I would agree that the booklets/layout/artwork and such often gets overlooked, something I am guilty of myself. There's usually a lot of people involved in putting it all together and there are some albums where the stuff that's not the music truly completes the album.

I don't have any issue with digital downloads. Sure, it may not be quite the same as having the real thing in your hands and it does make the extras superfluous in most cases, but sometimes it's the best way to get the tunes without resorting to torrents and peer-to-peer downloads. That you do get more than just a jpeg of the album cover sounds good to me; if only more albums purchased as digital tracks would include more than just the songs.

As far as being over-hyped…hell, this is two guys putting out music for themselves and making it available as an after thought. The new Radiohead was over-hyped, this is just something different entirely. A few dozen positive blog reviews is far from hype. Part of the draw here (in my mind) is the thinking and feelings behind the music and the fact that it's a bit different and a some what of a challenge to the listener. It's a fresh find for me and I value that.

ANY WAY, thanks again Andrew for opening my eyes to some enjoyable sounds.

.: Chris

The book is also a very interesting read.

i don't want to say that this album is soemthing very new and original. there are thousands of "post rock" bands out there so it's really hard to pick something very briliant or fresh. also don't start bitching about the term postrock i used before.

i want it because the music is still great for me and you know there are like 2 CDs in the "package". The 2 songs that Andrew psoted aren't the best at least in my opinion. Not to mention 75 page booklet which is for me always interesting. Although the music is most important I like some message, some meaning that is maybe put behind just because of music.

the things which are rare in the last few years.

not to mention that around 95% reviewers review just music not lyrics and booklets. which is crime against art, against humanity. and in the end pure stupidity. reviewing MP3s and "pretending" to review CDs is jsut compelte bullshit.

but hay people obviously like that…

they sell out of stuff very quickly all the time, so it means nothing. you could say instead of proving quality, it proved the buyers were fools. you could, but i'm not going there.

the band doesn't suck, it's just boring and over-hyped to me. like you said (before you threw the hatchet) different people, different tastes.