Is This What We Want? is an unusual protest album. It has been released by 1,000 UK Artists, a colossal supergroup comprising more than 1,000 UK artists (and some non-British ones). Participants include Kate Bush, Annie Lennox, Damon Albarn and Hans Zimmer. They are fighting the UK government’s proposal to alter copyright law in order to help tech companies train generative AI programmes.

The project has been organised by Ed Newton-Rex, a dissident AI music entrepreneur. Its target is data-mining by AI models as they learn how to make music. 1,000 UK Artists claim that their rights will be trampled if the government proceeds with its plans.

Each of the 12 tracks has a one-word title, together forming an acrostic alert: “The British Government Must Not Legalise Music Theft To Benefit AI Companies”. We steel ourselves for the angry strumming of multiple guitars as Bush and Albarn wail, and Zimmer furiously waves his conductor’s baton as if swatting wasps. But what we encounter instead is silence. Or rather, near silence.