Does anyone remember the days when blur put out a record and everyone went out to buy it? I had two walls of my room fully covered in blur shit then, and now...I don't even know if I'll buy their next album. Their past two albums, despite a few songs, are basically crap. Now, I know they can't stay at one point musically and never advance to playing different types of music, but now their music, to put it bluntly, just sucks. Really needed to get that off my chest.

By cazza on Thursday, September 21, 2000 - 09:43 am:

I love *blur* and *13* I also love the rest of the albums. they are all different. and I know for sure I'll buy the new record when it comes.

By kacy on Thursday, September 21, 2000 - 02:33 pm:

Hmmm. I can understand the people who only like Parklife or TGE (to an extent, anyway) but I can NOT understand people who have followed their career since the beginning and don't expect them to change anymore.

By Ian on Thursday, September 21, 2000 - 06:51 pm:

That's complete horsewank. Blur and 13 are superior albums and I can't even be bothered to explain why. But for some reason I really want to type
Battle battle battle battle battle battle someone, oohh
So I will.
And my second name is Boutle! So when I am a guest on the Harry Hill show Harry will say "It's Ian Boutle!" and they can play that piece of music!
What would YOU choose for your music if you were appearing on the Harry Hill show?

By Chris on Thursday, September 21, 2000 - 08:14 pm:

What's the problem with Schmee saying he/she (sorry, you gave no clues!) doesn't like Blur's later albums as much as the earlier stuff? The two groups are so different that there's no intrinsic reason why somebody who likes MLIR and Parklife should be so keen on Blur and 13. It's a bit silly to go around saying you like the later albums if it's just a way of showing loyalty to the group.

By Tousled on Friday, September 22, 2000 - 12:47 am:

I'm so glad that each blur album sounds so different. If they didn't try new things, they would be so boring, like other bands whose albums could be mistaken for one another, like, oh I don't know, oasis. If you don't like bands changing their sound, that's fine, don't buy their new albums. But you wouldn't really need to, because you'd be contented listening to the same ones over, and over, and over... Has anyone else got Mansun's new album? Thoughts on it? It got crappy reviews all around, but I really like it.

By schmee on Friday, September 22, 2000 - 03:53 am:

It's not I like I didn't expect their music to change-I'm not entirely an idiot, I was trying to say that although it was nice they headed in a new musical direction, Blur and 13 just didn't have some of the radiance that the older ones had. And, Chris, I am a girl.

By Arresting Occifer on Friday, September 22, 2000 - 05:58 am:

I like the first 4 albums, but I love Blur and 13. Honestly I do.

By Lucky on Friday, September 22, 2000 - 07:58 am:

I hate saying this, but I've grown up (or am still growing, actually...) with their music. If I heard Girls and Boys for the first time right now, I wouldn't like it much, but I first heard it when I was 9 or 10 and I liked it then... Blur and 13 were great, in my opinion, but I can't decide which style's better. Leisure-TGE or Blur+13? I dunno, I love them both.

By Chris on Friday, September 22, 2000 - 11:04 am:

I really like the last 2 albums as well, especially Blur, I was simply pointing out that there's no reason why anyone would have to just because they enjoyed the earlier ones.

By sarah on Friday, September 22, 2000 - 11:39 am:

I suppose it is weird that I like all their albums, considering how different they all are. Maybe they all contain some inherent 'Blurness' to them. I can't really say which one is my favourite though, the worst in my opinion is Leisure, but apart from that I find it hard to rank them. I like the way they change styles, it's interesting and if you don't like one style at least you know it won't last long! It's like having six bands in one and makes you feel quite eclectic in yer musical tastes, darling.

By sarah on Friday, September 22, 2000 - 11:41 am:

However that doesn't mean I like everything they do. It's hard not to feel disappointed when they bring out some piece of studio-jamming-wankery like MIMR instead of the stuff on Parklife where they'd put a lot of effort in to make it perfect. All I'm saying is: change is good!

By Ian on Friday, September 22, 2000 - 06:41 pm:

I didn't say Blur and 13 were better than the earlier stuff! I said they were SUPERIOR albums. Superior compared to most other albums. Everyone knows I'm a diehard MLIR fan...

By A Scot Less Ordinary on Friday, September 22, 2000 - 08:44 pm:

I think if you change direction so many times, you are bound to go down a kinda shitty avenue now and again.

Personally, I think they did it with The Great Escape, and you will get a lot of Blur fans, even the diehards, agreeing there. Some of the band have said they weren't too keen on stuff like Country House, which gives the sycophants a little license to say 'Oh yeah, we don't really like that one either, Graham...' etc.

For me, Blur was a great album. I thought they had really turned the corner and sorted things out. Sure, there were some weak moments on there (see MOR) but for the most part, it holds together well as a quality LP. Beetlebum is utter genius, one of the only songs of the last five years to give me that lump-in-the-throat effect.

13, however, shows once again that it's not actually a case of finding a path and sticking to it. You've got to admire Blur for having success with something, then trying to have success with something different...(although theres no real *risk* involved nowadays when you're as big as Blur...they can afford to lose a few thousand fans here and there, they are made for life...they can put out whatever they want and the fans will still fall over themselves to get their hands on it (see The Golden D and, if you must, the Fat Les stuff..))

Don't get me wrong here, I'm not saying change is a bad thing, I feel the opposite. I'm just saying, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. For me, 13 was a weak LP by previous (high) standards, poorly conceived and just all over the place (a bit like this posting...haha)...and with Music Is My Radar teasing at yet another new direction (anyone fancy putting a name to this genre ? Answers on a postcard...) I personally feel it's going to get worse before it gets better.

Then again, for every old fart like me saying 'This is pish...' theres a youngster somewhere saying 'This is ace !! Who are these guys ?' so it all evens itself out in the end.

And it *did* prompt all this discussion, which was nice.

For me :o)

By BRETT on Friday, September 22, 2000 - 10:29 pm:

HERE IS MY ANSWER TO THIS TOPIC IN MY FASSION :
SHUTUP YOU MISERABLE WHINGING PIECE OF SHITE. LISTEN HERE - GO AND BUY SOME HAPPY POP IF YOU WANT TO LISTEN TO HAPPY MUSIC! BUT LEAVE BLUR ALONE! THEY PRODUCED MORE QUALITY IN THEIR LAST 2 ALBUMS THAN THATS EVER BEEN IN THE CHARTS IN THE PAST COUPLE OF YEARS SO UP YOURS MATE! ILL KINDO YOU!
(AS THE SMALL BLOKE IN THE PUB WOULD SAY)

By Anonymous on Sunday, September 24, 2000 - 07:25 am:

aye i thought 'blur' was good and 13 was..okay, but somehow, it's not as...endearing, as their 1st 3 (or 4) albums.

By porcelainfuckingoceans on Sunday, September 24, 2000 - 07:03 pm:

I think '13' is a masterpiece.

By Thomas Williams on Sunday, September 24, 2000 - 10:50 pm:

Yeah!

By indigo on Monday, September 25, 2000 - 05:31 pm:

Like Lucky, I've grown up with Blur - i think being 11 or 12 and just aware of irony made the Great Escape a brilliant album. If I had been a couple of years older I wouldn't have been so enthusiastic about it.

However, I think that Blur is a better album than 13. Apart from Essex Dogs, I love every song. MOR is excellent, but I was very disappointed when my mum mended her record player and played a Bowie song that was virtually the same. Oh well. I still have a taste for the more melodic and silly ones on 13 - I prefer BLUREMI and Coffee and TV to Caramel or 1992.

Dan Abnormal was still the songs I celebrated my exam results with, followed by the whole of mlir.

By dead minds smell like shit on Monday, September 25, 2000 - 05:37 pm:

I think 13 was a lame attempt to make something new and intresting..
or maybe they just wanted to keep themselves busy in´the studio to make sure they didn't die of boredom
[which is a horrible way to die]

I like those albums that bands do to keep themselves from getting bored.

they're usually so fucked up you gotta love 'em

By cazzabell on Tuesday, September 26, 2000 - 09:48 am:

I've not grown up with Blur's music. I remember the first Blur song I heard was Country House, and I didn't even know that was Blur at that time.
I was 10 years old and a very confused child, I didn't know anything. like if Sweden was the capital of Stockholm or the opposite... well you know what I mean.

anyway. I love Country House, but for me at that time, it was just a song and nothing more.
however, last year my friend (read: porcelain) played Parklife to me. and from the first time I heard it, I loved it....na nah na...PARKLIFE!
then I bought The Great Escape and I loved it too. now I have all Blur's albums and loadsa live records....

what I want to say is I think whatever Blur will create, old fans will always stop buy there albums - but new fans (like me) will start. I'm not saying that all old fans will hate Blur's new things but I'm saying that even if they will lose some fans, they will always get new ones.

and I'm sure I will like Blur's music forever. ok, I ´can't say for sure that I will like their new albums.. that would be so wrong of me to say as I've not heard it - but I will always love their last 6 albums. I know it.

one more thing. I think all Blur's albums are different and that's why I like them. it would be so boring if there were 6 albums that sounded like Leisure, wouldn't it?
that's what makes them so good. that they can change their style but still they have that *blurry* sound.

By Eddy on Tuesday, September 26, 2000 - 02:09 pm:

yeah, what was that Bowie song Indigo??

By sarah on Wednesday, September 27, 2000 - 01:48 pm:

it was 'Boys keep Swinging'. Almost identical it is... no wonder they got sued by Bowie. I bet Damon was a bit pissed off seeing how he admires the Thin White Duke so much.

By Laden on Friday, September 29, 2000 - 05:39 pm:

For once...I hafta agree with Brett. I think '13' and 'Blur' were fucking phenomonal. Think about this: Nobody outside of Europe even knew who Blur was before 'Blur' came out. So saying that it was a shitty album just shows that you are a fucking moron who knows nothing about music. If, what you're trying to say is that you don't like anything artistic then just say it and get on with buying the latest Britney Spears CD for chrissake.

By The Voice Of Reason on Friday, September 29, 2000 - 06:31 pm:

Oh please.

Listen, everyone has different opinions on what's good and what's not. Everyone who writes music is 'artistic', even the fat cunts who sit in their offices and write shite for Spears and The Spice Girls. So if you think that the ability to be 'artistic' is something unique to artists such as Blur, you're really not too bright.

Art can be magnificent, art can be shite. Britney Spears songs are 'art', Blur songs are 'art', fucking Rolf Harris songs are 'art'.

Perhaps you should have suggested that the later LP's by Blur are more experimental and adventurous in sound compared with their previous long players, which would have been a more reasonable argument.

By Lucky on Friday, September 29, 2000 - 08:16 pm:

Oh shut up. Jeez.

By The Voice of Reason on Friday, September 29, 2000 - 08:18 pm:

You shut up. Hahaha

By indigo on Friday, September 29, 2000 - 11:00 pm:

Aha. An irrational voice of reason - just what we need.

I agree with your lovely sane statement TVOR, except the part about Rolf Harris songs being art. A wobble board, a didgeridoo and some bad cartoons? Please, he haunted me through my childhood. However, his new "dance" track is good for a laugh (in a wrist-slitting kind of way).

By The Voice Of Reason on Friday, September 29, 2000 - 11:24 pm:

It is art, though. You might not know art, but you know what you don't like :o)

By Lucky on Saturday, September 30, 2000 - 01:32 pm:

Sorry, TVOR... I were in a crap mood.

By The Voice of Reason on Saturday, September 30, 2000 - 10:05 pm:

Hahaha. Thats ok, Lucky

By Thomas Williams on Thursday, October 5, 2000 - 11:41 pm:

Yeah!

By jonny jingle on Thursday, October 26, 2000 - 11:37 am:

grahams first album, rhe sky is too high is better than the golden D. Blurs 2nd album modern life is their best album. although i change my mind about blurs work all the time.

By jonny jingle on Thursday, October 26, 2000 - 11:40 am:

it might be a good idea for people to make their own compilations of blur songs. i have and its really top to listen to an album of songs you really like.

By Artie Fufkin on Thursday, October 26, 2000 - 02:05 pm:

Put it this way, you would all love that album -Leisure - if you were playing it in your clapped out car, driving round the country, with your mates singing (shouting) the songs on your way to see gigs circa 90 - 92. It's not just about music ma-a-a-n.

By Andynomonous on Wednesday, November 1, 2000 - 11:23 pm:

I used to be a really big blur fan,yeah when I was a little kid,instead of my mam reading me a story shed stick on blurs latest song....i tell u i got to sleep REAL quick then.Then i grew up,and realised that those homeless tramps down town play better music than them......And that blur cannot make an origanal song..

By RRRRRrreGirald on Friday, November 3, 2000 - 11:18 pm:

YOu make many fine, fine points there, Andy. Yes, many, many, many, many and many. Yes lots of 'em. Fuckin' heaps of 'em! Yeah! Heaps of fine points, heaps and heaps! You make a good point there Andy.

By Arresting Bofficer on Friday, November 3, 2000 - 11:52 pm:

Dear Eddy and other Thin White Duke aficionados,

I just read some messages posted a little higher up the rungs in this thread and was interested in a little topic which was raised in brief.

What's this about Bowie sueing Blur over MOR? I've got to say that I dont blame him...

Anyway, I am sorry if this is old, well-known news that everyone else knows about except me, but would someone care to quickly fill me in on what happened?

I have been curious about the topic for quite a while; it all started when I noticed that MOR in the Bustin' + Dronin' inlay was credited to Albarn, Coxon, James, Rowntree & Bowie. I havent really heard anything else about it, though admittedly I havent exactly searched the web and read news articles and interviews and stuff.

Does anyone know? Eddy do you know?

By indigo on Saturday, November 4, 2000 - 08:10 pm:

I don't know if he sued....
In 3862 Days, it has a little bit about MOR being a "homage" to Bowie. I don't know if it was actually written like that and always included the Bowie credit, or if the comparison was just too obvious for Blur to get away with.

By Arresting Occifer on Tuesday, November 7, 2000 - 06:12 am:

Hmmm interesting.

Cheers, indigo.

By Eddy on Tuesday, November 7, 2000 - 01:04 pm:

Yeah sorry, I aint been to this topic in a while.

Many moons ago I noticed the extra writing credit in the MOR single package. And then a lot later I found out about the "plagirism" taken from "Boys Keep Swinging" from the album "Lodger".

As far as I know the only thing Bowie got was writing credits, so therefore a wee bit of money.

Plus we cannot forget that the writing credits for MOR are for Albarn, Coxon, James, Rowntree, Bowie and Eno.

As the song in question appeared on the album "Lodger" (the third in the Berlin period trilogy for Bowie) which Eno produced, he received writing credits for those Bowie works from that particular era.

By Arresting Occifer on Monday, November 13, 2000 - 06:14 am:

Ta, Eddy. Very interesting.

Havent yet asked what Christchurch school the man is from, though. And I do think I was a little harsh on the poor bloke in here, too. His mobile wasnt storing messages properly or something...nevermind.

Just out of curiousity Eddy, what do you think of New Zealand music?

By Eddy on Monday, November 13, 2000 - 11:39 am:

Fucking Shite.

By indigo on Monday, November 13, 2000 - 12:24 pm:

I just read Strange Fascination (a Bowie biography) and it says that MOR was an intentional homage by Blur to Boys Keep Swinging. So Bowie didn't sue them after all.

Wow I love my new job - I sit in an empty bookshop all Sunday reading!

By nathallie on Thursday, June 7, 2001 - 10:22 pm:

blur will always be #1 even if i don't listen to them too often, 'cos they rep. the intelligence. then you got pulp, which is #2, 'cos they're sex. and then third would be placebo, for the drug-comedown-mess-with-your-head love. and THAT's the way life's order should be. then you got all the other bands: sweetness (travis), pop (weezer), "oh look i'm a teenager & i love the opposite sex & want to grow up & be 'hard' "(ash), "i'm young & oh so in love with my sweetheart" (jj72), coolness (primal scream), fun (super furries, supergrass), big idiot testosterone (once in a while, a healthy dose -oasis) etc - (so much more). THERE!!!
have a great day everyone!
love, nat.

By indigo on Friday, June 8, 2001 - 10:17 am:

but nathallie - you missed out Muse!
Oh my God I am so excited I'm going to explode - I'm seeing JJ72 on the 19th! yes!!!!! Finally, after 4 failed attempts!

By nittaya on Sunday, June 10, 2001 - 04:50 pm:

congrats, indigo! (all my envy belongs to you ...)

i left out many bands, i apologize (it'd be a fairly long post had i included EVEERYONE ...) <-- oh god, i've taken to stereopop's space before the ellipse... (there, i'm cured!)
ah!! connection is on my crap alternative radio station (this is cause for celebration...)
do you find it funny how we seem to play message-tag with each other, indigo?
oh well, have a great day anyway! (and 1 - have fun; 2 - i hope you get all the work done that you had to)
love, nat.

By shellie on Monday, June 11, 2001 - 02:35 am:

lol. has anyone heard Cher singing 'Ringo I love you'??? It's funny!
have a great day!

By indigo on Monday, June 11, 2001 - 10:37 am:

aw no, shellie broke our special bond nat... now I'll have to go back to stalking you! (mwahahaha!)

By BakeSale on Monday, June 11, 2001 - 12:37 pm:

Or you could try mildly flirting with her.

By nittaya on Monday, June 11, 2001 - 08:28 pm:

lol, the key is so mild it seemed to slip our attention... (i still love all 3 of you though!)
~nat.

By indigo on Tuesday, June 12, 2001 - 08:23 am:

damn, now I have to post something - and I have nothing to say. *sigh*. Oooh, wish me luck in my statistics exam this afternoon! Actually, going and revising might be a saner thing to do than being on Coping but hey.

By nat on Tuesday, June 12, 2001 - 08:41 pm:

HEY HEY INDEED!!!! i hope all went well?

By Bree on Tuesday, June 12, 2001 - 08:53 pm:

Listen I want the world to know I am a survivor: Marie said you're a prostitute.

By indigo on Wednesday, June 13, 2001 - 08:38 am:

I don't understand Bree, or his/her compulsion to call the world a prostitute. Oh well, my statistics exam went fine (amazingly I finished my revision ten minutes before the exam) so now I just have to start revision for Human biology, Napoleon and Pure Maths 2. On friday, it will all be over!

By Lucky on Wednesday, June 13, 2001 - 11:12 am:

Good luck Indigo! Our extremely unimportant exams are over and the teachers have gone mental (probably from marking them all). Like today in music our teacher gave us a sheet with the song 'fancy Anansi' on it, which sort of went : "Jump jump jump jump jump fall on the floor with a great big bump fancy anansi clever little spider fancy anansi clever little man". She then made the entire class stand in a circle and do the actions, which included jumping, hopping, and falling over. The economics class next door think we have cracked.

Why did I take music for GCSE? WHY??

By CandyCane on Wednesday, June 13, 2001 - 12:02 pm:

oh dear! i told u she had flipped!

By indigo on Wednesday, June 13, 2001 - 03:16 pm:

Music GCSE - you are crazy! I gave up music as soon as humanly possible. i think you have to be certifiable to be a music teacher - we're about 12, about half of us can read music and this woman is trying to teach us the recorder - she then starts yelling "right! augmented sevenths from you! lets start on the tonic, then go up as a pentatonic!", and launches into some random tune, expecting the class to keep up. We blow along (at least, the politer ones do. The others take the opportunity to write text messages), until this mad music teacher gives up.

School music lessons- possibly the biggest waste of time ever. Actually, talking of embarrassing songs, I had a German teacher who used to make us stand up and sing some German drinking song (with actions) and if you didn't join in you had to stand on the desk and do it. Another subject I gave up on early.

By Lucky on Wednesday, June 13, 2001 - 06:52 pm:

Yeah, I'm probably raving. Believe me, we're all kicking ourselves and wishing we'd taken I.T. instead. I only took it because I thought I'd get good grades from it.

Ahem...

...pfft...

...pthrthrthr...

BWAHAHAHAAHAHAHA...bollocks!

By The Occifer on Thursday, June 14, 2001 - 01:57 am:

I went raving last night. I bumped into 4 of our city's finest drag queens at The Gutter too, and they were trying to enlist me to their cause. "Come here and sit with us, Officer!" they said.
I cant help but be nice to them, if only because of their grand names. Michelle Michelle is quite a sight. A scary sight, actually. Trixie Onassis looks like she's stepped from the pages of a nasty children's fairytale, with three freshly gobbled children still wriggling in her stomach. Miss Farenheit would have to be my favourite. She's quite pretty, I must admit - pretty for a 6 foot 3 man anyway. "Do you have a big weapon, Quintal?" inquired Michelle Michelle. "Miss Fareneheit is that kind of girl, TRUST ME," she giggled, in a slightly mannish fashion, before the other two joined in the guffawing. Just like a bunch of schoolgirls, I tell you!
I must say I'm always curious of exactly what they each have up their extremely short skirts, but nowhere near curious enough to take a close inspection. I'm also curious as to what they look like in the daytime. Hideous, I bet. Especially Michelle Michelle. They're so grotesque, it's fascinating.

By Butter~Twirré on Thursday, June 14, 2001 - 10:37 am:

That certainly sounds like quite a night, Occifer person. Unfortunately I can't remember ever meeting a drag queen and walking away with a new~found friend. Alas some of them (not ALL, I'm sure) are a little misogynist in their ways. I remember having a fight with a drag queen who, upon being forced to talk to me, kept shrieking, "OOH! FISH! YUCK! I SMELL FISH! OOOH!" 'She' proceeded to laugh hysterically, & I hissed, "If you could hear the way you sounded when you laugh, you wouldn't laugh so much." So 'she' wielded an empty bottle of Lemon Ruski and threatened to hit me over the head with it. Not a good intro to the world of drag queens.

Ooops, sorry Occifer, you & I are meant to have our Micky Maybrick & *ANGIE!* masks on right about now...I forgot.

By nat on Thursday, June 14, 2001 - 08:30 pm:

ah crazy crazy crazy ... (at least you entertain us!)

By The Occifer on Friday, June 15, 2001 - 12:00 pm:

I'm sure I could do a fine imitation of Mick The Lad (or ANGIE The Kitten for that matter), but I'm not really in the mood to try.

I wouldnt consider myself to have picked up a few new friends though, Butter~Person~Deluxe. I hope I didnt overdramatise the situation. You see, I was just standing there, trying to look suitably innocuous, when Trixie Onassis rasped "Come and sit with us!" I really couldnt refuse the three vulpine smiles & matching sets of flashing teeth, so I joined them. They're regular customers around that part of town, so I've seen them toodle-peeping about before quite regularly. Anyway, I agree with your statement about their misogynistic tendancies. Definitely. I think you could probably just put it down to plain old green-eyed jealousy though. They go through a lot of pain & money to look (vaguely) like you effortlessly do!
And I used to think all drag-queens were sharp, quick-witted beasties with minds like steel traps - but now I realise that most of them just have 2 or 3 stock retorts, suitable for almost any situation. Actually, I think they have one insult for rednecks, one for females they find intimidating and one for unattractive men. It seems to get them through the night just fine.

By Lucky on Friday, June 15, 2001 - 12:32 pm:

You're a very good writer Occifer. Usually people who write about that much in their posts get boring half way through. Write a book on something.

By Cheese Wagon on Saturday, June 16, 2001 - 03:03 am:

Geez I'm hungry. All I've eaten all day is two grapefruits.

By Ba'alzevuv on Saturday, June 16, 2001 - 01:27 pm:

Well I've got a friend who only drinks tea.

By Anonymous on Sunday, June 17, 2001 - 04:29 am:

How nice of you, Luckster.
And you know someone who only drinks tea, Beezlebub? Really? Are they a Breatharian or something? Breatharians believe you can markedly improve your health and quality of life if you detox yourself and stop eating food. The most famous Breatharian was a guy named Wiley Brooks, (I think). He stirred up a small storm in the USA in the early eighties, culminating with the newspaper headline, "BREATHARIAN CAUGHT WITH TWINKIE". A photograher snapped him coming out of a Seven-Eleven store munching on a twinkie, but Wiley said he just had a sudden craving, he didnt NEED to eat it.
We also had a recent media controversy in Australia. A woman died while trying to detox herself. Then the Australian Breatharian guru was challenged by our local version of 60 Minutes to live under observation for a week without eating. She lost weight and ended up quitting early on doctor's advice. She didnt give up or confess to being a fraud though (she makes a lot of money selling her self-help books), she just blamed the polluted city air for denying her the vital nutrients she needed to survive and prosper.

By The Occifer on Sunday, June 17, 2001 - 04:32 am:

Oi?! Why did my name just appear as Anonymous? Oh well, nevermind.

By Last night on Tuesday, January 8, 2002 - 10:01 pm:

I grew up with Blur. I've never had any problems with new Blur material. I've never been dissapointed, I've never been surprised even. I think it has to do with a similar way of thinking and a similar lifestyle. And when I want I can be objective about the music and go: "Yes , indeed The Great Escape was a very cynical record , it was". But most of the time , I'm just enjoying the way they express themselves.