Thanks Kyle for giving me much more indie cred than I really deserve. I believe I only have one CD single of theirs and I thought that some of their videos were very cool but I'm afraid that's all the credit I can take where His Name is Alive is concerned. As for their Englishness it's probably due to the fact they were on 4AD the lable of all things precious and very "druidesque". I can only assume that Livonia is much prettier in name than in reality. Apparently the name came from one of the 19th century Baltic states.

Something that Brian, Kyle and I touched on briefly in conversation was the new Sufjan Stevens disc. I picked it up last week and have only given it a once through at this stage. I don't know how critics can dole out their stars or N's when they've just received the record. I need to listen to any album intermittently over a couple of months before I know where I stand with any work of music. Listening to it 5-10 times in a week is not the same thing at all and I'm quite sure the critics don't give any record that many spins.

Anyhoo I digress. My comment on the album was that at 22 tracks and almost 75 minutes that it is possibly too long. Good album but for my money it could have stopped quite nicely at track 15 and the 60 minute mark. Brian's comment was as follows: ...not sure about the concept of the album that's "too long". Doesn't it all depend on whether the songs are good? Doesn't a song justify its own existence in the pop milieu?

I suppose that for me the number of tracks is more of a concern than the actual running time. The last Godspeed album which chimes in at almost 75 minutes as well only has 5 tracks and I have no problem sitting through the whole thing (I get tired standing). As most of you know with any Godspeed or even Sigur Ros to some extent it's all about building a mood and a headspace where the music engulfs you and the delimitation of the tracks becomes entirely irrelevant as one piece segues into another.

With pure pop like the Shins, Pernice Brothers, Sufjan etc I think it's an entirely different matter. I complained somewhat that the last Shins record was too short but in retrospect that can only be a good thing as it leaves you hankering for more. And 10 distinctive pop tracks might be just enough. It's like a box of Cadbury's chocolates. You open it and see 20 different choccy goodies and you think you can take them all on but after 2 or 3 you know you'd be happy with just 10 or 12 choices as the other 8 are duff anyway and you'll leave them for your guests to eat.

I'm not saying that there are necessarily weak tracks on Sufjan's disc, I just don't need to hear them all in one session. As Kyle said if he leaves off 5 or 6 tracks he can release a few singles from the record and put these "extra" tracks on the B-side, leaving the Sufjan completists with something to spend their money on.

I guess I just don't subscribe to the Guided by Voices school of rock that says everything I write down is worth recording.