Ex:El and Gorgeous are my favourite 808 State albums mainly because at the time they sounded so fresh... Black morpheous definately inspired alot of the new jazz sounding breakbeat efforts kicking about at the moment, and still does it for me everytime, that break man, quality... so many other 808 state tracks have inspired many current music producers, and helped forge new directions in the creation and sound of dance music..
Anyway onto the new album... I cant wait! If Q and other magazines decide the need to give it a bad review, then surely this will do no harm. It will propel the album into the wonderful world of 'own discovery' music. ie the masses wont know about it, but when individuals find it, they will be amazed at what they have discovered, and will feel that the music belongs to their own tastes as opposed to it being forced down them by the all encompassing dance music press.
these people will play the album to more people and it will eventually become a 'cult' album, which dare I say is a hell of a lot more inspiring and welcoming than having it raved about by the no-hopers at mixmag and m8 etc etc...
...the 808 might not get fantastically huge sales, but they can be damned sure of credibility, which as far as I'm concerned it worth its weight in gold...
thats not to say i wouldnt complain if the album went platinum, of course
here's to the launch date...