Album Rating: 4.5 | Sound Off

justice for Dream Song ^

Album Rating: 4.5 | Sound Off

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Album Rating: 4.5 | Sound Off

IM COMIN HOOOOMMME

IM ALLL WORKED UPPPP

Love the second city love. Something Borrowed needs to climb that list though.

Album Rating: 4.5

Something Borrowed is incredible but so are the two above it

Album Rating: 3.5

Bedroom Door is the only song I'm not feelin.

Album Rating: 4.5 | Sound Off

Project swap Something Borrowed with Staying Gold and we have the same top 3

Album Rating: 4.5

This album could've been 45 minutes of literally just those two songs and tbh I think I still would've been happy

Album Rating: 4.5 | Sound Off

Bedroom Door is def the lowest on my ranking but i loves it

Album Rating: 4.5

God why is so fucking GOOD ugh

Album Rating: 4.0

Couple of notes: In Dream Song I hear a lot of influence from Science Fiction-era Brand New. Also, Staying Gold invokes The Appleseed Cast’s vocal cadence, and that gives me a really warm feeling.

Album Rating: 3.5

Love Comes Around is so simple but so good



Starting to feel this album, it's perfect for the season. Not too fond of Bedroom Door and Old-Time Tunes.

Album Rating: 4.5

I should clarify that I don't think any song here is bad, the worst parts here are just okay



but the top half are all varying degrees of sublime

Album Rating: 3.0

I'm surprised you guys are liking this so much. The Dark, Dark Bright was a stone cold 5 for me, and still holds up today, and its one of the rare "modern" 5s for me - an album that I love that I heard outside of the early explosion of music we hear when we start this journey when we're young. So I get the appeal of the band.



At first I thought about chalking up not liking it as much to getting older; this kind of melancholy stuff doesn't really resonate with me right now while I'm focused on dad life and providing for a family. But TDDB still hits so I don't think it's just that.



There are a few issues with the album for me:



- The move away from post-rock and orchestral flourishes is understandable; its been 10 years and I can't say that I'm really listening to that kind of stuff any more and I get they wanted to do something different. But replacing it with kind of standard mid 00's alt rock tropes really doesn't work for me. Without all the embellishment, the music feels a little bit devoid of interesting harmonic content.



- The drummer tries to mix in some more interesting rhythmic ideas, but the rest of the band doesn't really follow or embrace it, so it doesn't land. Maybe a strange analogy but its kind of the rhythmic equivalent of a mid 00's metal band that has the rhythm guitarist playing a bunch of interesting chords and riffs that lend themselves to modal interchange but the lead player just plays aeolian licks on top without leaning into the chord changes.



- It's hard for me to tell if it's a stylistic choice or a loss in comfort singing in higher registers, but Nicky's voice never really delivers that same emotional catharsis on this album that it did consistently throughout TDDB. When he does reach for the high notes briefly, it sounds almost strained. The loss of vocal power and range feels drastic enough that it feels comparable Eddie Vedder's drop-off after Ten or Maynard's after 13th step.

Album Rating: 3.0

Apparently we have comment length limits now so here's the rest of that thought:





TDDB kind of combined a lot of elements of my favorite music from say 05-13 and distilled it into one incredible album, but this album makes it feels like that was something of a lightning in a bottle moment. Which is fair, its hard to expect a band to pull that off again.



More tongue in cheek, but TDDB sounded something like The National on a post-rock binge with a vocalist that had Dallas Green's ridiculous ability to keep his larynx relaxed and sing crystal clear at high registers in both quiet moments and belting out climaxes. This one sounds a bit like a band influenced by The Killers or The Fray I might have heard watching the credits of a soapy mid 2000s show like the OC with my high school ex girlfriend.



I feel like I'm being harsh because its perfectly solid and there's nothing really wrong with it, but it just doesn't reach the highs of the previous album. TDDB was the kind of album I would recommend to anyone to check out, regardless of the music they like. This one, I would recommend to people that I know enjoy music within this niche.

Album Rating: 5.0

As much as everyone else seemed to love this immediately, for me it was definitely a grower, so maybe it will be for you too!

SHE'S ON YOUR MIND
SHE'S ON YOUR MIND

Album Rating: 2.5

This seemed rly middle of the road after one play but I’m gonna try again because everyone seems rly high on this rn

Album Rating: 3.0

warning: it might actually be middle of the road

Album Rating: 4.5

counterpoint: no