Excellent points Stuart. Perhaps the mopey, muffled sound is just not for me. Or maybe the listening post is not the greatest venue for listening to this sort of thing. More and more I'm finding the listening post doesn't help me in any way with my purchase decision. 99% of the time when I listen to something in the store I leave without buying it. Perhaps the exuberant prose on the wall that accompanies the disc instantly raises my shields and the album is then forced to be even better than its been hyped to be. This even happened with the new Tangiers CD which I was already digging due to a couple of early downloads. Had every intention of buying it until I listened to it in the store. Am I looking for instant pop/rock perfection?

Back to your point Stuart. I am certainly not averse to sincerity in music and in fact it is very refreshing as you mention. The latest Wrens disc was a good case in point.