so yes. hello. been a while from me...but since th' album came out officially today (even though, as someone mentioned, its been available in toronto since thrusday) i thought i'd go on and on about it. <and on> so yes. um...ok...here's the problem with the new record....i feel it is missing magic. thats it. um, and no i don't hate any of it except for beyond the sunrise, its not really the songs themselves that are the problem. i put the record on and bop about and make breakfast and do things while listening to it and i feel good like you should when music is good to bop around to. so the record feels good but not *good*. is that making sense? but the first time i heard belle and sebastian it was after my friend liane hyped them up to me (this was right after arab strap came out) and i went to the record store and put both their records on the counter (iyfs cost a whopping 25 dollars!) and asked to listen to them. from the first bars of IYFS i had a big smile on my face and felt very good. thinking that it was too good to be true i tracked through the whole thing and really regretted not having lots of money. the same thing happened with Arab strap, so i bought that for a relatively light 16 dollars and went home happy. this time i put on the new record expecting the now customary instant 3 bar smile and then nothing....piffle. snort. plech. second song... umm not yet no...no magic. ouch. so maybe i've changed. maybe i'm not the person i was. maybe prolonged exposure to previous belle and sebastian records or blonde redhead has altered me beyond the magic zone of the new record. who knows. its just not working instantly like i feel belle and sebastian records should (and have up till now). so i am the voice of dissent. the one guy in the choir who sings off tune, but hey. its just not that special. its really good, but its not *special*. or at least i don't feel that it is. also i get a massive scott walker vibe off this record. much more so that their previous record. something about the unsubstantiated drama of all the string hits going "da-da!" in the middle of songs, where previously they just sort of ambled about langourously. it rubs me a bit the wrong way. it just reeks of scott 4. can't you even hear scott belting out "I FOUGHT IN A WAAAAAAAAAARRRRR" with his insane overwrought vibrato going on and everything. although, thankfully the scott walker infulence hasn't resulted in them writting songs about bergman films. gawd. the last thing we need is a b&s concept album based on 'persona'. or an isobel song about the passion of anna where she sings about all the dead animals. humph. s t e v e n k a d o +----------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ 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 +-+ +----------------------------------------------------------------------+