*Sigh* So many happy kids around. Me the grump. My flatmate's commentary last night: The single goes on - "This doesn't sound like Belle & Sebastian" 'Judy is a Dick Slap' starts - "Get your motor running / Head off to the highway' The CD spins to a halt - "Well, it doesn't make me want to put it on again and again, like they usually do". No, it doesn't. After the second listen I just couldn't find the will to put it on again. Listened to 'Sound Affects' instead. Then I copied it onto the end of a minidisc and planned to listen to it in bed. But I just got more and more wrapped up in 'The Virgin Suicides' and really didn't want to spoil things. I'm becoming more and more obsessed with that album. Try reading the novel with it on your headphones. Yes, 'Legal Man' is different. There's sod-all personality in it that I can find. I wouldn't fall in love with this band on the basis of this single. Retro retro retro. It's them listening to Andy Symington or whoever's records and pretending they're just loosening up and having a laugh when it's really the most studied thing they've ever done. Bollocks to it. It *is* the bloody Boo Radleys doing 'Wake Up Boo'. I was actually looking forward most to 'Winter Wooskie'. But blow me if they haven't cocked that up with a plodding chugga-chugga beat in place of the flow of the live version. The limitations of Stuart D's voice are painfully exposed too. This is just one single. It's not a reliable indication of the band's future direction. But for the first time, I feel like I've bought a record of theirs because it's a Belle & Sebastian single and not because I really want to own it for itself. And that makes me sad. Nick xx +----------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ 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 +-+ +----------------------------------------------------------------------+