Has Maxim actually heard any album it reviews?

After yesterday's discovery that Maxim had given 2.5 to an album by the Black Crowes, Nas is now saying that his album has also been given the same score despite not being finished yet, either.

Spinner says Nas "chewed out" the magazine, but really he just shrugged:

"I'm finishing the album now, and it will be out April 22," Nas told the New York Post's Page Six. "I'd prefer [a review from] Playboy," Nas said. "That kind of stuff doesn't reach my radar or effect anybody around me. I don't know what a music rating from Maxim is ... I don't know what it even means really."

Should we have a little sympathy for Maxim? It's being caught in the crunch as labels bring the turnaround to get albums into stores faster than ever, to avoid leaks, and the monthly magazines' lead times. The monthly titles are going to have to rethink how they review albums in the future - when albums hit the iTunes store almost as soon as the microphones are switched off, it's getting harder and harder for them to listen to the records to have reviews published for the release dates.

The answer might be to concentrate on longer, more considered pieces which might come two or three weeks after the album has been in the shops, rather than scrabbling to get some made-up number into the pages as soon as possible. It certainly would be lead to less awkward moments.