It's GOOD but it's not quite AS GOOD but it IS good but, y'know... bah

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I now have new Flaming Lips and it IS good and it makes me happy and is very fine and stuff but at the same time it's clearly not as great as Soft Bulletin was and this therefore implies DISAPPOINTMENT of some kind with new album except it seems unduly harsh to dismiss perfectly fine elpee as DISAPPOINTMENT. This neatly parallels Mercury Rev last year and also countless other things that am loathe to list as i dislike idea of including them in list of DISAPPOINTMENTS but taking this into account i will include Vespertine by Bjork and We Love Life by Pulp and Kingsize by the Boo Radleys and We Are Science by Dot Allison, all of which are utterly tremendous and fine records in their own right, and not actual DISAPPOINTMENTS in the Geogaddi/Is A Woman sense, but which pale very slightly when compared to earlier/previous ones. So, yes. Please help.

― Alex Linsdell, Saturday, 22 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

"We Love Life" is not a disappointment. "This Is Hardcore," now there's a giganto disappointment. I think the all time classic disappointment is Lou Reed following up "Street Hassle" with "The Bells" (or was is "Rock and Roll Heart"? like it matters followed closely by Bowie following Scary Monsters with Let's Dance unless you count the Baal soundtrack which of course you don't. Also the second Violent Femmes album. And Amorphis following Tuonela with Am Universum: weak. And Prince's Controversy which of course is brilliant but not so brilliant as its godlike predecessor, Dirty Mind. And the Sisters of Mercy's First and Last and Always, which followed a series of 12"s that were totally brilliant but which was itself rather flat and dull.

This is a favorite subject of mine.

― John Darnielle, Saturday, 22 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Gah, We Love Life is NOT a disappointment, this is the point i was feebly trying to make. I love We Love Life unconditionally. Though i do like This Is Hardcore more.

― Alex Linsdell, Saturday, 22 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

boo radleys 'kingsize' is a perfect example, all of the songs have great parts but most have some oddly packed parts as well, this is where martin carr's disjointedness finally went awry when he tried to match it up with his pop smarts and failed and then, of course, he went on to the horror that is brave captain. sad. another example is the neil halstead solo album, i have loved everything he has done up until this point but this album just seems so middle of the road and cheery. blah.

― keith, Saturday, 22 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Go ahead, classify Vespertine as a HUGE disappointment. You'll feel better. You will.

― Melissa W, Saturday, 22 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

NO NO NO, ohhh, this is what i feared. None of the records mentioned above are disappointments, they're just not the ARTISTE in questions strongest work to date, and there is nebulous argument about whether someone who is not currently produing their best work should pack it in or not. But i dunno.

I think maybe this only a 'problem' when the record is first released and your anticipation at fever pitch, after a month or so you are more comfortable with it as integral part of said artist/band's repetoire and artistic development and waffle. The Boo Radleys had wondrously extreme chart career in the 1990s, if you plotted graph for highest chart positions of each of their five chart albums you get inverted V, which probably means something. Or something. If C'mon Kids (pop/weird) was kind of mid-point between Giant Steps (weird/weird) and Wake Up! (pop/pop), then Kingsize was mid-point between Wake Up! and C'mon Kids, and therefore (pop/pop/pop/weird). Yes, i have given this degree of thought before, and yes, on reading this back i am aware that it's not only over-simplistic but also totally inaccurate. And of no relevance here. Sorry.

― Alex Linsdell, Saturday, 22 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Minus that godawful "Barry Seductive", This is Hardcore is the greatest album ever. Well not really, but it's one of those few records where I went through a honeymoon period truly believing that it was the greatest album ever. I'll just say it's Pulp's greatest album ever.

― justin, Saturday, 22 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

part of my disappointment with kingsize were the reviews calling it the new 'pet sounds' which it clearly is not, i still rather like it but it is the lowest rated of their albums for me but then i have never heard 'ichabod and i'. i like the neil halstead album, i just never feel compelled to listen to it, it doesn't have any ache within. i agree that 'this is hardcore' is the best pulp record.

― keith, Saturday, 22 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I fuckin' love Lou Reed "The Bells"! (and that's a strong statement for me to make about mr.lit)

― Paul, Sunday, 23 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I think I understand Alex Linsdell here. Kingsize is by no means a bad record - just a step back in it's thinking. I think it was underpromoted as a pop album. On the day of release I had to ask the shop attendant where they'd hidden it (it was in the deepest darkest corner of the New Release stand). No promotional campaign like Wake Up! and C'mon Kids had. A terrible single (Free Huey was an abomination). Throwaway lyrics in places (Monuments for a Dead Century - excellent song, bad lyrical content; and I'm sure some of the sentiments in a few songs sounded like Christian rock). Maybe it just came out at the wrong time. I think that Kingsize was released the day the world declared that this kind of Britpop was truly DEAD and they'd rather listen to Speed Garage and Westlife than all these boring "indie" bands.

― dog latin, Sunday, 23 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

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