f the sustained guitar chord that ends “She Has No Strings” was not the song’s highlight: 6.8


If Dirty Three’s increased attention to structure had resulted in more dynamic deliveries or more forceful material rather than just long, sustained breeziness: 7.6


If the balance between structured and improvised beauty coalesced more frequently, as it does on the incredible “Sister let them try and follow”: 8.8


If the guitar was just a little louder: 7.0


If the arrangements were given as much attention as the astonishing, rich, in-the-same-room production: 9.1


If the piano and bass -- first-time additions to a Dirty Three album -- forced the band to approach their instruments or their atmospheric dirges in a different manner (for the first time on this, their sixth album): 7.5


If David Yow hadn’t told me how much he loves this band: 6.3


If Warren Ellis hadn’t contributed better violin lines to Nocturama: 7.1


If the songs were all 1-5 minutes shorter: 6.9


If the album’s longest songs, with the exception of “Rude (and then some slight return)”, were actually aspiring to some height: 7.7


If “Rude (and then some slight return)” had been left off the album: 4.9


If “Rude (and then some slight return)” was the album’s only track: 9.3


If the rest of the album followed “Rude’s” example, swelling not just in volume but in emotion, expanding rather than settling: 8.0


If the band hadn’t honed their interaction to the point of effortless intuition: 5.7


If, on “She Lifted the Net”, it sounded like the band was even trying: 6.9


If Dirty Three (Godspeed You Black Emperor, too) ever recorded an album of 2-4 minute rock songs, challenging themselves to tackle new territory with a set-up and sound that is nearing exhaustion: 8.2


If Mick Turner had used some of his lovely Moth material for She Has No Strings Apollo: 7.8If the texture and rhythm shift in “Alice Wading” didn’t drag on for as long as it does, deflating the tension brought on by the change: 6.9


If the entire album was composed of songs like “Alice”, songs that tread water rather than swim: 4.0


If there were no naked women on the cd: 6.0


If I had had the chance to see some of these songs performed live: 8.5


If I was on methadone: 9.9


If anyone in Dirty Three or at Touch and Go can get me methadone: 10.0


Compared to the Earth cd (Pentastar) I listened to earlier in the day: 9.0


Compared to Sad and Dangerous, Dirty Three or Horse Stories: 4.9


If the fleeting drag of “Long Way To Go With No Punch” had been traded for any song on Dirty Three’s In the Fishtank collaboration with Low: 7.6


If “long way to go with no punch” didn’t describe the album perfectly: 7.7? 8.6? 9.1?


We’ll never know.