Even without the internet (it existed but barely) it took quite bit of criticism. Mostly because it was so middle of the road.

I had to look it up because it's extreme but they completely broke up and then reformed. The sonics came out with an album last year too. It's not like he hasn't been doing anything between albums.

Is this the album that he specifically told people not to buy on the Daily Show?

Yeah I forgot about D'Angelo's headphones and My Bloody Valentine's biopic.

Those are both pretty extreme examples

I think he's doing everyone a favor by not rapping too much

I recall having similar discussions when I got interested in wine (which is so ridiculously boring to everyone else, usually including the person you're discussing it with). There were people who would assign a numerical or letter grade to different wine (professional critics and individual wine snobs) and people who…

I think they exceeded it with Village Green's songwriting (but that's just my opinion) but they didn't experiment as much with production techniques. Also, I've known Sgt. Pepper forever and I only found Village Green about 18 years ago.

Yeah he was all over the place. I think I'm remembering his lack of interest from Geoff Emerick's book, which was Emerick's recollections. Paul, on the other hand, obsessed over that album, to point where he went in and rerecorded all of his bass tracks over and over again until they were beyond perfect.

I'd agree with that. Although I do have to say, when the new vinyl remasters came out, its the album that I was the most surprised by. The bass playing in particular really stands out on the new vinyl (mono version at least, I didn't bother with the stereo versions).

As the writer of When I'm 64, I don't think he can without getting it back in spades.

I love the Kinks and they are criminally overlooked in the US (still), but I don't think they had anything similar prior to Sgt. Peppers.

From what I recall (from reading too many books about the Beatles and nothing cooler) Lennon actually really didn't like the album, particularly the Paul songs.

He's not entirely wrong about it being overrated but only when you compare it to their other albums, not for the reasons he cited.

So who is on the cover?

What about Blood Simple? I haven't found that many people who have even seen it. I think it was fantastic.

The fact that they worked a Jules and Jim visual quote into a slapstick fight makes it one of my favorite films of all time. I also saw it about three thousand times on cable in the 80s before I knew who they were.

Yeah I think that's the nail in the coffin for that film. She's a great actor (in other roles) but her performance marred an otherwise brilliant film. I remember seeing it at the time and being concerned that their foray into larger budgeted films was going to end poorly (which thankfully it didn't).

I'd recommend "The Floating Opera" as an easy to read and digest Barth book. After that they're all pretty involved and painfully long. I don't think Delillo is in the same camp. But I'd never recommend any of these books to anyone with the exception of the one I just did.

He grew up in my hometown (although he was 3 years older so maybe it was his hometown). He was always hilarious.