Rich has a nice consideration of the new Janet here, about which I have one probably unfair quibble:

When I write about music, I spend a lot of time talking about context, even though I’m sure this gets on the nerves of get-to-the-music-already purists.

This is taken out of context--the line is a starting point, not an end in itself--but I'm saddened that Rich even acknowledges those schmucks, much less gives them any credence whatsoever. The entire point of writing about music is, or should be, to provide context, and that doesn't change just because some bedwetter with a DSL line and too much time on his hands (it's a his, usually) believes thinking and/or looking around for music instead of having it handed to your right-clicking fingertips and/or some combination thereof somehow equals inconvenience and therefore panics. (See the first responder to this question for an all-too-typical example.)

What music writing needs right now isn't necessarily more bite-sized whatever, whoever is writing it (that includes me, obviously), though if you can say a lot in a little space, more power to you. What we need more of is precisely the sort of thing Rich does better than just about anybody around right now. We need less get-to-the-music-already--there's too much music as it is, and getting to it is beside the point. We need more people who know that deep, expansive thinking only enhances music, and--unless you're a complete moron--never diminishes it.