any opinions on The Dears? the album seems to picking up rave reviews left, right, and indeed, center. Even The Guardian have latched on and given them 4/5.

whilst there are some good songs on the album, am i alone in finding it lacking? the singer's Damon Albarn/Morissey impression grate at times -'specially when he goes "i avn't got a raaaaain coawt, of me own" on one track. it is also overly-long at 66ish minits, there's no way i couldn't listen to it without liberally employing the skip button. what annoyes the most however is when a songs going along all good and then this ludicrous geetar solo kicks in, some of them even have ropey FX on them which makes them sound very 80s (in a bad way).

is the album self produced? i don't have the sleave notes to hand to check, but it sounds like it needs a stronger producer to rain in some of the tangents.

i'll still be going to see them in january mind.