Sinister: its just my opinion, and, what do i know...
Hey sinister, Robin Stout cast the first dare/ stone: I think people should start sending in reviews of the new album. Go on, it's not long till it's released.. The new album huh? I think I'm going to make myself unpopular here, and say I don't like DCW. A few points to note: I'm not looking for Tigermilk part 5. This has been suggested, and I think it is a bit lame for anyone to dismiss my opinion by suggesting that's why I don't like it. It seems to be a natural assumption that not liking the latest album means that you want old skool B&S back. Not true. I understand that music moves on, I just don't like this chosen route. Not once have I reminiced and wanted Tigermilk or IYFS or TBWTAS back. I loved those for what they were. I think there have been much better albums released of late. The argument that "don't compare it to their previous work, compare it to what else is around" doesn't really wash when you have bands around like the Aislers Set and Camera Obscura, who can release an album that I think, is pretty bloody good. I just can't get into the new album at all. To me, it sounds like all the half-arsed ideas that never made it onto the previous B&S releases have been shown the light of day, and released, and this isn't a reference to Lord Anthony, which I am not keen on. I fail to find anything remotely genius about "I'm a Cuckoo". I can imagine Stuart, sitting with notebook in hand on a park bench in Glasgow, pondering to himself... "cuckoo.. What ryhmes with cuckoo? poo, loo, mew, queue, two, too, dew, due, new, flu... thin-lizzy-oh..! yes! Thin Lizzy Oh! Torquay-oh! that'll do!" The lyrics, in my opinion, are weak. I don't like them. They used to write with sharpened wit, with intelligence. The innuendo used to be so much more subtle, and I enjoyed that. Yes, I am slightly talking about old-skool B&S, but it's not just old B&S that gave me that kick - it's something I find fundemental to my enjoyment of a song, be it B&S or any band that I listen to regularly. I'm hard to please, I know. There isn't anything that really catches my attention with the new album. I like Piazza, New York Catcher. The sort of albums I enjoy though tend to have more than one or two good songs. A good album, for me, is one that has several good songs, and perhaps a small minority of crap ones. I think the latest album is a little too sugary, a little overbaked, and a little egotisical. The songs , in my opinion, feel effortless, but rather than being casual and organic, they feel more like there has no interest at challenging their ablities to create a good song. It's a lazy album, as if half a dozen ideas have been randomly thrown into the album, and nobody bothered to think about it or listen. In an interview*, the link of which was recently posted by Richard Lander, Stuart said "I just got this image in my mind of a cake, of writing songs being like baking a cake. The autobiographical part of things is like the flour, and the romance side of things and the fantasy part are like the sugar and eggs." If that is the case, then this surely, has to be a fairy cake - too much sugar, too much colour and too many preservatives. It's rather too sickly to listen to more than a few times, too saccharine. I think it sounds... I dunno.. A little childish, a little infantile with the lyrics, and a little sugary with the over production. Its been completely over baked. There. Hate me. Love idles x ===== http://groups.yahoo.com/group/corduroysmoke/ starting playground gossip and passing notes __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? The New Yahoo! Shopping - with improved product search http://shopping.yahoo.com +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ Brought to you by the 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 +-+ "sinsietr is a bit freaky" - stuart david, looper +-+ +-+ "legion of bedroom saddo devotees" "peculiarly deranged fanbase" +-+ +-+ "pasty-faced vegan geeks... and we LOST!" - NME April 2000 +-+ +-+ "frighteningly named Sinister List organisation" - NME May 2000 +-+ +-+ "sick posse of f**ked in the head psycho-fans" - NME June 2001 +-+ +-+ Nee, nee mun pish, chan pai dee kwa +-+ +-+ Snipp snapp snut, sa var sagan slut! +-+ +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+
My head is fried from a too long day in school doing far too many things so apologies if this post makes even less sense than old posts of yore... Erm, first of all a big hurrah! for Katrina for the posters that are even as I write brightening up my classroom wall. Not that anyone can see them at the moment except maybe the caretaker making his evening rounds to make sure all the pesky students really have gone home and none are camped out in front of the rooms eager for an early start in the morning. Ahem. Yes. The poster for the album is cool, but I think more of the kids ought to have asked me what it's all about. So far no-one has said 'what is a belle and sebastian?' and nodded sideways at the wall with a confused look on their face, and that's a bit of a shame. Maybe they all know what one is and realise that therefore I am a sad old git. Perhaps. Or maybe they really do have no taste. They still wear Blink 182 hoodies round these parts you know. Sad, but desperately true. That was the first thing. Second thing is that Keith Watson clearly has as little taste as ever and that the past five years has taught him nothing... Thinking that Tracey Thorn's 'a distant shore' is shite is akin to saying the world is still flat. Which it clearly isn't. I don¹t think. But maybe I'm wrong. Maybe a scientist can help us out here. Oh, and keith, go buy the Marine Girls albums and the solo Ben Watt from the same era. You'll love 'em. No, really, you will... And the eight quid's in the post. No, really, it is... Thirdly thing would be that, ah, I wish that it really were 'torquay oh' and not 'tokyo' in 'cuckoo'... Like how I wish it was 'down in oakhampton' and not 'down in old compton' in 'arab strap'. Oh well. More South West of England references needed in songs that arent by the Wurzles or by ropey tin whistle wielding hippy twats with beards and / or tie-dyed dressed. And rainbow coloured guitar straps... (shivers at the thought) And I love that there is that chessy 'rhyming' thing going on there. It's funny. I think I said it before, but it's certainly worth repeating: I think this album sounds like the band are having a lot of fun, and that's something we ought not to underestimate the importance of in Pop. Or maybe it's just me. I mean, not that all records need to be gung ho jolly jaunts, but you know... I was having a discussion on the way home from school today about art, and I was saying how in general a lot of artists in a variety of media make work which is about 'dark' or melancholic themes, and that it's a lot easier to do that than to capture the idea of fun (this is why most of my own stuff is kind of world weary - I'm just too lazy to try anything different or more challenging). When people do 'happy' it tends as often as not to be clichéd and shit and shallow... Personally I think B&S have made an upbeat album that sounds magnificent, and carries the feeling of joy whilst being underpinned with some challenging ideas and lyrics. I just think it's a genius record; their best yet, and by a fair margin. Which is something I never thought I'd say. I mean, I really had given up the ghost, was all ready to slate this record... But I can't. As Sethe would say it is L.O.V.E. Love lovely Lovvvveleeeeeeeee. Or something. I'm sure there were other things, like a fourthly and fifthly and such like, but I'm aware I've wittered long enough and really ought to bugger off now. Besides which I have a film to finish for tomorrow... Argh! Oh, and I think that B&S ought to come and play a show in my school assembly hall. They could play 'we rule the school' and 'lord anthony' and it would be a gas. Peace The Duke www.tangents.co.uk the home of unpopular culture PO box 102 . Exeter . ex4 6yz . UK +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ Brought to you by the 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 +-+ "sinsietr is a bit freaky" - stuart david, looper +-+ +-+ "legion of bedroom saddo devotees" "peculiarly deranged fanbase" +-+ +-+ "pasty-faced vegan geeks... and we LOST!" - NME April 2000 +-+ +-+ "frighteningly named Sinister List organisation" - NME May 2000 +-+ +-+ "sick posse of f**ked in the head psycho-fans" - NME June 2001 +-+ +-+ Nee, nee mun pish, chan pai dee kwa +-+ +-+ Snipp snapp snut, sa var sagan slut! +-+ +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+
participants (2)
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duke of harringay -
idleberry