This is the thread where we drag artists back into the studio to fix...

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... small details that spoil otherwise good tracks.

For example:
1. XTC - Your dictionary

The lyrics include this bit:
H-A-T-E
Is that how you spell love in your dictionary
K-I-C-K
Pronounced as kind

and later, this one:
S-L-A-P
Is that how you spell kiss in your dictionary
C-O-L-D
Pronounced as care

It really bugs me that of all the four-letter words in this song, KICK and COLD are the only two that are matched to the wrong parts of speech. Swap them, please, Mr. Partridge!

2. The Auteurs - too many tracks on New Wave
Would the person who's making those pshh-pshh-tshh-tshh sounds with his voice kindly stop? Thank you.

― Paul in Santa Cruz (Paul in Santa Cruz), Wednesday, 29 January 2003 06:25 (twenty-three years ago)

This is taking pedantic fanboy second-guessing to a whole 'nother level.

― hstencil, Wednesday, 29 January 2003 06:27 (twenty-three years ago)

nah, it's just complaining, and why not?

1. Elvis turns the Jordanaires the fuck down on most of his records

2. Bacharach replaces that chirping trumpet part on Dionne Warwick's "Walk on By" with a guitar

― M Matos (M Matos), Wednesday, 29 January 2003 06:30 (twenty-three years ago)

This has ALWAYS bugged the shit out of me. Howcum in "She Said She Said" JL rhymes "even though you know what you know" with "I'm ready to LEAVE"??? "I'm ready to GO" would've rhymed! Fuckin' A-heads

― dave q, Wednesday, 29 January 2003 06:32 (twenty-three years ago)

nah, it's just complaining, and why not?

Because it's fucking boring.

― hstencil, Wednesday, 29 January 2003 06:36 (twenty-three years ago)

Your comments are the most boring thing about this thread so far.

― Paul in Santa Cruz (Paul in Santa Cruz), Wednesday, 29 January 2003 06:40 (twenty-three years ago)

Just trying to live up to your standard! Nyah, nyah!

Nitpicking is not the same thing as critical thinking, imo.

― hstencil, Wednesday, 29 January 2003 06:49 (twenty-three years ago)

I agree that nitpicking is not the most important kind of critical thinking (although I had to adjust your idea in order to agree w/it).

However, nitpicking can be fun -- I'll resist posing the standard ILM rhetorical question about your attitude towards fun. And there's more, too, in one of my two examples, although to be fair I didn't talk about it. XTC are an out-and-out favorite of mine, so it "hurts" to see them so close to hitting a peak and then spoiling it. But when it's just a small detail like this a funny thing happens, for me. On one hand, now that I've noticed the little glitch I cited to get this thread rolling, it sticks out unforgiveably, even though I know it's just a little glitch. But on the other hand, I "know how to fix it" (which means caring enough about the song to think it through and decide how it should have been). So, you know, it may bore you but don't write it off completely...

― Paul in Santa Cruz (Paul in Santa Cruz), Wednesday, 29 January 2003 07:07 (twenty-three years ago)

Whereas I've pretty much given up on the Auteurs example because I'm not convinced the songs in question are worth rescuing via this imaginary-do-over mechanism.

― Paul in Santa Cruz (Paul in Santa Cruz), Wednesday, 29 January 2003 07:10 (twenty-three years ago)

One can only hope Kevin Shields never reads this thread.

― B.Rad (Brad), Wednesday, 29 January 2003 07:27 (twenty-three years ago)

So this is what ILM is like in the threads I usually ignore.

― Dan I., Wednesday, 29 January 2003 07:53 (twenty-three years ago)

the Go Betweens "Springhill Fair" - get rid of the electronic drums! please!!

― electric sound of jim (electricsound), Wednesday, 29 January 2003 07:57 (twenty-three years ago)

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