[dubman]

holy damn
now i cant wait for when pitchfork casually tosses this album in the 6.0-7.0 area and continues to assert that underworld is, in so many words, irrelevant (although why people steadfastly ignore them while expecting the chemical brothers to have better longevity and growth completely eludes me, but whatever).
there will be paragraphs. literally, paragraphs, explaining why everybody is wrong in not taking a fanboy-ish amount of time (hint hint) to "get" an album from a band who doesnt do a bad job in alienating those who aren't totally understanding about their style (which is, as we love to say, completely unique).
basically most reviews come from critics who dont envelop themselves past a certain amount because they're writing for a broad swath of the music-listening demographic this album falls under. people not totally enamoured with underworld, who are just casually interested in this among a host of other things, are not going to be bowled over by this album. i'm not saying my friends are slave to critical opinion, but it's safe to say that the critical concensus of the album will probably echo the less than passionate sentiments of the more resonable. for them it'll be good, not great, and much better than a hundred days off, and they'll be content to let me have my fun with it.

besides, you guys dont know what a good review by pitchfork does anyway. people who, at best, only dabble in the genre will cluster all over it and start talking about why this particular 'electronica' record triumphs over it's inherently flawed contemporaries. lots of threads asking for albums similar to this as an attempt to get into a limited radius of the band's influence, JUST to get points for variation and "understanding". Then the avalanche of backlash, whereas you otherwise would have been left alone to enjoy it, the fact that it'd be getting so much buzz would piss people off so much, and they'd just have to say what a goddamned awful record it is, and etc.

i know none of that may matter in the big picture but it is such a headache because it'd all come from the reception and not much to do with the record itself. BLD would blow a gasket calling everyone names, each more offensive than the last, and die of high blood pressure, making his girlfriend very sad and selling his biro shirt on ebay. and i'd venture to guess that it'd throw some unecessary complications in R+K's decision to just do what they will.

but since none of that will happen it seems like it'll make good sales (there's a decent amount of hype anyway) and things will continue unabated by senseless noise.