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You Can't Hear it on the Radio is a blog about the current golden age of music. At no time since the 1960s has there been such an output of quality music by so many varied artists. Add to that technology that makes it easier than ever for the curious to find good music today. But, like an unlimited selection at an all-you-can-eat buffet, there's no table service. You will have to seek it out. The old model is dead. Generally speaking, you can't hear it on the radio. You can learn about it here, though.

Noah: Belle & Sebastian's new album, Write About Love is their first since 2006's The Life Pursuit. It also passed Midlake's The Comfort of Strangers like it was standing still in the race for my most disappointing album of 2010.

Steve: After Life Pursuit, which was a great foray into a bluesy sonic direction for this band, my expectations for Write About Love could not have been higher. Unfortunately, despite there being a few things to commend their effort here, overall I agree with you that Write About Love is somewhere between a small and a huge miss.

Noah: I really felt like they had found a new phase. 2000's Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like a Peasant was a fine album, but seemed somewhat repetitious after Tigermilk, If You're Feeling Sinister and The Boy With the Arab Strap.

So, I was excited to hear 2003's Dear Catastrophe Waitress and The Life Pursuit show progress and evolution. To follow that up with Write About Love, which just seems like a lazy album, is incredibly disappointing.

It's a regression.

Steve: I've spent a lot of time with Write About Love trying to pinpoint my specific issue. I think the songwriting is fine, though lyrically there's nothing memorable. I think it comes down to the production choices, which seem tame and uninspired. When I take each song as a standalone I like them well enough, but after the album is done I'm left flat. A Belle & Sebastian record should not come across as an afterthought, but this is the emotional chord they struck with me.

Noah: I agree completely. I don't know if it's possible for Belle & Sebastian to be aggressive, but they had been moving confidently on their last couple of albums. Write About Love is only aggressively boring.

Steve: It sounds like maybe they've run out of things to say.

Noah: I hope not. That would be startling after their previous two albums. It seems to me that one of the main symptoms of this is the sheer number of voices heard in major roles on this album. I counted at least five. I like that in a "wall of sound" context, or with a band that has consistency with the number of voices (something Belle & Sebastian were great at - in the past), but Write About Love is distractingly all over the place.

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