who posted that?

RS probably started sucking when most other mainstream magazines hit the suck hard - all short attention span blurbs and charts and lists. Once they killed off most of their long-form stuff, it went downhill quick. Plus, the uncool gossipy tone about celebrity no-talents is hard to swallow.

So far, it sounds like two stars is about right. These awful harmony vocals and Robert Smith meets Bruce Springsteen moments are kind of painful.

Oh god, now they are doing Queen-type vocals.

Make it stop.

Hey, good thing I've got nothing against Robert Smith, Bruce Springsteen or Queen, then.

With Gawker Media apparently keeping watch on Obner, it appears ever possible that Northern Soul & I could face repercussions for appropriating the intellectual property of Deadspin.

Please Nick Denton, don't hurt us.

Yeah, VERY dissappointed after one listen through.

I started to listen to it today, made it through the first 3 songs (when you were young was even worse than the first time I heard it), and then proceeded to listen to about 20 seconds of each song trying to find something interesting. I see them getting dropped after one more album.

yeah but they're not smith, springteen, or queen. much less smith mixed with springsteen.

Thanks for Dalen for the link.

I liked "Young," but this record is not very good. Maybe it's a grower.

I like the idea of somebody having Springsteen-esque ambitions, but the songs are, you know, kind of terrible. And I considered the first one a fine batch of nifty tunes.

Based on the pre-release talk of American influences which seemed totally out of whack with the entertainingly transparent Britishy ones of the first album, you could see a train wreck coming. The AMG review says the beards were an obvious giveaway! Based on his track record, it wouldn't have surprised me if Rob Sheffield found geat humour in it all and gave a positive review based on unintentional comedy. The problem is that while 80's new wave has inherent comic potential, bad Springsteen doesn't. New Wave is also much easier to imitate convincingly than Springsteen. For example, don't just say your brother was born on the fourth of july (so what?). Give us something specific from a fourth of july like Dave Alvin did (Mexican kids shooting fireworks). Don't just refer to 'the road', etc. Where's the detailed imagery? I totally disagree with 'we all thought they were too smart to take themselves seriously.' These guys took themselves 100% seriously and then some from the start--pretentiousness is in their DNA and part of their schtick. An overreach was practically inevitable. I wouldn't have necessarily predicted the Springsteen obsession, but it was obvious they would go for something big and Born To Run type Springsteen is huge in all ways. So the move makes sense in a way.

If The Killers wanted to get in touch with American myth, these guys would have been more suitable role models (and their costumes beat the hell out of what Brandon & the boys are sporting these days):

http://www.roverpack.com/

I think my wife bought this before I could get to her. DAMMIT. We never buy shit, and when we do... it's this?

if RS can be explained by conspiracy theory, what about the voice?
http://villagevoice.com/music/0641,kamps,74668,22.html

'But the thing we're gonna focus on with regards to the record unfortunately not called Sam's Ass Cabin is frontman Brandon Flowers: his voice, his lyrics, and even his hairdo if it comes down to that. Words rhymed on this album: "higher," "wire," "fire," and "higher"; "burn" and "turn" (that's what the world does, see); "refrained," "cocaine," "brain," and (duh) "pain." Here's a line of seventh-grade poetry: "The thunder speaks for the sky/And on the cold wet dirt I cry." Proposed next line: "The tears come out of my eye/In my eye there's a sty/Why?"'