the record isn't that bad, it's just a few years past it's best-before date and consequently comes out sounding awkwardly out of fashion. that could have been resolved with some better drumming, which is always in style, but they seem to have settled on radiohead-aping drum machines instead. as nobody here has the warmth of an elizabeth fraser, or even a kate stelmanis, it leaves the record sounding dry and clinical.

they were a pretty tight band at one point. i wish they would have focused on finding the right drummer and pushing the groove forward. alas, the marketing executives and advertising agencies strike again...

they're right. it's a complex issue about empowerment and exploitation, but it's turned into this sort of orwellian nightmare where empowerment and exploitation are inseparable from each other.

it's post-britney, i think. i remember living through the 90s and thinking we were turning back the clocks. blondie never hit that kind of media saturation, and madonna was all about the power. even the spice girls were in control. but, the whole fiasco around britney as a manufactured commodity really changed the industry for the worse, and what's happened since makes more sense in the context of a discussion of the supremes or billie holiday than one of madonna or courtney love.

it's very well understood that the primary purpose here is image control, and simon wasn't confusing this on purpose but out of an inability to find evidence that corroborated the storyline, but what's the point of doing this at all if you're just going to embed them?

i know. it's dangerous. still.....