Album Rating: 5.0

Flower of Blood is the 'Cocteau Twins tune' here, it might sound even better than I first thought which is great...but I still don't think there's a classic song behind the style



But then I can only hear a decent tune behind about 50% of Cocteau Twins songs (slightly overrated band for me)



Prettiest dirge 2022, and I quite like a dirge. Well sequenced before 'Blurred View' too, but I much prefer BV overall

thanx jking92

Album Rating: 5.0

who you summoning?

Album Rating: 5.0

Very loose tier-ing (not ranked) based on 2 complete listens:



Classic tier

‘Simulation Swarm’ - 5/5

‘No Reason’ - 5/5

‘Sparrow’ - 5/5

‘Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You’ - 5/5



Still A-Grade

‘Spud Infinity’ - 4.5/5

‘Flower of Blood’ - 4.5/5

‘Wake Me up to Drive’ - 4.5/5

‘Promise Is a Pendulum’ - 4.5/5



Incredibly Solid/Enjoyable

‘Change’ - 4/5

‘Time Escaping’ - 4/5

‘Little Things’ - 4/5

‘Blurred View’ - 4/5

‘The Only Place’ - 4/5

‘Blue Lightning’ - 4/5

‘Red Moon’ - 4/5

‘Certainty’ - 4/5



Very Good

‘Dried Roses’ - 3.5/5

‘12,000 Lines’ - 3.5/5



Decent

‘Heavy Bend’ - 3/5

‘Love Love Love’ - 3/5

Album Rating: 5.0

Sowing that’s a very accurate set of track ratings

KILL or KEEP coming to yall soon

Album Rating: 5.0

How many do I get to KILL?



I’m mostly with Sowing that ‘Love’, ‘Heavy’, ‘12,000’ would be first out.



Three more is far more difficult…’Dried Roses’, ‘Red Moon’ and maybe ‘No Reason’. Or ‘Flower’ if I’m feeling saucy.



Album doesn’t need major surgery at all and the whole point of the album is it’s this chop and change double set.

tfw everyone poo-pooing Heavy Bend but it’s actually in the top half of songs here and would easily make my theoretically superior 50-minute single album revision.

Heavy Bend and Lovelovelovelovelove are both easy keeps yh
Sparrow is unexpectedly creeping up as the only track maybe on par with Little Things/Sim Swarm's otherwise untouchable crowning combo

Album Rating: 5.0

I’m sort of siding with the takes that if the band wanted a single short’ish album they’d write songs that more obviously link thematically and sonically etc etc



This is like yer ‘Tusk’ but instead of three song writers you just have three main styles wedged together (country, acoustic folk, ‘indie’) and some other experimental tunes of different genres. It works because the album is so long it does justice to all the main three approaches and the curveballs don’t derail it either.



Dunno, I like it as it is. A lot.

Album Rating: 4.5

Is it just me or are the central melodies of "Change" and "Time Escaping" really similar? Think that's intentional, if so?

I’m not implying this should have been or was ever meant to be a single LP, I’m merely entertaining a very personal, hypothetically favorable scenario in my head. I just have a sort of inherent bias against double albums, but this is one of the better ones I can recall, and is slowly but surely winning me over. (I’d have to double check my ratings but i think my favorite is… THE RIVER?) The intentional sprawling/slacker vibe is finally starting to eclipse what i originally interpreted as laziness.

As for the bronze medal here - gold and silver being Simulation Swarm and Little Things in no particular order - I’d say Time Escaping, with Flower of Blood and Certainty close behind.

Album Rating: 4.5

The guitar in The Only Place. Ugh wow I could listen to that all day. Wonder how many takes that took. Sounds impeccable

Album Rating: 5.0

There's definitely a full Big Thief country album here which is interesting - might make a playlist of just that and see how it shapes up without the genre shifts alone perking up the listen.



1. Change

2. Spud Infinity

3. Certainty

4. Sparrow

5. Red Moon

6. Dried Roses

7. 12,000 Lines

8. Blue Lightning

Album Rating: 4.5

Interesting. Cool idea. I like Spud Infinity aside from the goofy ass “boi-ing” instrument panned hard left. Iron & Wine uses that thing too and I can’t stand it

Album Rating: 4.5

@tec I agree, Heavy Bend is in my top 5 tracks here after first full listen. What’s wrong with y’all

Album Rating: 4.5

Heavy Bend is definitely great! Fits perfectly where it sits in the tracklist I think.

Album Rating: 2.5 | Sound Off

Title track, Little Things, Flower of Blood, Simulation Swarm, and Blue Lightning are the only songs I care about on this

Album Rating: 5.0

On my RYM five star rated albums auto alphabetical search this sits where I used to have 'The White Album' before I dropped it to a 4.5 - playing tricks on me, covers similar at a glance...

Album Rating: 4.5

Could definitely see The White Album becoming a nickname for this among the fan base for that reason, especially give the lengthiness of the actual title.