Speaking of filler...

[Tony]

David
First of all, like Nick, I will also defend "Perfect Water" to the hilt.
Live, it is one of my favourite songs.  On Club Ninja it just sounds a bit
flat.
I consider myself to be a fan.  I haven't seen them as many times as some
(10 times in all and not all between 1985 and 2002 - call me a fan!) but I
know what I like and love.  BOC music was the soundtrack of my youth.
Creatively, (regardless of who wrote the lyrics) their 1970s output is among
the purest example of good rock music there is/was.  Period.  Club Ninja on
the other hand sounded like a band struggling to find their muse.

<<Wow!  The early BOC albums *aren't* dated?  You can't be serious!
Whatever one's opinion of them, you mean to tell me they don't sound like
they were made in the early-mid 70's?>>

Maybe they sound like they were recorded in the early-mid 70s but the sound
of the recording doesn't detract from the freshness and energy.  I still get
a major buzz listening to those albums today, nearly 30 years after I first
heard them.

<<I've generally found "dated" to be one of the most irksome labels to apply
to music, right up there with "pretentious" - convenient and generally
meaningless cliches used most often by rock critics who can't (or in most
cases simply aren't able to) think of anything to actually say about the
music.  Very little music *isn't* dated; music (and art in general) tends to
be a product of its time.  That's part of the point of art.>>

Interesting opinion, but I don't really get your point.  Is that a good or a
bad thing?  Dated, for me, means something which I can't listen to without
context - most New Romantic music, most Hair Metal, all disco - reminds me
of a period in time.  Good music is timeless and IMO the first 4-5 BOC
albums are just that.

Tony