Album Rating: 4.0

Hmmm, on reflection, I don't think it's just that I'm a really sappy person and so all this flies under the radar. Like, if this album was just a long love letter, I could see some of these lines seeming over the top, or just quite sentimental. But as I've said before in this thread, I don't really see this album as being about love, or not directly. Of course, I'm not denying that there is love and relationship being described. But for me, it is all through a hazy, dreamy lens - where that lens is not the hazy lens of being in love - it is, rather, darker than that. The singer, Aaron, has described in an interview how this album came out of a real struggle with mental health. So somewhat contrary to Sowing's review, which, by my recollection, described just how romantic this album is, I see it as more concerned with being in and out of touch with reality, and with people, and yes, with those we love. There are so many ways that mental health interacts with love and in what we seek from our lovers and seek to give them. And I see the album as exploring some of those themes. For me the lovey-dovey lines are always in some wider context where I'm asking "what's really going on here? can I fully trust the narrator's perspective here - is he really in touch with what's real?" I feel like through the intentionally dreamy atmosphere, and through the less than fully direct lyricism, which Aaron has described as keeping the listener at a certain arm's length from what is really being described, there is never just straight-forward romanticism at work here. So I feel like these seemingly sappy lyrics are framed in such in a way, where their ostensible romanticism is called into question, that no sappiness alarms are triggered for me.

Album Rating: 4.5

that's an excellent dissection and I agree 100%. It is very very dreamy and hazy, and that coupled with the lyrics lends credence to the unreliable narrator theory. It's hard to decipher if it's truly a love letter, a dream where nothing is grounded in reality, or somewhere in between.

Album Rating: 4.0

That's right!

Album Rating: 3.0

It might not be about love lyrically, but the musical language itself seems sappy in the sense that it reminds me so much of lovesongs or sentimentality. So for me the sappiness doesn't come from lyrics, it's sonical.

Album Rating: 4.0

Oh, interesting Trif. I don't think I make that sonic connection. Will think more about that though.

Album Rating: 3.0

Yeah weird how this can differ so much between people! I'm not at all a lyrics guy by the way, never have been. Maybe that plays a role?

Album Rating: 4.0

Maybe. I'm very affected my lyrics, they are an easy make or break for me. So yeah that might be relevant.



Just to say, though, this is definitely a grower! This was a 3/3.5 for me at first.

Album Rating: 3.0

Ah, suspected as much. There's lots going on here I think, so I can easily see this benefitting from multiple listens over a longer period of time.

Album Rating: 4.6

I fully agree with nightbringer interpretation and that's why I used "you never kiss me when we're dancing, you just grab my shoulders tryina wake me up" as a summary - most important and most telling line of the album

Album Rating: 4.5

never really thought about that for more than two seconds, but you're totally right, that's a crucial line.

Album Rating: 4.0

Just re-read your review, Rowan, really excellent stuff. And yeah you really tease out the tensions being explored in the album between love and reality.

Album Rating: 4.6

thank you! and I ultimately view the dream haze/unreal feeling as basically a method of exploring love/relationships from the outside perspectives, rather than the 1000th indie album about love written straight with no alternate perspective whatsoever (I think the band have outright said this is pretty much the case). but that doesn't make the way this album explores the dream theme any less important in itself

Album Rating: 5.0

this or lana for AOTY

Do you know Sowing, that there is an artist called Lana del Rabies?

https://lanadelrabies.bandcamp.com/

Album Rating: 4.5 | Sound Off

Every time I come back to this record it somehow sounds sadder.

Album Rating: 4.0

Totally feel you on that Lucman. It didn't really begin as a sad album for me. More just soothing and dreamy. But it increasingly feels melancholic to me.

Interesting because I find it more positive than I did at first, maybe I’m just in a better headspace than I was. Doesn’t matter, still aoty

Album Rating: 4.5 | Sound Off

This album is really like a continually shifting kaleidoscope of images and feelings. It's settled as my AOTY too.

Album Rating: 4.5 | Sound Off

I think my top three albums of the year are pretty much cemented as:

1. This.

2. Great Grandpa: Four of Arrows

3. Jimmy Eat World: Surviving.

Album Rating: 1.0

what's four arrows