[mitchables]

I was bitterly disappointed in The Used's In Love and Death. It felt like a complete departure from the sound which I loved them for on their self-titled. I haven't brought myself to listen to their new effort yet. Can anyone tell me what it's like?

Likewise, Sparta's Threes upset me deeply. I had really hoped that the addition of Engine Down guy to the band would give them a new dimension which would build on their stronger efforts (notably Wiretap Scars), but instead delivered oversimplified crooning pop.

Taking Back Sunday's Louder Now. I didn't rate Where You Want To Be as highly as Tell All Your Friends, although I still thought it was an excellent CD. Louder Now was WYWTB-Lite. Weak as.

The first half of Thursday's A City By The Light Divided. DO YOU LIKE REALLY DISTORTEDLY LOUD, POORLY BALANCED SYNTHS AND BASS? HARSH SNARE AND MUFFLED VOCALS? Then this CD is fucking for you, man. Second half was alright, I guess. Guess whoever mixed the first half died or something and was replaced. We can only hope.

Finally, Decemberunderground by AFI. Give me The Art of Drowning. Give me Black Sails in the Sunset. Hell, give me Shut Your Mouth and Open Your Eyes. Give me anything but what wound up being recorded and burned into history as Decemberunderground. It's hard to take a song about someone called Miss Murder seriously when it sounds like it was written by Green Day and is toe tappingly infectious. I don't know. Musically, their post-straight horror punk years, pre-popelectronica stuff was their most diverse and interesting. Decemberunderground was pretty disappointing to me.

I don't know. All these bands used to be favourites of mine. Maybe I just outgrew them and became focused on things I didn't like about it instead of stuff I did. But if that's the case, it strikes me as strange that I can still listen to the older stuff I originally liked and still enjoy it as much today as I did back when I first listened to it.