Sinister: i am the lemon. you will crush me and make lemonade.

[Steven Kado]

    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

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