Agree that we have been conditioned to an increasingly shorter (decreasingly longer?) attention span over the past half century, but I'm still not convinced that an album of one-themed pop music is sustainable beyond 50 minutes.

The exception I think is instrumental (Tortoise, Do Make Say Think) or largely instrumental (Sigur Ros, Hum) rock so one's assessment of the last 20 minutes of 'Illinois' is shaped by whether you see it as a collection of songs a la the Shins 'Chutes Too Narrow' or as more of an epic 'Svefn-G-Englar'-like sonic arc. Even though it's not chock full of snappy little ditties, to me it falls into a collection of more distinct songs which tend to repeat a little and with the Godspell-ish female backup vocals starting to grate somewhat after the 2/3 mark of the disc.

I think we know where Derek and Brian stand on this issue but Stuart and Marc seem a little quiet. Surely the Tour de France is a fait accompli at this point, M. VanGinkel. Care to comment. And Stuart, all this correct spelling is getting me down. Give me something garbled to send me into the weekend.