The new album *does* exist!

[Andrew A. Apold]

>I hate the album cover, by the way.  It's one of my least favorites in
>my entire album collection, not just in the BOC section.

Ditto.  I even prefer the CN spaceship.  The inside picture would've
been better, though that doesn't say much....  Heck, even a
monocolor blank album (ala ST's "Smell the Glove" cover) would've
been better.  I put the CD-liner back in backwards, to simulate
this effect.  It's not solid black, with some dark wood paneling
and a dangling spider, and the BMG/CMC logos,
but I prefer it to the faces...  Just realized, with the cd being
almost solid black (with white writing), and a dark back, the
only place you can have anyone even attempt to autograph it would
be on the forehead of the guy...  ach, I looked at it again.
Something else, the lightbulb (is it half-filled with something)
is behind the figures, above the girl.  She is drawn lit from
behind and the right, though it's a little to the left of her.
And the guy (we need some kind of nickname for him, Mr. Hefo?)
is lit from the left and above, though the light bulb is behind
and to the right of him.  Makes it seem very much like a cut and
paste job, which I thought it was before noting an artists'
signature on i.

As for the interior, true to BOC tradition, the lyrics contain
errors (or the singing contains errors, take your pick).  Now
if only there were a song title with parentheses....   I propose
"(I'd Like to) See You in Black."  Nice photo collage in the middle.


>impression was mildly favorable.  It certainly isn't a 10 pound block

Sometimes these things need to grow on you a bit, I definitely
like PUD much more now than when I first heard it.  But yeah,
I like many of the other numbers at first hearing, X-Ray, Damaged,
(okay, so I admit I like soft or spoken intros prior to kickoff)
...  I don't like the chorus in CGLoD, seems off-key somewhat.
Harvest Moon... seems to be the most unique number on it, but
also sounds like it can't make up it's mind what it should be.
But that's okay.  SYiB and HB are both fine.  Real World...
I dunno, I'll listen to it a bit more....  doesn't impress me
that much right now.   Live for me... hmmm...

Still Burnin', one of the three non-Shirley songs, has a nice
pace and is likable, just seems the least "BOC" of the bunch,
and that includes the cover of "in thee".  It seems paper-thin,
meaning nothing.  Try as I might I can't find anything I could
even stretch to take another way... maybe if the woman were
pyrokinetic so she sets off the smoke alarm.... nah, that's
too far.  Seems to be just what it seems to be.  Still, kinda
catchy...  I know everyone can't be Meltzer, but still...

The acoustic 'In Thee' may seem like a waste to some, but I
liked it.  They covered an old song and it wasn't one of the
big three, I'll give them a break.

heh, even here, with a song almost 20 years old the lyrics are
written differently than sung...

Eric sings:
'Cause the dice roll
much too easily

...instead of
'cause the dice roll
so indifferently

tsk, tsk.


Okay, I know this seems a BOC-L stereotype, but nothing on this
album reached out and grabbed me, right of the bat impressed
me the way either Cult Brothers of Malpractice did.

But it's almost surreal in other ways, perhaps brought on by
actually having something new BOC to talk to clerks in music
stores I often visit pointlessly... (I hit peaches (no, didn't
even know about it), Specs (had one, sold it, get another in
3 days), Best Buy (no clue), Waves (no clue), before Circuit
City (of all places) had one.

Overall, I still like this.  Shirley's lyrics do alright by
me, they usually have some kind of point to them and have
a certain styling to them that is clearly seperated from 90%
of the trite crap that's out there.

Will it succeed commercially?  Probably not on a major level,
though SYIB may have some hope on some radio stations.  I doubt
they'd get
a chance even if the album was twice as good, people just
got it in their heads that it's ancient history.  BOC had
to give up the SWU moniker because of bad associations with
it, I wonder how this would be received if no one knew who
it was...  as it is, they sold out in two stores here, if
it means anything.

Second time through as I write this, SYIB, HM both sounding
better this time through.  I love PUD, it's climing my
short list of stuff I want to hear repeatedly...


+---------------------------------------+
Andrew A. Apold (mordru at magg.net), aka  | Tension
Roger Shrubstaff,                       |  Apprehension
Duchy of Silverwater (BL), Amtgard      |    and Dissention
aka Asgrim Dragon -=UDIC=-              |     have begun.
+--------B-L-U-E--Ö-Y-S-T-E-R--C-U-L-T--+    -Alfred Bester
 "I was corrupt before I had power!" - Random