Got an upcoming piece in the Voice on Luomo and Kylie Minogue (yes, together) that, uh, I haven't even written yet (soon! soon! well, OK, maybe not too soon--not due till Feb. 1, gimme time, gimme time), but tonight while loafing around the office catching up on email and doing some advance work (plus getting some freelance shit done and dinking around the Web like I'm prone to do), I threw on The Present Lover for the first time in an age. The difference is that it's not the trade-proofed signal-toned version I got last year at the Akufen gig (thanks, Jon B!), nor even the paper promo I received a month-plus back now that Kinetic's picked the album up for U.S. release next month, but a final copy with different cover art (the pouting b&w shot from the "Tessio" 12-inch, which I find ridiculously hot, thus confusing many of my friends, who didn't--but, but, but she's pouting, gah, melt). And holy shit: the sound quality is SO MUCH BETTER; promo copies usually have lesser fidelity, granted, but I feel like I'm hearing the record for the first time now. And as a result, "Visitor" and "Talk in Danger" (or "Talk in a Danger," as the new cover sez--hmmm) come across with way more power than before. I've never cared all that much for either--I like "Danger" fine, but "Visitor" always seemed too tremulous-puffy, though as a scene-setter it's pretty good. Now, though, I'm pretty well hooked. Needless to say, "So You," which made my singles ballot in P&J (the album did, too), will probably cause my head to explode.