Idolator

Can't tell what hurts more: your review or that this failure of a record comes out on my birthday.

I think what happened is that CSS wasn't very good to begin with. That musical pool didn't have a lot of depth, so I'm not surprised it got all smelly and sludgy after a year or so.

Maura - one of your best written pieces I have ever read, ringing so true!

I'm with DavidWatts on this one.

(as opposed to "I *wish* I could be like David Watts")

Well, sure. But disposable stuff should, at the very least, be kind of fun to listen to, and this isn't at all.

Get used to this kind of thing happening quite a bit in the next year or so, as flavor-of-the-moment blogger bands start turning in sophomore (or, alternatively, post-blowup) efforts.

It already happened to Birdmonster and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah!, The Long Blondes, etc.

(Ask me again why I hardly care about anything anymore.)

Perhaps we should start a Dead Pool. Who's next?

I haven't heard the full album/leak yet, but the two songs I have heard (Rat is Dead and Left Behind) I like quite a lot. I liked the first record too, but this is different in a still palatable way.

@the rich girls are weeping: lol, like Birdmonster was good in the first place?

it's a shame, I Think they are trying to sell records with this one and be as mainstream radio lame as they can be

the thing is they were already poppy and fun on their last album, this one feels like katy perry's ugly step sister

@the rich girls are weeping: I'm seriously wondering why people even bother releasing post-blowup albums anymore. The audience usually doesn't care and the album usually doesn't give them much to care about anyway.

@brasstax: Well, you know. Someone out there cared. BUT NOT ME.

@Captain Wrong: We should be more like the UK in this regard. Hell, why do blog buzz bands even release albums to begin with. Just sell digital singles and a limited 7" for the packaging fetishists.

OMG, did I just accidentally make a business plan? Hahah.

That's actually a good idea. Albums are once again getting overlong and underwhelming and a total upheaval and reversion back to a singles mentality would be a fucking EXCELLENT change for a few years.

I always have the right answer! (;

@the rich girls are weeping: A few years ago, I was in London for a week and some change. Two things struck me; one that everyone there was a DJ and two that the single was still very much alive. Not just CD singles and the Now! comps, but actual 7" vinyl records that were easy to find. I grabbed a handful of them over there from bands that were exactly that, buzz bands du jour (20-22s, Razorlight, Futureheads, etc.) It was quite a great thing because they were all bands I think had one or two good songs in them and that's all I needed.

I really hoped the age of downloads would bring us back to the single in the US, but no dice. The companies are still stuck in the mid 90s $18.99 full length CD mentality and I think there's a real prejudice against singles on the part of "serious" rock bands. Like it's bubblegum, or admitting you're a flavor of the minute. Well, so what? Before the 70s, it was perfectly acceptable to be a great singles band and you could make "serious" music (Creedence Clearwater Revival, for instance.) It can be done, and even if you are a flavor of the month, you won't embarrass yourself over a full legnth that everyone knows is just a single with a lot of B sides anyway.

Sorry, got on a rant there.

Yeahhhh, I've heard the whole thing and can confirm that it blows.

Reviews like this are pretty irresponsible. At least give them the justice of a few more listens before you get all snarky and turn against one of the very bands you probably built up and climaxed over.

p.s. i guess bands write albums because they actually like playing music and writing songs. gasp! of course, they should just stop that and fashion singles for you instead...