I feel like the fat wheezy unpopular kid who didn't know all the cool kids were smoking grass behind the bike shed. Thanks to disciple for letting me know where you all were...

To bring my thoughts on 23 into one place (for my own benefit really), here's my first post on the subject from a couple of weeks ago:

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Okay, got the album. One listen.

First impressions:

1. I was right about the EPs. Didn't quite 'get' Pangea but get it now. It's an album song. Ditto Happenstance. The other EP tracks wouldn't fit at all here.

2. There are no hits. None at all. Forget about it.

3. The album is a grower. One listen is certainly not enough, but I now recognise the difference between a genuine grower and 'tolerable with time'.

4. Good length. Well under an hour and only ten songs. Well conceived, well constructed. Tight is right, but spacious, spacious...

5. Quick calculation (nearly enough): 3 songs very good; 4 songs great; 3 songs utterly outstanding (but which is which, eh viewers?)

6. Without a doubt the best album of the Powles era. No doubt in my mind at all. In other words, easily the best album by The Church in 17 years.

Makes me feel glad to be alive and growing old. Hallelujah.

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...and my second post about a week later - more a prompt to get people off the fence (what fence?):



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Singles?

None. Nothing really strikes me as single-y. Not that kind of a record. The Coffee Song. Why not?

Anyway. Here's a question for you all...

Pre-Space Saviour or Post-Space Saviour?

This track marks a kind of turning point in the album, a gear shifter. So which gear is your favourite?

The first suite of songs: Cobalt Blue, Dead Man's Hand, Pangaea, Happenstance, Space Saviour (a kind of Sativa buzz for me); or

The second suite of songs: On Angel Street, Sunken Sun, Anchorage, Lunar, Operetta (a much more heavy Indica feeling, if you will).

Okay, so that's a bit arbitrary and artificial. So what? I am loving this record and want to find more ways of talking about it.

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ynnpr is distinctly Post, apparently. I'm still on the fence.

Jean, Altres, Vlad and Fando (and others!), thank you for your considered, articulate appraisals thus far... more to be said...

v