Well, this has been on my mind for a bit now and prompted by the rash of album reviews on Sinister I thought I might as well speak my mind... Bascially my first problem with the various assessments of the new album is that they almost all look back at the previous 3 with the proverbial rose tinted spectacles. They seem to ignore the fact that neither Tigermilk, Sinister or Arab Strap are flawless. Just think about Electronic Renaissance, You're just a Baby, Me and the Major,and Chickfactor. Good songs, yes. Great songs, no. (insert counter-arguments here). The songs on Fold your Hands are easily up there with anything on any other release and it is a far more cogent, cohesive album than Arab Strap. It is far from flawless but maybe that's part of the beauty. Whatever, take off the rose tinted specs. My second thought is vaguely linked to that: For most listees I imagine that all of B&S' previous releases have some kind of context. They remind people of summer/winter/great parties/breaking up with people/being young/falling in love/falling down stairs etc etc. I doubt that Fold Your Hands can have any context at all for anyone. No one can really have had a copy for more than 2 months or so (I ahve had it for a bout 6 weeks).That's why for some of you, some of the songs dissapoint or sound less good than you expected- they don't remind you of any emotion. You are listening to it cold with no point of reference. Looking back on IYFS all the songs remind me times/people and therefore I judge the songs within the context I think of them in and I think that's the way music should be judged. Not necessarily how it sounds but how it makes you feel. Wait 6 months and then post a review. If I had the guts I would say here "Music should come from the heart, not from the head". However that sentance makes me want to be sick. It sounds as if it came from a rockumentary on Kenny G or soemthing. Paul ________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com +----------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ Brought to you by the undead Sinister mailing list +---+ To send to the list mail sinister@missprint.org. To unsubscribe send "unsubscribe sinister" or "unsubscribe sinister-digest" to majordomo@missprint.org. WWW: http://www.missprint.org/sinister +-+ "legion of bedroom saddo devotees" "tech-heads and students" +-+ +-+ "the cardie wearing biscuit nibbling belle & sebastian list" +-+ +-+ "sinsietr is a bit freaky" - stuart david, looper +-+ +-+ "pasty-faced vegan geeks... and we LOST!" - NME April 2000 +-+ +-+ "peculiarly deranged fanbase" "frighteningly named +-+ +-+ Sinister List organisation" - NME May 2000 +-+ +----------------------------------------------------------------------+