In a move that is expected to significantly reduce the frequency of attempted torch raids on Alec Duffy’s Brooklyn apartment, Sufjan Stevens has released a new single–on the Web, to everyone. It’s a ballad he composed years ago when he was in the throes of a theme kick–songs for each day of the week, each planet in the solar system, et cetera–that never quite subsided.

This one, called “Sofia’s Song,” is a very small banjo tune dedicated to Sofia Coppola, written during a pre-fame phase when Sufjan was feverishly composing songs based on names. You can listen to it here, on the Asthmatic Kitty Web site. The label published it with an essay by Sufjan reflecting on the clumsy ardor and blessed earnesty of his schoolboy days, when he wrote the song. In its simplicity and imperfection, “Sofia’s Song” is–not accidentally–an appropriate companion to this brief biography. And this time, you won’t have to sit awkwardly in some guy’s den to hear it.

Asthmatic Kitty, the indie label home to Sufjan Stevens, Half-handed Cloud, and the Curtains, announced today that it would begin pricing records based on the scores given to them by critics at the music Web site Pitchfork. Ropechain, an album by the band Grampall Jookabox, for example, received a 5.4 (out of a possible 10) from Pitchfork, so for the next 54 hours, says the Asthmatic Kitty Web site, it will be available for $5.40 plus shipping and handling.

The idea, says Asthmatic Kitty Assistant Director Michael Kaufmann, belongs to John Beeler, who manages the label’s Web site. “[W]e anticipated a negative review of the album,” writes Beeler via instant message. “We figured it’d score in somewhere between 5-7.”

“And it dawned on me,” he writes, “that that is also a great sale price point.”

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