Well, as I usually do, I have to agree with Nick (who despite his apologies is always a pleasure to read) when he says: I'm just with the Dossinger boy in detecting a current of 60s pastiche that I don't ultimately think brings out the best in the band. Where do I detect this current? Well, on the basis of some of the new songs that I have heard live (not all of them making it to the album) and other people's descriptions of 'Legal Man' and some of the tracks on the album. It was 'Dirty Dream Number Two' that first got me worried. A favourite of many, I know, but for me the first time I heard it was the the time it sounded best, unlike other tracks which grew and grew on repeated listening. There's something about pastiche that precludes a song really mattering, having a life of its own. Now I know this could all be idle speculation, and the album might not be one big 60s fest, or it might confound my prejudices and *be* a 60s fest and still wonderful, but I was just wanting Reid to know that he wasn't the only one with slight worries. The pastiche quality to the band's later work which may simply be a result of the democratization of the songwriting process -- and not just simply sharing lyrical composition, but the assumption that working so long in the studio on this album suggests that the band is constructing the music more as a group rather than simply taking songs that Stuart had written over the period of a few years and following his direction/instruction (or are repeatedly second-guessing themselves). Even the rave-ups on "Arab Strap" are newer compositions than, say, the more ethereal "Simple Things" or "Sleep the Clock Around," which -- if I'm not mistaken -- dated back a few years before their official release. Based on the unreleased songs and descriptions of the new ones, Stevie's fingerprints seem to be more pronounced -- and he does seem to be the archtypical rocker of the group. Exactly why this results in covers of Northern Soul songs such as "Landslide" I don't know. That said, I agree with Nick that this doesn't bring out the "best of the band," which is arguably the sensibility of Stuart's lyrics, but his (stuart's, not nick's) -- for the lack of better words -- disaffected, winsome outlook on the world *was* likely to be altered when he went from writing songs for himself on a four-track to doing so in the glare of the public with the knowledge that they would be recorded and released. The relative innocence of the band's early work, when they didn't expect to reach an audience of any size, frankly can't be duplicated now. Otherwise, they may be guilty of karaokeing themselves. On a more personal, wank-off note (which it could be argued that every post is), I risked damaging the list's good name by dubbing my fantasy Major League Soccer team Sinister FC, but after the first week of thrilling First Division American soccer action our list's namesake sits in first place out of the 2,400 or so participants -- and all this without being able to afford to purchase the Chicago Fire's two-goal hero Hristo Stoichkov. Strange how an aged legend can have his career resurrected playing against a bunch of former American college boys, eh? Have a lovely weekend, scott. +----------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ 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 +-+ +----------------------------------------------------------------------+