>The Pipettes album, my #1 of 2006, STILL hasn't been released in the 
>states: I saw a Newbury Comics ad in this week's Phoenix announcing 
>their "debut EP" is being released this week in tandem with a short US 
>tour.

That's funny:  I literally just finished writing a review of that EP for
Bullz-Eye.

Wow, talk about déjà vu…and not just because We Are The Pipettes – the album
from which this song originates – was a brilliantly British blend of ‘60s
girl group sounds and ‘80s new wave fun that made my Best of 2006. (It’s
been available in the UK since August of last year.) No, what’s even more
depressingly familiar is the way the album’s belated physical release is
being handled here in the States: by wasting time with a teaser EP instead
of just getting the damned album out there. You may recall that Interscope
Records is also the American home of The Feeling, a band who experienced a
similarly-delayed Stateside premiere. Sorry to get up on a soap box in the
middle of a quick take, but record labels really need to hurry up and
realize that, in today’s high-speed digital world, we need simultaneous
world-wide releases for albums; the buzz on new bands spreads way too fast
nowadays, and, at this rate, the one on The Pipettes will be over a year old
by the time their album ever gets a U.S. release. Oh, but you were probably
wondering about the contents of this EP. Well, you get two songs from the
album (the other one being “I Love You”), plus two songs that’ve been
rescued from earlier UK B-sides; of the latter pair, the best of the bunch
is “Guess Who Ran Off With The Milkman,” which might actually be better than
the EP’s title track. - Will Harris