New Laika Album---who's got it? Opinions?

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i feel shamed, as someone who considers herself a Laika fan. hadn't known anything since Lost in Space had come out, although i'd heard they were working on something new. was in a shop the other day and saw Everywhere I Am I Am What Is Missing. was unfortunately too broke to buy, but will do so as soon as possible. any opinions on it so far?

i hope they tour here again. i've still yet to see them live. :(

― janni (janni), Monday, 26 January 2004 04:37 (twenty-two years ago)

it's awful. already been forgotten by most.

― keith m (keithmcl), Monday, 26 January 2004 04:49 (twenty-two years ago)

don't break my heart keith! i thought they were getting better.

― fortunate hazel (f. hazel), Monday, 26 January 2004 05:41 (twenty-two years ago)

whys it bad then? (haven't heard it)

― mullygrubber (gaz), Monday, 26 January 2004 05:43 (twenty-two years ago)

it's better than 'good looking blues' because margaret doesn't try to sing, she's back to cooing as a rule, but it just sounds pretty uninspired and like the sort of thing they could knock out in an hour. it's their 'dirty and divine'.

― keith m (keithmcl), Monday, 26 January 2004 05:45 (twenty-two years ago)

i suppose awful isn't the right word, not 'interesting' would be better.

― keith m (keithmcl), Monday, 26 January 2004 05:47 (twenty-two years ago)

As a Laika fan, I was hugely disappointed. Not awful, but just there. I listened to it twice, and might not ever listen to it again.

― peepee (peepee), Monday, 26 January 2004 13:14 (twenty-two years ago)

Is the title intentionally close to the Styrofoam record?

― Lynskey (Lynskey), Monday, 26 January 2004 13:29 (twenty-two years ago)

The Laika title is from a Mark Strand poem; I don't know what the reference is for the Styrofoam title. Probably coincidence.

As I suggested on the old Laika thread, this LP seems to have been chiefly concocted by Guy during Margaret's 2001/2 touring duties with Polly Harvey. It's a pretty airless, one-paced and formulaic thing and, if they were consciously looking to step back from the richer band sound of Good-Looking Blues, there are any number of more exciting ways they could've done it. "Beestinger" it ain't.

― Michael Jones (MichaelJ), Monday, 26 January 2004 13:39 (twenty-two years ago)

> is the title intentionally close to the styrofoam record?

incidentally, they answered the very same question during a recent interview for belgian radio:
MARGARET FIEDLER: Weird, that's so odd.
GUY FIXSEN: It goes to show how culture is a consciousness in itself. And that the world is actually thinking.
MARGARET FIEDLER: People come to the same conclusions independently, which is interesting.
GUY FIXSEN: It happens with names of songs and certain styles of music. People get to the same point at the same time without actually copying each other sometimes, just because they follow the same influences or the same thread or something like that.

― point_misser (point_misser), Monday, 26 January 2004 13:45 (twenty-two years ago)

I think I have a copy you can have. mail me.

― garret (garret), Monday, 26 January 2004 14:07 (twenty-two years ago)

wow, that's really disappointing. i still want to hear it---i actually liked Good Looking Blues quite a lot, even with Margaret's singing. she does sound better cooing and/or doing those deadpan spoken bits, though. particularly "Badtimes."

shall have to of course reserve my opinions till i've heard it...

― janni (janni), Monday, 26 January 2004 15:36 (twenty-two years ago)

Just saw them live this week-end. Pretty unimpressive and boring.
When I saw them first in '97 the guitars were much more up front. Shame they've dropped them from their sound. One of their best moments is the Joy Division riff halfway through 'Martinis on the Moon (off SOTS).

― Baaderist (Fabfunk), Monday, 9 February 2004 15:14 (twenty-two years ago)

wonder if they'll come through the states again? i hope so. although maybe i'll be disappointed. i never have seen them live, and they're one of the few bands i've really wanted to see that's existed when i've been old enough to see them, but whom i haven't yet seen. (mmm, dodgy sentence parsing. XD)

― janni (janni), Monday, 9 February 2004 17:44 (twenty-two years ago)

I've listened to this album once. I really wish it was the sort of album which would grow on me with each repeated listen... but I fear that it's the sort of album which I lose, discover two years hence, play, and wonder why I haven't sold :(

― The Lex (The Lex), Monday, 9 February 2004 18:55 (twenty-two years ago)

tried really hard to like wiaiawim but just couldn't. zzzzz...

― ken taylrr, Monday, 9 February 2004 19:56 (twenty-two years ago)

it's their 'dirty and divine'.

C'mon, take away a couple of songs from the middle, and that LP is better than anything Laika have done.

― Vic Funk, Tuesday, 10 February 2004 01:01 (twenty-two years ago)

so far i've heard "Girls Without Hands," and this hasn't convinced me that Laika have officially gone south.

shall have to see with the whole thing. shall also have to shell out for Lost in Space for those few remixes i'm missing...

― janni (janni), Tuesday, 10 February 2004 01:28 (twenty-two years ago)

Lost In Space also has the wonderful "Beestinger" on it, which as others have already pointed out was unfortunately not a template for WIAWWRGFL (I can't even remember the damn title).

― The Lex (The Lex), Tuesday, 10 February 2004 01:30 (twenty-two years ago)

i still listen to the first two records tons, 'silver apples of the moon' is almost like a whole album of full of 'soon' and sounds of the satellites was darker and more atmoshperic and maybe even better because it had 'spooky rhodes' on it. good looking blues seemed kinda safe and trad, like trip-hop almost and then there is this one which is barely there at all. dirty and divine is the worst thing ever, dave c doesn't do loveable very well.

― keith m (keithmcl), Tuesday, 10 February 2004 01:57 (twenty-two years ago)

four years pass...

but I fear that it's the sort of album which I lose, discover two years hence, play, and wonder why I haven't sold :(

Haha - my thoughts exactly when I put this on last night

― baaderonixx, Friday, 30 May 2008 08:39 (eighteen years ago)

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