these are my comments on the touche amore edit playlist:

i'm a touche amore fan, but i'm not a fan of ross robinson and i can do without the move to arena rock. it's not a bad ep when you cut it down, though.

i also wonder if the album proper doesn't end with "a broadcast", and if the last three tracks are maybe actually extra to the process and kind of tacked on. so, i've moved "i'll be your host" to the front, as a segue to the previous record, rather than leave it at the end. 

i've also moved deflector in sequence at the front of the album, as it precedes it (it was released as a single about a year ago) - but deflector is frustrating. the chorus is exactly what i'm kind of recoiling from about the record, but the rest of the track is pretty interesting. right now, the balance is that the lyrics & instrumentation saves the track, in the face of the cliched chorus. but, it's not exactly my favourite track on the disc.

feign is in the same category as deflector, so i've pulled it out, as well. the characteristic, ironic lyrics save it, basically. i just can't drop it, for that reason.

the last five tracks - the first eight on the record, with 3,4,5 removed because they're too glossy - actually flow fairly well after that, with the last three running into each other. that lets the salvaged ep start with some kind of boredoms-goes-blastbeats thing and end in a floydian throwback, rather than that goofy thing they should have relegated to a hidden track.

this is why i hate ross robinson. but, he failed at *totally* ruining touche amore, despite his best efforts.

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and, i think that's a sufficient summary of my thoughts on this. it's one of those records that i may like one day and hate the next, because it splits down the line like this; i may like some of the lyrics, or find some of the developments intriguing, and that may win one moment, but i may hate the glossy production and the anthemic choruses the next day, and it might overpower instead. it's a better record with this ordering, i think, but it's liabilities are permanent, as well. 

when this happens, you get lines on the ground, as well, with subsets that will in the end only like this disc, and subsets that will never come around to it. and, it's just how it is.

for now, this is beyond listenable, with these adjustments; it's enjoyable, and relatively strong, overall. the weakest in the pile, by far, but still relatively strong, even if i rarely end up coming back to it. but, i do hope they take a step back from the worst aspects, rather than embrace them - and we'll have to see what they do.