's debut LP leaked, directly prior to the band's high-profile sets at SXSW. (Are you there, Ramesh? It's me, t.a.m.s.y.)

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Indie bands, and perhaps even their labels, seem to be coming around to the idea that leaks might not be so bad for business. Just this week, Stars very openly "leaked" Into the Bedroom After the War via purchasable (but delightfully DRM-free) mp3s. And a couple weeks ago, Noah Lennox (a.k.a. Panda Bear) said in a Shoutmouth interview that he was "was psyched about the fact that [Person Pitch] leaked, that it was an Internet album."

The leak did amazing things for the album. The album has sold pretty well and I don’t think it would’ve…I was hoping that it would do a little bit better than Young Prayer and in the first two weeks it has sold more than Young Prayer had. So, I feel like the leak really helped out in that respect.

I should say, though, that Animal Collective is more my job, and I don’t mean that in a bad way. That’s more where my focus is, musically speaking. So this was just like…I had a really good time doing it. At first I would give live copies of my shows to my friends and people I had a lot of respect for as musicians. So, it was all about wanting people to hear the music. That’s another reason I was psyched on the leak. I was like, “The more people that want to listen to it, the better.” And it still sold pretty well, so I can’t complain about it.

New Pornographers' frontman Carl Newman joked about leak culture in an interview circa January, saying of the then-unfinished Challengers, "We're shooting for an end of August release, which means we'll have to get it completed by the end of April so that it can leak the first week of May."

(On the other hand, Matador Records, the band's label, was reportedly much less happy-go-lucky about Challengers leak. And our friends at Touch and Go were less than psyched about the Ted Leo leak in February.)

Another thing: If the Widow City leak were premeditated, would it have been put out there so many weeks prior to the actual release date? I don't know much about marketing, but my guess here is: Not so much.

So what's the deal? Anyone know anything?

Also, could someone at Thrill Jockey at least give me permission to say that, on first listen, Widow City is totally excellent and surpasses my already high expectations?

EARLIER: Is the new New Pornos' the album of the year?