Album Rating: 4.5
with B-Sides sometimes it is more a case of waiting for similar bedfellows
Radiohead's 'Nude' springs to mind, knocking around since 'The Bends' in a more simple form, then becomes one of their best songs once officially recorded and released
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Album Rating: 5.0
Yeah no issue with b-sides at all, just don't know what is necessarily gained by admitting it when they could just release it as they did (an "LP") and not set expectations prematurely low and/or have it misfiled on sites like this or RYM.
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Album Rating: 4.0
Weird too that they released a set of new songs for purchase only, you’d expect the new album to have been released that way not vice versa
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Album Rating: 5.0
Boney, you heard the Valley of Abandoned Songs yet? Not as consistently superb as FDTD, but there are some brilliant moments that are definitely worth your time.
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Album Rating: 4.0
Just one cursory listen so far, can’t say anything blew my mind but it seems good, sure it’ll grow more
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Album Rating: 5.0
Double check the tracks I highlighted a page ago ;-)
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Album Rating: 4.5
I read a review that stated it isn't just that the songs are effectively b-sides but also the way they've been recorded, a bit more off the cuff or potentially 'unfinished' by usual standards leads to a different feel to their other recent material.
Definitely the vibe I have got after two full listens anyway, does make it seem a nice and vital and quite 'underproduced' set. Oberst was right - it deserved to be 'a proper album'.
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Album Rating: 4.0
I’ve settled into Valley of Abandoned Songs now, it is very good, just short of a 4 I think but could grow in a bit more. A few of the more barroom country tunes (“Younger as the Days Go By”, “Black Is My True Love’s Hair”, “Raccoon, Rooster and Crow”), while good, are holding it back a bit for me; I always tend to have mixed feelings about their songs in that mode. But am really digging most of the rest, especially the piano-led songs. It definitely hits a peak toward the end, the duo of “Tomorrow Is Just a Dream Away” and “Let Me Ride Away with the Horseman” are my favorites, closely followed by “So Long John”, “New York By Moonlight”, and “Crime Scene Queen” (I found the backing vocals going “Pink, pink, pink” in that latter one a bit annoying at first but less so now and the song is undeniably well-written otherwise). On the whole I put it somewhere between Dreams and Asylum in quality, it definitely maintains their streak of stronger work following the weaker stuff in the latter half of the ‘10s.
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Album Rating: 5.0
It's right around a 4 for me too. It's better than Asylum but it's quite a bit short of Dreams, which for me, is the best of their discog. Lots of solid to very good songs, while Crime Scene Queen, Midnight Doves, and Ride Away With The Horsemen mark my high points.
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Album Rating: 4.5
Dreams is the best but they're all about the same for me - there isn't really a weak song on the new one, a few sort of 'saloon bar jam by numbers' tracks I guess, still a bit of overt Dylan worship too maybe.
I'd say Asylum is better for being more fun personally, and again I enjoyed every song on that one to some degree.
Dreams isn't quite a 5, it isn't that degree of better enough to pull clear of the rest. I do need to really do justice to their earlier albums though as I'm sure at least one is probably a 4.5 too.
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Album Rating: 4.0
This is the majority view but I maintain the self-titled is their best, I think you can argue it’s a bit inconsistent and less polished than their later stuff but for me that’s where their barroom stuff sounds best and are some serious genre classics there that make it their most essential.
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Album Rating: 5.0
I explored their previous works and, after hearing Dreams, they paled in comparison. I do like their self titled and Scarecrow is one of their greatest songs, but I wonder if you sort of needed to grow up with them to appreciate their older stuff on the same level (which is to say you're probably right -- longtime fans usually know best). For me, Dreams is the 5/5 classic and the closest anything else comes is a strong 4. Nothing wrong with that, either.
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Album Rating: 4.5
I remember back in the day Yonder is the Clock being quite a lauded release too
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Album Rating: 4.0
The radio is blowing down the road, on the long journey home
Whenever I get down, I just recall a poem, it's like a home away from home
But I'm strung out on this chord, pounding a dark keyboard
And I don't care where I'm slouching toward
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