Bear was quiet. Bear was poked. Bear howled. Job done.

A little simplistic. I'll elaborate.

Yes, I partly agreed with Brian's 'souless' statement to provoke the response, but I also find some of the more recent BSS and NPs emotionally flat. Yes, Bejar's jarring voice can pack an emotional wallop and Neko, as you have rightly noted in the past, is a goddess but...I don't know, as polished and poppy as the Newman-penned stuff is, that beyond the adrenaline rush, is there much there there? You mention 'The Jessica Numbers' as a track from 'Twin Cinema' as a standout track but for me, it's a track that is reminiscent of some of the stuff I enjoyed more on 'The Electric Version'; beyond quick staccato drumming, not much else stands out for me on that one. Another track on TC, like 'Jackie, Dressed in Cobras', could just have easily been plucked from a previous album, which doesn't make it bad track in and of itself, but the similarity to previous output begins to dull its potential impact. By the time Challengers comes out, even the Behar-dominant stuff like 'Myriad Harbour' seems like more rehash. Willing to concede that 'souless' is an adjective too far but for me, it's lurching along a continuum towards that with each new release.

As for BSS, well you and I have agreed to disagree on their eponymous 2005 disc, which I think spirals off into unstructured and at times irritable noodling (that song where you hear the word freedom kind of half-assedly tossed out at the eighth minute of what seems like a 20 minute long jamboree being the biggest offender and prime example of what I dislike about it). Yes, 'Major Label Debut', which is a quite pretty track but the rest....again, we'll disagree on the rest.

In the span of the past two days, both you and Sarah's brother have urged me to give their latest disc more chances, so I will dutifully give it another few spins, though I fear I will never come around to even casually tolerating 'Texico Bitches'. I will also check out the '09 Bejar release, and report back.