Sinister: careful now

[David Hewitt]

G'day all.

KEN CHU

...came out of the woodwork, and said some stuff about boobs. All is right 
in the world again.

MARK CASAROTTO

...chided me, saying:

"Can Vanilla Flavid Davoured really never have heard T-Rex? Hewitt Minor, go 
and lock yourself in a cupboard with "I'm A Cuckoo" on repeate until the 
spirit of Phil Lynott apparates in front of you and sets fire to your bum."

Yes, sir! (He's harsh, but fair. And devilishly handsome.) Phil Lynott 
didn't appear, but then I wouldn't really know if he did, since I've no idea 
who he is. The only person that appeared was the missus, wanting to know 
what I was doing in the cupboard. I said that it was something to do with 
you, Mark, and she just groaned, knowingly.

You know, I've heard of many of these bands being mentioned around these 
parts recently (T-Rex, Thin Lizzy, 10cc, etc), but I'm not sure I'd be able 
to pick them out of a line-up or anything. I was raised on a strict diet of 
Beatles and Stones (mm, delish!), and when it was time for me to start 
buying records, The Smiths and (gulp!) The Cure were the thing, it being the 
mid-80s and all. There's a big space in between those eras, that's filled 
only with the likes of ELO, Hall and Oates and Barry Manilow, mostly 
courtesy of my mother. Most of the other stuff that was immediately before 
my time is a bit of a mystery to me, I'm afraid. I was under the impression 
that I hadn't missed much, but maybe I'll have to revise that.

I must say, though, that "I'm A Cuckoo" has grown on my considerably over 
the last few days. I think it's the sheer ambition of the thing that 
impresses me now. I might have come to it colder than many of you who 'get' 
the pastiche, but it's actually a pretty swell song in its own right, once 
you get your head around how it sounds. I'll stand by pretty much everything 
else I said in my lengthy and incoherent review on the weekend, except 
perhaps to add that "If She Wants Me" just gets even better, if that's 
possible. "Roy Walker" still stinks, and "Stay Loose" still puzzles. It 
doesn't necessarily annoy, but I don't think it quite beguiles the way it's 
meant to, either. Everything else, I'm pretty pleased with, in the main.

Also, Mark: I can't recommend a game show for you to go on, as I don't 
really know anything about pommy television (except that there doesn't seem 
to be very much of it). I reckon you should definitely go on SOMETHING, 
though - I've seen your pub-quiz skillz first hand, and I reckon you'd do 
just fine. I've been trying to get on "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?" for 
ages, but so far with no success. If I get on, you can be one of my 
'phone-a-friends'. Even if I can't take them for the full million, we'll 
sting 'em with some international call charges, eh?

SAM WALTON

...praised the new record for its audacity. And I guess I'll go along with 
that. I shy away from words like 'best', but this record certainly has its 
place alongside the others. I'd say I like it better than the soundtrack, 
but to say that it's better than the other ones, that've rubbed up against 
various important bits of my life, would be madness at this stage. It's a 
genuinely interesting, challenging, diverse and thoroughly new record, 
though, and an eminently listenable one at that. I don't think that anything 
new I've heard this year can touch it, and what else can you compare it to, 
really? I don't know if I'll figure out its position amongst the other 
albums until the next one's due to come out. It depends on how deeply it 
manages to bore into me, I suppose, and that takes time.

Oh, and I signed your petition, by the way. I also dusted off an old mp3 of 
Rhoda, and it really is a marvellous little number, despite the awfulness of 
the recording. While I was at it, I heard a few other old live bits and 
pieces. I've recently defended the studio version of TLOAMDR, but the guitar 
on that live one is really out of this world, isn't it? It makes me go all 
squishy inside, somehow. The whistling is shit, though.

I'm not joining a tape tree, because I don't have the means to record either 
CDs or tapes anymore. Pathetic, eh? Besides, I'm completely unreliable. Ask 
anyone.

ROBIN STOUT

...made some very good points, and I won't do him the disservice of 
attempting to summarize them here. I reckon he hit the nail on the head 
pretty much, though, especially in regard to the heritage of some of DCW's 
more diverse songs. I too adored I'm Waking Up To Us (although again I'm 
reluctant to use words like 'best' and even 'favourite'), and I really do 
feel that the recent album is a further step in the same direction 
established by that EP. Which is pretty much what I wanted, actually.

It hasn't got the consistency of the first two LPs (though he rightly 
mentions 'Electronic Renaissance', which is surely as jarringly inconsistent 
and out of place on Tigermilk as anything on DCW), it seems to take place in 
a larger world than the wonderful, secret, cosy one that the albums used to 
describe, and its certainly a bit wonky in parts. It's also varied, new and 
ambitious, though, and entirely eccentric. I guess it risks not being quite 
so specifically relevant to the people into whose ears the earlier records 
so seductively whispered, but of the directions the band could have gone in, 
I think sideways is far from the worst choice they could have made.

Also, what's DMAFOM? Or am I just being dense?

ME

Nah, I've got nothin'.

Bulk love,
- Vanilla Flavoured David.

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