Man Ray=excellent posts.
I remember having all of those 30 second clips from ATYCLB, all 11 songs, prior to the album being released.
Also, I remember having a certain expectation about the music, based on those clips, even if it was only 5 mintues out of an hour or so of music. In hindsight, it's pure stupidity to base an expectation on so little. But, it's a natural reaction, just like so many are haing with these shitty clips.
And when Vertigo comes out, I'm not going to expect the rest of the album to sound that way, good or bad. Beautiful Day didn't encapsule all of ATYCLB, nor did Discotheque with POP or The Fly with Achtung, or Numb with Zooropa and so on and so on.
It's very hard to resist downloading the new music, shitty quality or not. But it's just a taste, a small taste. Just enough to get us through the last several weeks. I for one, am placing no expectation based on the sound of those clips.
4 shitty clips, a total of about, what? 6 mintues of music.
People are setting themselves up for dissapointment, I can see it now. I think people should just let the music happen, as much as they can.
Try to let it surprise you, if you can.
The only way I have figured out to do so, is to literally not expect anything. Sure, I have an idea about what the album might sound like. But I am also 99.9% positive that I am wrong. How could I not be? How could anyone on this forum not be wrong about their expectations? Just try not to expect too much, if anything. Because the music on that album is not going to change.