Yeah well John, like you say, you can't complain if people don't like the album or bits of the album. I don't know about anyone else, but it gave me no pleasure at all to be finding fault with it. When I heard it for the first time, I was so excited I nearly wet my pants. I get so much stick from people for liking this band that I was desperate for it to be a fucking masterpiece that would leaving them looking stupid. It's nothing to do with trying to protect the legacy of Sinister and Tigermilk. Hell, Tigermilk is probably only my third favourite of the albums. So I listened on, knowing that it wouldn't sink in properly for a while, thrilling at parts of it and scratching my head at others. And I listened again and again and I came to the decision that there are certain things about it that are never going to do anything but disappoint me. I know what you mean about the release seeming a bit of an anti-climax on Sinister. Blame it on advance copies and Napster, maybe. I dunno. Although actually the first two days of posts were mainly uncritical and excited, I reckon. When I posted mine, I few people emailed me to say 'oh, so it's not just me then', the implication being that the general vibe on the list was as enthusiastic as you would have wished.

I'd love to be able to gush about it and to make you all feel good. But I can't. I know my limitations.

Exactly. It's just harder to articulate excitement and what's great about music than it is to describe faults. I don't know much about fanzine writing, but if there's anyone out there who can enthuse about the album in the way like John wants, please start writing. I don't even know if your comments were aimed at me, but if they were then it's weird cause there's so much on the album that I love, and I thought I made that clear. 'I Fought In A War', 'The Model', 'Don't Leave The Light On Baby' and 'There's Too Much Love' are all *dizzingly* great; among the finest things they've ever recorded. Funnily enough, the last three are the ones the band themselves picked out at the press conference. Of course, everyone has their favourite tracks, and it's not good enough just to criticise the rest of the tracks for not being them. It's just there are some things (a *really* duff track, OTT orchestration and lapses of taste) that just grate too much for me to be able to take the album to my heart like I want to. OK, if the balanve needs redressing the balance a bit, here are few visceral thrills that Belle & Sebastian have given me recently: When the organ kicks after the false ending of 'Don't Leave The Light On Baby' and I start to understand why Mogwai think they can move me without words and then the devastating harmonies come in and I'm reminded why they can't. When Stevie pops in once a verse on 'The Model' and Stuart sounds so keen to sing the next line he almost interrupts him. When Stuart sings "And I reminded myself of the words you said, when we were getting on". Just becuase it's an impossibly sad line. Clean your ears out Casarotto. When Stevie's guitar goes 'downg downg downg' in the middle of 'The Wrong Girl' When Stuart sings 'It's safer not to look around' on 'There's Too Much Love' and the strings do some kind of progression (wrong word I expect, I know nothing) that lends the line such pathos I just want to drop to the floor and cry for my mother. And then when when he sings "With my face head down just staring at the brown for-mi-i-ca" it's just as bad. Oh, fuck it, the whole song. Will that do? N. x +----------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ 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 +-+ +----------------------------------------------------------------------+