Dude, Do Better is pretty good and Property is incredible. No denying this.

But Eloise? Fed To Death? She Won't Follow You? Young Dumb and Stung? (the last one's chorus especially is cringe-worthy)

Album Rating: 4.0

cemetery is perfect

Ehhhhh

The lyrics are.

Album Rating: 4.0

Stylee - I agree that Young, Dumb and Stung is utterly atrocious. Fed to Death is absolutely throwaway. Eloise is passable and I enjoy She Won't Follow. So overall, I end up enjoying the vast majority of the album. Although the flaws are obvious and significant, Say Anything's S/T is basically as enjoyable as anything they've done. It's not like In Defense of the Genre didn't have some clunkers.

Album Rating: 4.0

Eloise and She Won't Follow You are both awesome songs

WatchItExplode, it seems like these flaws would merit at least a 3.5 for this album. At least by the way that I rate things. I can be nitpicky about the consistency of albums, because it just bothers me when a particular song ruins the flow so much, not to even mention multiple ones.

And I don't think they had too many clunkers on their other albums; In Defense of the Genre... I'd say I'd have taken off maybe 4 to 5 songs on it tops, but they're songs that I still enjoyed, just a bit less than the others. Their debut also had some that were a minor dip in quality, but still songs that I enjoy very much. It gets to the point where you realize you're comparing songs to complete landmarks, and it's obviously hard for them to live up to that

Album Rating: 4.0

I guess my only beef is that you have both IARB and IDOTG at 4.5 and this at a 3. Personally I feel that IDOTG is easily the most inconsistent, and woudn't consider S/T to be such a huge dip in quality from that album.



I'm really looking forward to their new release on Equal Vision though.

You looked through my ratings? Damn, persistent.

Bemis' lyrics on the first two records were much more relatable. I could identify with what the songs were about, having been going through many of the experiences myself. I also had a bipolar girlfriend at the time, so I could much more easily understand the emotions from which Max was singing, and it just really hit me hard sometimes. I mentioned to you that there were some songs that I didn't enjoy as much, but they're still great songs - the precedent was just so high from the other songs that it can be hard to compare. If "the Truth Is, You Should Lie With Me" was on this album, it would be a definitive highlight, but because it was surrounded by gems it didn't quite live up. but I thoroughly enjoy both of the albums to this very day, and also thoroughly have issues finding the passion on this release. Bemis doesn't even sound like he really cares about what he's singing about, and the "pop" songs on this just fail on quite a few levels.

tl;dr version: their first two albums were superb. this just doesn't deliver.