Uncool. Waaay uncool. 1. Can't you freakin' wait for the album? Less than a month already. Jumpin jesus on a pogo stick. a. Not considering the sound quality of your computer, and also noting that I *love* to hear new, rare, music on my computer; the sound quality of most mp3s and such suck. a.5. So, what referance points do you have for how the album should sound? If one is expecting an artist to produce 5 albums that are indecipherable from each other; go buy New Order or the S Club 7s. Incedentally, I'm a huge New Order fan, I like the similarities. When the variability in tone, melody, etc. is not that variable, all the subtleties and buried melodies jump out to reveal a more sublime experience of sound. Myself, I can't see much differance in the three previous albums; they're all a bunch of wildly opposite parts put together. Differant is not the question: goodness is. The songs don't sound the same. a.5. But I digress. b. That's not fair play. IMHO, downloading readily or almost readily available songs etc. from napster is i. not fair to the artist who you like enough to download, and would assumably thus support. Assuming they're not metallica; but that's a whole nother story. I guess case by case consideration should be made. In the internet age, there are reasons why new albums still have realase dates other than lawyers and advertising departments. The joy of getting a record you've waited for on the first available date. Not who hunts high and low enough. ii. the reason why napster and the like will be removed from popular culture, thus giving a lot more music power to commercial radio stations/sites and mall record stores. c. I know the Belles are not infallible perfect, whatever, musically or in any other way; so what I'm saying here is that yes, anyone can make a baaaad album. In the new album and here, i'm not interested in aural masterbation. Discussion and praise are not nessacarily masturbation. And no, I'm not giving any examples of this point, cos: i. I haven't heard the album. ii. I'm pissed off about the theory of the whole thing; I could give a rat's ass if someone doen't like a record. It's not the dislike factor, it's the way of going about it. ii.2. Fucking Dogmatic. iii. My examples are based on opinion rather than mucical notes. d. Do you have to *bitch* about it here. You sound like Rolling frickin' Stone Magazine. e. If you expect the worst from an album, you'll get it. e.2. I expect nothing other than a new album by a band a really dig. f. Listening and *hearing* are two different things. f.2. Change is *good*. f.3. Growth is *good*. f.4. Complacency and stagnation are *bad*. g. Unless you like only a narrow spectrum of music; intent must be taken into account on contemporary rock and roll music. Lo-Fi is cool. Why do you think that demos are sought after? Same with all those kids playing their geetars out of tune? Why do you think MTV unplugged was so popular? g.2. Re: Isobel's singing: see above, lo-fi is cool. Don't you think that mix was deliberate? g.3. I loved the Wrong Girl on all the live stuff. h. The first time I heard some of my favorite albums, I was *not* impressed to say the least. And I had either already bought them or somehow heard them again and again. i. Just cos you like it, doen't mean it's not any good. i.2. Just cos it's demanding doesn't mean it's no good. See above listening vs. hearing: Listen to a record a few times on your headphones. By working with it, youll be returned with a richer sound. j. This argument is unfocused and possibly contradictive; just trying to keep the thoughts in a legible format. k. I can defend all of what I have ranted about, but it's getting late and I must get up for work at the crack of dawn. Literally. l. I really just wanted to say go fuck off then. But that would have been unfocused, rude, and without backup. m. Just don't be that guy taking up space at the shows grooving to only the songs from the first album, then bitching about the new songs amd how they sold out after the first album in a jaded manner.It's just not cool anymore. n. If I can collect my thoughts, more possibly focused rants to come. XXOO, Vilkas,who is non sarcastically really enjoying the remix of Pure Shores on internet radio beat106. This may blow the whole of my argument out the water for some of you. If you've read it at all. If you've read this far: Reader Beware: Disjointed music theory lies here, further clouded by aggravation. Then again ,this disclaimer may be humility. or cockiness disguised as humility. >:) +----------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ 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. 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