Album Rating: 5.0
There's 2 types of people tho: the type to see a moshpit and run closer and the type to start to get nervous about the moshpit widening enough to include them
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Album Rating: 1.0
What about the lame wheelkicking chubby fucks
Those always get a punch in the face if I'm around
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Album Rating: 1.0
lol
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Album Rating: 1.0
I can just imagine torts body-slamming the fuck out of everyone in the crowd lmao
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Album Rating: 4.5
This was a grower for sure
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Album Rating: 4.5
This is a great album no doubt, love the intro and Among the Wildflowers especially, but I could never overcome the fact that everything here feels like cliched emo-rock/pop-punk. My perception could easily be flawed; maybe these guys influenced the bands that I'm thinking of, thus making them more important than I'm aware. I've also listened to this maybe 3 times in full ever - once at its inception, once when someone implored me to give it another chance, and then again when the votes came in for the decade feature back in February and I saw it was #1. I'm going to keep listening to this because it feels like everything I should love - and by all means it must be a classic with that average and the staff decade results - but I just can't shake the vibe that this is a bit corny. Not sure what it is, because I even like the guy's voice. I dunno. Will probably 5 this in a month or two knowing me...
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Album Rating: 1.0
Nah, you're right. As cliched as it gets.
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lol ^
Album is great, it kinda draws on really familiar melodies but creates its own thing out of it.
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Album Rating: 4.5
Well I never said it's as cliched as it gets, there's certainly other bands that are way more cookie-cutter; I guess this just feels a tad whiny to me. Like, I get it - it's emotional, covers hefty topics, etc. But I just don't feel the rage or the hurt that seems so obvious to everyone else. It's very good instrumentally, the vocalist is great too - I'm sure I'm missing something and the fact that Pikazilla is sort of defending my stance all but confirms it (no offense, bud).
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Album Rating: 4.5
okay, so it only took the decade list for me to check this out, but goddamn i'm glad i did. this is the kind of punk i absolutely adore.
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Album Rating: 1.0
None taken. This, Menzingers and Wonder Years are pretty much the kind of punk/emo music I hate from the previous decade.
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I get that with Menzingers & Wonder Years but this is the shit
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Album Rating: 4.5
I'm glad you're digging it Gonzo.
I like this but I don't love it, I guess you could say.
And Pika, as much as our tastes do not overlap, I do marginally (can't stress it enough) agree with that take. The Menzingers and Wonder Years are both 3.5-core artists for me personally that I do enjoy (certain albums a lot), but could never for the life of me understand the proclamations of life-changing greatness. I grew up with arguably shittier pop-punk (Yellowcard, for instance, brings the feels but is very average technically) that I enjoy more, and to me this new wave of pop-punk just sounds like people in their 30s/40s who refused to grow up. I just don't get the appeal of people my age singing about sleeping on their parents' floors. I know I made a boatload of umbrella accusations about modern pop-punk right there, which isn't my intent because I do somewhat enjoy it (esp. TWY, Sister Cities is very underrated IMO), but I guess I'm just the product of a different wave of pop-punk. I guess the fairest way to say it is that the new wave of pop-punk might actually be better musically, but I can no longer relate to it. I don't consider The Hotelier to be among the same company as The Menzingers and Wonder Years, but they do evoke a similar reaction from me - like they're trying really hard to sound emotional, but I don't feel it. Like I said, it's not them or their fans, it's me. Somewhere along the line I became a boring adult in his 30s who forgot how to feel, I guess. Now I'm more into artsy/experimental stuff, regardless of genre but generally speaking creative and aesthetically pleasing pop/electronic/rock or pristine, back-to-roots country/americana/folk. But yeah, more power to the folks who are deeply impacted by this. Maybe this is to their era what TDAG was to me/mine. And I'm sure there were people in 2006 who were laughing their ass off at me claiming TDAG changed my life. It's just a cycle, and I'm sure Hotelier fans will know what I mean when some 2035 wave of pop-punk bands emerge.
Also, not to discount those who loved TDAG/mid-2000s emo-rock AND still love this, further proving that I'm talking out of my ass!
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Album Rating: 5.0
Yup I am one of them lol. TDAG and this album are among the very select few that I've given a 5. The closer on this album is one of the best I can think of. If it's been a while since you've jammed this, I would recommend revisiting that track at least.
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Album Rating: 5.0 | Sound Off
Interesting to see your take, sowing. My love of this certainly stems from listening to it incessantly for years during various low periods, not because its particularly innovative or groundbreaking. I think it does what it does very well, and the lyrics are astonishing in their depth if you really want to dig into them, but peoples affection for this seems far more rooted in personal experience and 'living with' the record, rather than there being some sort of objective excellence to it. Which may explain the diverging opinions on this: if you've not cherished it for a prolonged period in the way I've mentioned, I could totally see you not finding it particularly special.
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Album Rating: 5.0 | Sound Off
The same goes for the menzingers and older the wonder years too, I think.
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Album Rating: 5.0
the lyrics are truly out of this world. the album after this as well. Christian is a freaking poet and I could never aspire to write like he does.
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Album Rating: 4.5
The Wonder Years are undeniably just by the numbers watered down Lifetime/early Saves the Day but The Menzingers being cut paste 2000s Pop Punk is laughable at least for their stuff up to On the Impossible Past as it has some slight Folky and Gainesville Punk influence. Rented World was typical and ive never heard past that one.
This album is far from unique in the grand scheme of Emo but for an Emo Revival albums its more diverse, dynamic, and thematic than the majority of its mainstream counterparts
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peoples affection for this seems far more rooted in personal experience and 'living with' the record, rather than there being some sort of objective excellence to it.
certainly so for a lot of people but i dont agree that that's a universal prerequisite for adoring this album. for example, i dont have any particular personal experiences attached to this record and i still think it's fucking brilliant. the songwriting and the performances are just phenomenal.
that said, i guess i can see how people find themselves unable to connect with this record or any other pop punk that came out after they had reached their "mature" ages or whatever (not saying this is a particularly "pop punk" record but it definitely has strong enough elements/similarities to lump it in with TWY and others for the purposes of this point). theres a particular youthful quality to the very sound of a lot of pop punk music that makes it seem juvenile and almost silly relative to other music (think about it!). but i cant bring myself to assert that they are actually juvenile or silly when the music is totally genuine, the lyrics are intelligent and the songs are beautifully crafted. some people (kids) are going to be more predisposed to this kinda music because of their particular emotional state but the best i can hope for myself and others is that we always stay connected enough with our own youthfulness to remain able to identify with this kind of music when it's actually well done, no matter how old we get. so yea, basically just what Sowing said, but from the other side. his take was commendably thoughtful.
btw i think this record is substantially easier to relate to than any other "youthful pop punk/emo" type record because of the lyrics and the particularly evocative, insightful glimpse they provide into the subject of coping with death (and especially suicide). and again, there is not really any past experience in my life that i can tie this record to; it's just so well done that i can empathise with it regardless. Athom's review--as short as it is--is the best written distillation i've read of what makes this record so resonant and special.
p.s. baffling that this got #1. i get the Jane Doe parallel but for the fact that this record is not on par with Jane Doe. then again, not much is. :P
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Album Rating: 4.5
Definitely. While I wont deny that my life experiences affected my second listen of this I also feel like many of the subtle details that make it stand out from the crowd were more noticeable. Its not just the emotion but the fact that musically these guys are a bit of a step above the average.
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