Is that all there is?

We LOVE (the) Gossip. We do. They were our first 'amazing' gig, Beth Ditto was our first lesbian icon and their emergence in 2006 was one of the biggest catalysts for our explosion of homodom and interest in homo music. We wrote our A-level English Language coursework on the band's history and while instantly we were never into their real early Olympia riot grrl material we've learnt to appreciate it with time. Standing in the Way of Control was our mid-teen years, and as for Men in Love; flawless flaw-free sans flaw. Let's not even get started on the auditory ambrosia which is Beth Ditto's solo EP (should've been titled 'Goddess'). So... why aren't we creaming our knickers all over "Perfect World", the lead single from the forthcoming Joyful Noise?

The song is great. Extremely enjoyable, and a more than worthy album track - or even follow-up single. But we're just not feeling it for 'first single' material. This is a problem we've had with a few bitches lately, and we don't know whether it's us or them. Are our expectations just too high or is the material actually sub-par? Usually we'd look to other peoples' opinions for a watermark but general feeling seem to be just as mixed about this material as our own. I mean, so what if our expectations are high? We've loved each Gossip album more than it's immediate predecessor, so we've become used to hearing even better shit, and not only that but HELLO XENOMANIA. The closest thing we have to modern day House of Motown or Stock Aitken Waterman (shudder), our favourite Kentish producers in the world and the Girls Aloud behind Girls Aloud have their fingers in this massive Gossip pie and we were SO excited. Maybe we're being too negative. We're enjoying the song. It's a lot more lush and 'full' than they've done in the past, which is good we guess.

Maybe we're just fucked off cos we know we probably won't be able to see their imminent supporting tour. Damn gap yah.

(oh, hello Shiny and New's two thousandth post!)